Why did you choose your breed?

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How do the Piedmontese compare to brangus in rough country? Our pasture is high desert and if we don't get much rain our cattle have to travel long distances to find feed.
 
I wouldn't use Pied if your goal is selling the calves at the sale barn unless you like to get docked at the salebarn.
 
Pieds are as tough and durable as most any breeds you'll find. They get along fine in Canada or Mexico. Great foragers, but like Taurus said if you want to sell you calves at the local sale barn they'll probably dock you. If you find the right market you'll get 15 to 20 cents a lb more than commercial. Talked to some folks a few weeks ago that are selling halves for $4 a lb hanging to their customers.
 
slick4591":2neyxx02 said:
Talked to some folks a few weeks ago that are selling halves for $4 a lb hanging to their customers.

One day I would like to get into selling directly to the consumer but haven't had the time to research what all is involved yet and how to market it. But I know there are some ranchers here in AZ that sell beef on their websites and many of them say "sold out for the season" so they must be doing something right. I wouldn't even know where to start to develop a customer base though. Perhaps start at a farmers market selling beef and handing out business cards? Has anyone had success selling directly to the customer?
 
I vote Piedmontese the best cow. The steak knife business would no longer be in business if people would try it. The best tasting beef too.
More meat - less feed.
The calves are born tiny, then in a few weeks, they begin to develop the muscles.

Angus has had the market for so long, that it is difficult for people to try to introduce anything else. I raise Angus because that is what the buyer wants. But I prefer the Piedmontese over the Angus.
 
Yup but the Pied has some flaws: their late maturity than most British breeds and some pieds have slower growth rate when compared to other breeds. My friend used to raising Pied cattle for the seedstock and the terminal sires for anyone with longhorn cows. He bred his longhorn cows to the Pied bulls while he bred all Pied heifers to a longhorn bull for the first calf. Sold Pied bulls and longhorn bulls four years ago and now he is running SimAngus bulls on the pied cows and longhorn cows for marketable terminal calves. He do well with the latter bulls.
 
rynophiliac":1wbxfdqg said:
slick4591":1wbxfdqg said:
Talked to some folks a few weeks ago that are selling halves for $4 a lb hanging to their customers.

One day I would like to get into selling directly to the consumer but haven't had the time to research what all is involved yet and how to market it. But I know there are some ranchers here in AZ that sell beef on their websites and many of them say "sold out for the season" so they must be doing something right. I wouldn't even know where to start to develop a customer base though. Perhaps start at a farmers market selling beef and handing out business cards? Has anyone had success selling directly to the customer?

We sell our beef directly to the consumer. The internet works quite well when it comes to advertising beef to sell. We sell animals by the quarter, half, and whole. We have just finished butchering and selling our first group of steers this way. The people we sold the beef to gave us great feedback and the people who ordered quarters this year are ordering halves for next year. We had a couple people buy halves this year and they want an entire steer for next year.
 
Backbone Ranch":2uopg1u4 said:
We sell our beef directly to the consumer. The internet works quite well when it comes to advertising beef to sell. We sell animals by the quarter, half, and whole. We have just finished butchering and selling our first group of steers this way. The people we sold the beef to gave us great feedback and the people who ordered quarters this year are ordering halves for next year. We had a couple people buy halves this year and they want an entire steer for next year.

Hey Backbone Ranch, thanks for your response. How exactly are you using the internet to market your beef? Are you selling your beef from your website? If so, how are you getting people to go to your website? Are you using Google adwords, SEO marketing, passing out biz cards to get people to find your website? Or are you using facebook pages with facebook advertising? or something completely different? thanks again for your response
 
We have our website up on Google. We tell people that we have beef for sale and then we list our contact information. It will take a while to build up your client base, but if your end product is good they will come back for more. We also will give 2 lb of ground beef free bees to our neighbors. I know that we are giving away money, but they have come back to us wanting 30 lbs or even a quarter. We are willing to sacrifice 2 lbs if it means that we have a customer that comes back year after year.
 
rynophiliac":z1eyh0vv said:
How do the Piedmontese compare to brangus in rough country? Our pasture is high desert and if we don't get much rain our cattle have to travel long distances to find feed.
The Pieds do a good job converting forage, even poor. One comment is they can get fat on rocks and sticks. Their black skin and white / fawn hair makes them hardy in both hot and cold climates. I have no personal experience with brangus so will hopefully hear from some Brangus breeders here. Good luck and best wishes for what ever you choose. Enjoy your bovine!
 
