What breed if starting over????

[cattleman99]

What do these Simmi Angus look like? Have you got any pictures?

They look like Black Cattle. Pretty much the same as everything looks like now a days. The Simmental will provide more calving ease and milk. So you get a shot of hybrid vigour and they grow a little more. At least in theory.

 

[SEKDUTTON]

well im thinkng a herford cow with a balancer bull, oughta give easy calving with fast growth and good marbling. what yall think?

 

[HOSS]

well im thinkng a herford cow with a balancer bull, oughta give easy calving with fast growth and good marbling. what yall think?

I don't think you can go wrong with this combo. I run a Balancer bull on mostly angus (red & black) and so far I have been exceptionally happy with the calf crops that I have gotten so far. While I do not have any Hereford cows I do have some baldy momma cows and they have produced some really nice calves from the Balancer bull. If black hides sell better in your area you might want to look for a homo black Balancer or if red works for you a red balancer would do the trick.

 

[MichaelB]

Little MidLand Farm is just a little farm, so I'm limited to having just about two cows with their calves. I would still go with my Tarentaise, as they are good mothers, good milkers, cross very well with Angus, and they're just beautiful to look at. They are also small framed and very efficient grazers.

Could someone tell me what a rat tail is? Must be some kind of spotted cow because I keep thinking of an appaloosa ...

 

[1982vett]

Could someone tell me what a rat tail is? Must be some kind of spotted cow because I keep thinking of an appaloosa ...

Rat-tail Syndrome

Rat-tail Syndrome is mentioned by ranchers more often than in the scientific literature. It is described in O'Brien et al. (1996) as a "short, charcoal-coloured hair coat and an abnormal, crooked, shortened tail switch". They further say it usually occurs in crossbreds of Angus and Simmental or Hereford. The jury is still out on whether this condition causes other than cosmetic problems.

O'Brien, M., A. Eggen, B. T. Murkve, Jurgella G, L. K. Doud, M. Pfister-Genskow, G. Hawkins, R. R. Schalles, D. Troyer and M. D. Bishop. 1996. Genetic investigation of the 'rat-tail' syndrome in Bos taurus cattle. Anim. Genet. 27 (Suppl. 2):104.
Schalles RR, Cundiff LV (1999) Inheritance of the "rat-tail" syndrome and its effect on calf performance. J. Anim. Sci. 77, 1144-1147.

http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/colors.html

http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/Cowboys.html

http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/index.html

 

[sim.-ang.king]

1982vett says
They further say it usually occurs in crossbreds of Angus and Simmental or Hereford. The jury is still out on whether this condition causes other than cosmetic problems.

Never see that in my crossbreds? :???:

 

[BIZIN]

I see rat tails all the time. We breed Black Brockle Face cows that are herf/ang to simmie bulls and get the good ole rat tails all the time. At least 2% per year. There is no such thing as a good rat tail grey calf. See em all the time come through our yard from customers and usually we have to keep them because our feedlot customers dont want them. They never finish and hardly gain. From personal experience and information from our feedlot customers and other cattle buyers, there is definately more than just cosmetic problems there. I would like to know what it is that causes them to just be down right terrible cattle.

If your starting over I would find some really good horned hereford cows and breed them Welsh Black. They will put the angus to shame, we have seen it first hand and will never use an Angus bull again. Good hair coats, thick as can be, more depth than any breed I have ever seen and probably the best cross we have ever used. And we have tried alot of different breeds. We have bred hereford cows Wagyu, angus, braunveih, saler, simmental, tarentaise. We have bred herf/ang cross cows simmental, charolais, welsh black, black gelbvieh. I have dabbled in Speckle Parks and these welsh black/hereford cross females blow them out of the water. Although the oldest cow we have ever had on the place is half Wagyu and when we breed her welsh black that is one heck of a calf. She is 17 and we have 11 daughters in the herd out of her. Every heifer calf they have makes the cut to be a replacement and I would guess there are close to 30 females that are her grand daughters. I would really like to breed some hereford cows Wagyu on a larger scale.

 

[BIZIN]

Horned hereford cows bred Welsh black then we breed them to black simmie bulls as a terminal and the calves are tremendous. Definately something to try.

 

[SEKDUTTON]

ive been doing some reaserch on herford cattle. what is major diffrences between herford and mini herfords. also if u bred a mini herford to a balancer bull what would be the outcome? a stunted calf smaller then rest? or would it balance out in the long run? has anyone had any experience with these mini herfords. i was just wonderingif the cost of upkeep on these cows would be cheaper then regular herfords?

 

[Julian]

ive been doing some reaserch on herford cattle. what is major diffrences between herford and mini herfords. also if u bred a mini herford to a balancer bull what would be the outcome? a stunted calf smaller then rest? or would it balance out in the long run? has anyone had any experience with these mini herfords. i was just wonderingif the cost of upkeep on these cows would be cheaper then regular herfords?

