Straightbreeding Angus

[Post Oak]

I love Herefords,Beefmasters,and think about Charolais sometimes,but it is hard from a dollar and cents point of view to stray from straightbreeding Angus. Again for the third year in a row, my solid blacks bought .15 to .20 cents more a pound than the black brockles,baldies, and blaze faces.
My reasons for straightbreeding Angus are:
1. More money at sale barn
2. A guy with a one bull like me can use the same bull on heifers and cows
3. A wide availability of Angus bulls in my area and multiple bloodlines to choose from with fair prices
4. Any heifer from a good cow can be kept for a replacement unlike terminal or maternal systems
5. Angus have the largest database as a breed

I'm not trying to bash any breeds. If all calves bought the same at the sale barn, I would probably just run Horned Herefords and Beefmasters.

 

[elkwc]

It just amazes me the difference in regions. Black baldier sired by Hereford bulls still top the market here. Both on feeders and replacement heifers. They will bring 10-20 dollars a hundred more. Just shows why each of us make different breeding decisons.
With you market I don't blame you for raising straight Angus. We've purchased some hereford females so we can start raising some baldies and get some of the premium they bring.

 

[dun]

Our straightbred Angus usually do a little better then the brockle face/baldies. But our angus are Red. Only thing I can think of is more consistency from calf to calf

 

[Post Oak]

Some people having good luck with Red Angus sired calves with those special Red Angus tags in their ears.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Simmental cross really good with Angus, you just need to watch the birth weight issues on heifers. Our blaze and brockle faced heifers sell great as bred heifers at breeder sales.

 

[Post Oak]

Simmental cross really good with Angus, you just need to watch the birth weight issues on heifers. Our blaze and brockle faced heifers sell great as bred heifers at breeder sales.

That is an option that I have looked at in order to get hybrid vigor and keeping the calves black. My main concern is birthweight and calving ease on heifers

 

[Son of Butch]

F1 cows average an extra year of productive life over purebred cows.
In my opinion improved teeth retention is a major reason in how crossbreeding extends cow health and fertility.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Simmental cross really good with Angus, you just need to watch the birth weight issues on heifers. Our blaze and brockle faced heifers sell great as bred heifers at breeder sales.

That is an option that I have looked at in order to get hybrid vigor and keeping the calves black. My main concern is birthweight and calving ease on heifers

We crossbreed using, Angus, Simmental and Hereford. We've had a lot more calving problems using Hereford bulls. For some reason Hereford bulls will sire a few really big calves, on our crossbred heifers. But on adverage the Hereford cross heifers bring the most...as long as their black. We need consistency in our calves, and Angus will give you that.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Simmental cross really good with Angus, you just need to watch the birth weight issues on heifers. Our blaze and brockle faced heifers sell great as bred heifers at breeder sales.

That is an option that I have looked at in order to get hybrid vigor and keeping the calves black. My main concern is birthweight and calving ease on heifers

With the modern Simmental bulls, BW or CE should not be an issue. Take a look at their EPD's. Bulls with a CE of +10 should work well on British breed heifers.
Simmental breed (as a whole) breed within 1% CE of Angus and are better CE than Herefords.

 

[Lucky_P]

Plenty of black - and a lot of homozygous black/homo polled - bulls in many breeds anymore. Simmental, Gelbvieh, Limousin, Braunvieh, Maine-Anjou, etc. If you want black, you're not limited to Angus, and calving ease/birthweight is not an issue anymore; this is not 1977... I can find plenty of low BW/high CE bulls in the continental breeds that are just as easy calving as any Angus sire.
All breeds have something to offer. All I feel like we got from Angus, when we swung back to them after 20 years of breeding Simmental influence, was black hair. Have gone back to black Simmentals and are much happier with the resulting calves - both females and steers.
Even most of the Simmental sires out there anymore are solid black... we've had to hunt quite a bit to find baldy/blaze-faced bulls that fit our goals/criteria. Same for Gelbvieh, Limousin, etc. - most are solid black.

In response to your line of reasoning:
1. My black SM-sired calves will almost always weigh more than the Angus-sired calves out of the same group of cows.
2. I'm using the same black Simmental sire on my heifers and adult cows
3. Availability... we use AI to a large extent, but keep a bull on hand for 'cleanup'... usually for 5-7 years or more before we need to replace; I don't have any trouble finding a replacement when I need one.
4. Any heifer out of a good cow here could potentially stay as a replacement, whether sired by an Angus, Simmental, Shorthorn, or Braunvieh sire.
5.Database? Sure, there are more registered Angus than any other breed. Plenty of choices in most of the others though.

 

[Rafter S]

I love Herefords,Beefmasters,and think about Charolais sometimes,but it is hard from a dollar and cents point of view to stray from straightbreeding Angus. Again for the third year in a row, my solid blacks bought .15 to .20 cents more a pound than the black brockles,baldies, and blaze faces.
My reasons for straightbreeding Angus are:
1. More money at sale barn
2. A guy with a one bull like me can use the same bull on heifers and cows
3. A wide availability of Angus bulls in my area and multiple bloodlines to choose from with fair prices
4. Any heifer from a good cow can be kept for a replacement unlike terminal or maternal systems
5. Angus have the largest database as a breed

I'm not trying to bash any breeds. If all calves bought the same at the sale barn, I would probably just run Horned Herefords and Beefmasters.

Have you considered giving Brangus a try? You'll get black calves, with many (maybe all) of the advantages of Beefmaster.

