White on Herefords

[Ky hills]

In building on the recent "black Hereford" thread, I thought I'd show some pictures of some calves that we have had over the last 3 years. I've probably posted these pictures before but in different contexts.
I'm not bashing Herefords or even "black Herefords" We love Hereford cattle, they are my wife's favorite and as for me well I just like cattle in general. Reality is though that in my opinion if unless you just want Hereford marked type cattle Herefords regardless of color are going to have a possibility of quite a bit of chrome when both Hereford bulls and Hereford and Hereford X cows are used in a herd.
We've had quite a few Hereford cows some registered and have used some Hereford bulls as well as a BWF bull that was only 25% Hereford, the other 75% was Angus. He was from registered stock of both breeds.
He was conservatively marked in my opinion like most BWF are, but the white in his genetics even at his low percent of Hereford would still come shining through in some calves. It was kind of the luck of the draw so to speak one year a particular cow would have a fairly solid calf with white face and another calf another year might have white legs up all the way to it's body and white stripe down the neck etc. Nothing wrong with the calves themselves, we actually liked them, but the folks at the stockyards saw Holstein cross and would pull them out of the group and get 30 cents less for those calves even black ones, when in reality they were the exact same genetics as the more solid colored red or black calves.
Here's the bull the first two calves are by.
The first BWF calf sired by the pictured bull and a 3/4 Hereford cow that was sired by a very conservative marked registered Hereford bull. the next RWF calf is from a purebred Hereford cow.
The last picture, the front calf is from a BWF heifer and a registered Hereford bull. As you can tell that calf has a little more white than the Angus sired BWF calves. The mottled face calf behind her is from a BWF cow and a registered Angus bull, the calf standing looking from behind them is a true F1 BWF by the registered Angus bull, calf is conservative marked king of like the second one except a solid white face.

 

[Ned Jr.]

You wouldn't get that much white with my Hereford's. But I've bred for short marked cattle with good pigment for a lot of years. It's a necessity here with the intensity of the sun at our altitude. Cows without pigment have a tough time here. When the sun reflects off the snow their eyes burn and swell shut. I partner on bulls with a breeder that also breeds angus. They complain we're getting our Hereford's so red that they're starting to get some solid black f1's. They do well marketing f1 baldys through their sale so they like a little more white than I do.

 

[Ky hills]

You wouldn't get that much white with my Hereford's. But I've bred for short marked cattle with good pigment for a lot of years. It's a necessity here with the intensity of the sun at our altitude. Cows without pigment have a tough time here. When the sun reflects off the snow their eyes burn and swell shut. I partner on bulls with a breeder that also breeds angus. They complain we're getting our Hereford's so red that they're starting to get some solid black f1's. They do well marketing f1 baldys through their sale so they like a little more white than I do.

I prefer the ones with less white and more pigment too. We need that here too. I would not have a problem with a few solid black F1 calves. Calves and descendants of one the bulls we've used have given us fits with pinkeye.
The majority of our pinkeye can be traced to that one bull and that BWF is a grandson of his that carried on the tradition of it.

 

[Brute 23]

It's like playing Russian roulette when you put a Hereford, or BM or some of these other breed that can throw a lot of white. With out knowing the back ground on both sides, bull and the cow, it can really bring a lot of white out of the woodwork which will hurt you in most markets. Like Ned posted, it can hurt in a lot of environments too.

Just throwing random Hereford genetics, will-nilly at your cow herd can really cost you big. It's irresponsible to suggest it, imo, with out stating the risks, also.

I really like a good Hereford bull and I like most cows to have a little Hereford in them too. I've been very outspoken about using Brafords and the black baldies for cows. In my book they are hard to beat. Going back to some other threads, they are hard to beat for their performance... not for a look.

 

[Brute 23]

This is one of my favorite pics. I wish I could duplicate that 100X. The one on the left is an F1 Braford bred back to a Hereford, so 3/4 Heredford, 1/4 Brahman. It's very hard to do that and keep that much red. The one on the right is a true F1. The markings are pretty hard to beat.

 

[coachg]

This is how I like them .

 

[coachg]

Excuse the black calves , trying for just the baldies .

 

[coachg]

One I missed

 

[Brute 23]

Excuse the black calves , trying for just the baldies .

That's the name of the game. That's how you actually make a black baldie, not this "black baldie in a can", bs.