Wouldn't that be similar to breding a Labrador to a Poodle? Or is it vice versa? If so, you may have a trainwreck if you choose the poodle as the female.

 

[alacattleman]

ive been doing some reaserch on herford cattle. what is major diffrences between herford and mini herfords. also if u bred a mini herford to a balancer bull what would be the outcome? a stunted calf smaller then rest? or would it balance out in the long run? has anyone had any experience with these mini herfords. i was just wonderingif the cost of upkeep on these cows would be cheaper then regular herfords?

Wouldn't that be similar to breding a Labrador to a Poodle? Or is it vice versa?

yeah the vice side might not be able to birth it

 

[bishopcattleco]

I really like to see people trying other breeds of cattle instead of just going black angus.Alot of people get into the cattle buissiness and think solid black cattle are the only way to go .But they have no idea why they chose angus.I feel the best cattle produced are crossbred cattle.And think that is a fact.My hat goes off to you people who are trying other breeds that dont include angus.

 

[alacattleman]

I really like to see people trying other breeds of cattle instead of just going black angus.Alot of people get into the cattle buissiness and think solid black cattle are the only way to go .But they have no idea why they chose angus.I feel the best cattle produced are crossbred cattle.And think that is a fact.My hat goes off to you people who are trying other breeds that dont include angus.

tell you what, you cut me a check for the difference i lose when i market my calf crop ...and ill raise something else

 

[cattleman99]

I really like to see people trying other breeds of cattle instead of just going black angus.Alot of people get into the cattle buissiness and think solid black cattle are the only way to go .But they have no idea why they chose angus.I feel the best cattle produced are crossbred cattle.And think that is a fact.My hat goes off to you people who are trying other breeds that dont include angus.

tell you what, you cut me a check for the difference i lose when i market my calf crop ...and ill raise something else

Got the blinders on and snugged tight I see. I'm not running down Angus here. I want to make that point first. But there are a lot of options for Black now adays that aren't Angus and in reality have very little Angus blood in them. Simmental, Gelbvieh, Charolais, Limousin, Maine's, and Hereford's just to name a few. There are lots of so called Angus calves marketed across both the US and Canada now a days that aren't Angus either so you can still market them the same way. If your herd is straight Angus you'd likely increase your bottom line by crossbreeding. Same as if your herd was straight any other breed.

 

[alacattleman]

I really like to see people trying other breeds of cattle instead of just going black angus.Alot of people get into the cattle buissiness and think solid black cattle are the only way to go .But they have no idea why they chose angus.I feel the best cattle produced are crossbred cattle.And think that is a fact.My hat goes off to you people who are trying other breeds that dont include angus.

tell you what, you cut me a check for the difference i lose when i market my calf crop ...and ill raise something else

Got the blinders on and snugged tight I see. I'm not running down Angus here. I want to make that point first. But there are a lot of options for Black now adays that aren't Angus and in reality have very little Angus blood in them. Simmental, Gelbvieh, Charolais, Limousin, Maine's, and Hereford's just to name a few. There are lots of so called Angus calves marketed across both the US and Canada now a days that aren't Angus either so you can still market them the same way. If your herd is straight Angus you'd likely increase your bottom line by crossbreeding. Same as if your herd was straight any other breed.

dam skippy....you dont have to sell me on crossbreeding done that years ago .... all my moma cows are crossbreds

 

[alacattleman]

I guess i should state im not advocating angus.. i just like making money

 

[TexasBred]

I guess i should state im not advocating angus.. i just like making money

Can't nobody fault you for that. ;-)

 

[dun]

I guess i should state im not advocating angus.. i just like making money

There are alternative marketing methods that color won;t hurt you any.

 

[alacattleman]

I guess i should state im not advocating angus.. i just like making money

There are alternative marketing methods that color won;t hurt you any.

true... just not here ''YET"" .... the want too.. to raise something different again, dont outway the cost for me to try to market em different.

 

[BC]

I really like to see people trying other breeds of cattle instead of just going black angus.Alot of people get into the cattle buissiness and think solid black cattle are the only way to go .But they have no idea why they chose angus.I feel the best cattle produced are crossbred cattle.And think that is a fact.My hat goes off to you people who are trying other breeds that dont include angus.

tell you what, you cut me a check for the difference i lose when i market my calf crop ...and ill raise something else

If you are talking about price per pound on Angus calves maybe. If you are talking total dollars because the calves weigh more, then there are other breed combinations. A good friend who has a really good set of commercial cows told me he has lost about 50 lbs of weaning weight when he went the black route. The nickle a lb "premium" doesn't make up the dollars that left on the table by a yellow or rwf calf that weighs 50 lbs more. Alabama markets maybe different from those here in East Texas.