 

[Post Oak]

I love Herefords,Beefmasters,and think about Charolais sometimes,but it is hard from a dollar and cents point of view to stray from straightbreeding Angus. Again for the third year in a row, my solid blacks bought .15 to .20 cents more a pound than the black brockles,baldies, and blaze faces.
My reasons for straightbreeding Angus are:
1. More money at sale barn
2. A guy with a one bull like me can use the same bull on heifers and cows
3. A wide availability of Angus bulls in my area and multiple bloodlines to choose from with fair prices
4. Any heifer from a good cow can be kept for a replacement unlike terminal or maternal systems
5. Angus have the largest database as a breed

I'm not trying to bash any breeds. If all calves bought the same at the sale barn, I would probably just run Horned Herefords and Beefmasters.

Have you considered giving Brangus a try? You'll get black calves, with many (maybe all) of the advantages of Beefmaster.

I like Brangus and they bring a lot to the table. The problem with the ones that have been around is docility. A few have been docile, but most have been snorters and pawers.

 

[Ky hills]

I can't find any fault with straight breeding Angus, if you have or can acquire a good all around cowherd. I set out to do just that, but it didn't work out for me. It may be easier to put together quality commercial Angus than to do what I tried with registered. I had issues with disposition and fertility. BWF tend to sell well here, so I went with commercial Hereford cows and use Angus or Hereford Bulls. There is bound to be lots and lots of good Angus cattle out there. There are several factors that I like about a good Angus bull. The calves will be pretty consistent, and if they have enough frame they will sell really well here. I really appreciate the overall calving ease of Angus.

 

[Silver]

I don't know if I've ever seen a sale where straight bred Angus brings home the best price per head. There were a few years where they outsold other calves of the same weight, but those days seem to be gone again. Red Angus do well here if they are crossed with Simmental especially, or other exotics (I think Americans call exotics "continentals"). Just my observations on the markets in my area.

 

[Rafter S]

I love Herefords,Beefmasters,and think about Charolais sometimes,but it is hard from a dollar and cents point of view to stray from straightbreeding Angus. Again for the third year in a row, my solid blacks bought .15 to .20 cents more a pound than the black brockles,baldies, and blaze faces.
My reasons for straightbreeding Angus are:
1. More money at sale barn
2. A guy with a one bull like me can use the same bull on heifers and cows
3. A wide availability of Angus bulls in my area and multiple bloodlines to choose from with fair prices
4. Any heifer from a good cow can be kept for a replacement unlike terminal or maternal systems
5. Angus have the largest database as a breed

I'm not trying to bash any breeds. If all calves bought the same at the sale barn, I would probably just run Horned Herefords and Beefmasters.

Have you considered giving Brangus a try? You'll get black calves, with many (maybe all) of the advantages of Beefmaster.

I like Brangus and they bring a lot to the table. The problem with the ones that have been around is docility. A few have been docile, but most have been snorters and pawers.

There are plenty of gentle ones. Don't give up on the breed because of a few bad ones. Mine are as gentle as anything out there.

 

[Lazy M]

Have you considered giving Brangus a try? You'll get black calves, with many (maybe all) of the advantages of Beefmaster.

I like Brangus and they bring a lot to the table. The problem with the ones that have been around is docility. A few have been docile, but most have been snorters and pawers.

There are plenty of gentle ones. Don't give up on the breed because of a few bad ones. Mine are as gentle as anything out there.

Don't know much about brangus myself but there are a bunch of nice looking ones selling tomorrow:
http://superiorlivestock.com/onlineVide ... dium=email

 

[wacocowboy]

I love Herefords,Beefmasters,and think about Charolais sometimes,but it is hard from a dollar and cents point of view to stray from straightbreeding Angus. Again for the third year in a row, my solid blacks bought .15 to .20 cents more a pound than the black brockles,baldies, and blaze faces.
My reasons for straightbreeding Angus are:
1. More money at sale barn
2. A guy with a one bull like me can use the same bull on heifers and cows
3. A wide availability of Angus bulls in my area and multiple bloodlines to choose from with fair prices
4. Any heifer from a good cow can be kept for a replacement unlike terminal or maternal systems
5. Angus have the largest database as a breed

I'm not trying to bash any breeds. If all calves bought the same at the sale barn, I would probably just run Horned Herefords and Beefmasters.

Have you considered giving Brangus a try? You'll get black calves, with many (maybe all) of the advantages of Beefmaster.

I like Brangus and they bring a lot to the table. The problem with the ones that have been around is docility. A few have been docile, but most have been snorters and pawers.

Lots of gentle Brangus. I have probably been snorted and pawed at more by straight Angus bulls than Brangus. If you are interested Beefmaster comes in Black too.

 

[ClinchValley]

Why not grow more pounds. Unless you sell registered feeders. Took 10 calves this week. Two FB Simmi's, oldest of the group, were lighter than crossbred calves two and three months younger. Ranged from 8-11 months. To be honest i was pretty aggravated. I now completely understand the reason for crossbreeding.

 

[dun]

Why not grow more pounds. Unless you sell registered feeders. Took 10 calves this week. Two FB Simmi's, oldest of the group, were lighter than crossbred calves two and three months younger. Ranged from 8-11 months. To be honest i was pretty aggravated. I now completely understand the reason for crossbreeding.

Only one problem with this concept. If you are a seedstock producer you will sell some straightbred feeder calves. Goes with the territory of seedstock production. Most time, not all, a crossbred heifer/cow will sell for less than a registered heifer/cow. This past year as we cut down we have sold most of our registered red angus but still have a lot of the crossbreds. They just didn;t/wouldn;t bring as much and the demand wasn't as high. Our crossbred female animals are as high a quality as the registered but the buyers want to also be able to sell registered cows/bulls.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Everybody has a different business model. The trick is knowing what you're doing and why, and not to get sidetracked by someone else somewhere else doing something different and telling you you're doing it wrong.