 

[Ky hills]

It's like playing Russian roulette when you put a Hereford, or BM or some of these other breed that can throw a lot of white. With out knowing the back ground on both sides, bull and the cow, it can really bring a lot of white out of the woodwork which will hurt you in most markets. Like Ned posted, it can hurt in a lot of environments too.

Just throwing random Hereford genetics, will-nilly at your cow herd can really cost you big. It's irresponsible to suggest it, imo, with out stating the risks, also.

I really like a good Hereford bull and I like most cows to have a little Hereford in them too. I've been very outspoken about using Brafords and the black baldies for cows. In my book they are hard to beat. Going back to some other threads, they are hard to beat for their performance... not for a look.

Agree 100%, I like Herefords and I believe they definitely have a place in some capacity in a lot of herds, but that said there are also some limitations to them too. That why I find myself commenting when the subject of "black Hereford" comes up. There can be some surprises come from them in mixed herds .

 

[Dave]

There is a very well known Hereford breeder near here who keeps a herd of a couple hundred commercial black cows as a test ground for the Hereford genetics he raises. His Hereford bulls have been out selling the bulls from a big name Angus breeder who is nearly next door. Hybred vigor is still the cheapest gain a rancher can put into their calves.

 

[Allenw]

You wouldn't get that much white with my Hereford's. But I've bred for short marked cattle with good pigment for a lot of years. It's a necessity here with the intensity of the sun at our altitude. Cows without pigment have a tough time here. When the sun reflects off the snow their eyes burn and swell shut. I partner on bulls with a breeder that also breeds angus. They complain we're getting our Hereford's so red that they're starting to get some solid black f1's. They do well marketing f1 baldys through their sale so they like a little more white than I do.

Cold hard fact, the Hereford white face is dominant.

 

[StrojanHerefords]

It wasn't so long ago that Herefords were the predominant breed and if there was a black calf in the bunch he would get sorted out and sold for a discount. Then the frame race started and the Angus snuck in Holstein to add frame while the with the Herefords, second quality Simmental genetics where introduced to add size. Rather than try to make our Herefords look less like Herefords, we should be making Herefords more valuable than black cattle.

 

[Ned Jr.]

Cold hard fact, the Hereford white face is dominant.

I don't have a ton of experience with black baldys but here's a couple F1's my daughter bred. She was starting her own line of Black Herefords but I think she's giving it up. I believe the bull went to Arkansas. They're not solid black but not far from it.

 

[Ned Jr.]

It wasn't so long ago that Herefords were the predominant breed and if there was a black calf in the bunch he would get sorted out and sold for a discount. Then the frame race started and the Angus snuck in Holstein to add frame while the with the Herefords, second quality Simmental genetics where introduced to add size. Rather than try to make our Herefords look less like Herefords, we should be making Herefords more valuable than black cattle.

You should post some of your own so we can see the type we should be breeding.

 

[Warren Allison]

Rather than try to make our Herefords look less like Herefords, we should be making Herefords more valuable than black cattle.

Sems like they tried that one time. There was a "Certified Hereford Beef" program , but it fizzled out. I think I remember seeing some in Wynn-Dixie back when we had them.

 

[Ky hills]

Sems like they tried that one time. There was a "Certified Hereford Beef" program , but it fizzled out. I think I remember seeing some in Wynn-Dixie back when we had them.

No Certified Hereford Beef did not fizzle out, it's still around.
We have actually sold calves in very recent years in sales geared towards CHB. Those sales are still happening and growing.
I know some well known regional registered Hereford breeders that are actively working to promote those sales for the brand.

Homepage - Certified Hereford Beef

www.certifiedherefordbeef.com

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I haven't seen CHB on any stickers at the supermarket?

Do they have a national add campaign convincing consumers to look for and pay more for their product?

 

[mwj]

CAB was around for a long time before it was a household name. If it can find its niche it will grow, if not it will join many others .

 

[Ky hills]

I haven't seen CHB on any stickers at the supermarket?

Do they have a national add campaign convincing consumers to look for and pay more for their product?

Where to Buy - Certified Hereford Beef

www.certifiedherefordbeef.com

Certified Hereford Beef | Kansas City MO

Certified Hereford Beef, Kansas City, Missouri. 23,802 likes · 179 talking about this · 7 were here. Choose Local. Choose Certified Hereford Beef.

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