Sounds eminently logical to me. Lean manufacturing so to speak. isn't this the ultimate goal of all things, a more economical use of the earth? Merry Christmas, best of the seasons to all-
 
Thanks for the compliment Dogs and Cows. I know of quite a few breeders between Indiana and Missouri and Oklahoma to Louisiana. There are also quite a few on the Pacific side of the Rockies, but I don't know of any in the North Carolina area.
 
Tomalani":3efbk4bs said:
Sounds eminently logical to me. Lean manufacturing so to speak. isn't this the ultimate goal of all things, a more economical use of the earth? Merry Christmas, best of the seasons to all-
Welcome to the board. :welcome:
 
Does anyone know about how long an average brangus cow will live? After doing a forum search I found one guy that said his brangus live until about 20 years but it that the norm? Seems kinda high compared to most other breeds.
 
ryno-
Brahman are known to be long lived. Many reasons, one being that they have hard long teeth. Compare the wood of a sweetgum to that of an oak. No comparison, right? Sweetgums grow fast and their wood is soft. Consequently the wood does not do well under wear and tear. What about the oak? Slower to deveop but much tougher when considering wear and tear. Well the bone quality/density whathavya of a Brahman will be slower to develop but longer lasting. This also can be said of the leg bones. Yes they will be heavier, but will also last longer. All while bearing in mind that there are good and bad in every breed.

So, to the point, any breed that has Brahman in it, should be longer lived. Such as Brangus. And that is just one of the reasons. Brangus "should" live longer than straight Bos Taurus if they are the right kind. Any that have genetic predisposition to problems such as bad udders, attitude issues, leg angle problems, hoof problems, .....are obviously not going to "last" as long on any ranch. And Brahman wont be easy keepers in northern climates.
 
Fix yourself a setup where you can keep and develop 10% of your herd in replacement heifers and you will not worry about a cow lasting 20 years or at least very rarely. That would mean if you have 10 cows then you would keep 1 heifer a year and if you have 100 cows you would keep 10. Once you get that process started and with good bull selection you will have maybe a small handfull that make the cut for 20 years but not enough to choose based on that. If she is good enough to always make the cut for 20 years you will have so many of her daughters and grand daughters and great grand daughters you won't mind moving her along anyway.
 
u4411clb":3lscgly7 said:
Fix yourself a setup where you can keep and develop 10% of your herd in replacement heifers and you will not worry about a cow lasting 20 years or at least very rarely. That would mean if you have 10 cows then you would keep 1 heifer a year and if you have 100 cows you would keep 10. Once you get that process started and with good bull selection you will have maybe a small handfull that make the cut for 20 years but not enough to choose based on that. If she is good enough to always make the cut for 20 years you will have so many of her daughters and grand daughters and great grand daughters you won't mind moving her along anyway.

If you are set up this way and have ones that are good cows well into their teens you will be able to sell those older cows for much more than slaughter cow value.
 
Backbone Ranch":3altyk9d said:
We have our website up on Google. We tell people that we have beef for sale and then we list our contact information. It will take a while to build up your client base, but if your end product is good they will come back for more. We also will give 2 lb of ground beef free bees to our neighbors. I know that we are giving away money, but they have come back to us wanting 30 lbs or even a quarter. We are willing to sacrifice 2 lbs if it means that we have a customer that comes back year after year.
Can you sell meat directly to the consumer? We can here only if it is harvested and prosesed in a federal inspected plant. Other wise we sell the animal alive to the consumor and they pay to have it process,d Dumb rules and hard to make it work at certan times of the year.Not many federal plants in Montana and some a lot of miles away.
 
I've been looking into the brangus more and more but I have been reading about poor temperaments and fence jumping? Is this what you guys have been experiencing with the breed? Our cows right now are mostly angus crosses, very gentle and come running up to us when they see us coming (in hopes for a bale of hay lol). They obey fences and cattle guards. It kinda hard to change a good thing. I just wonder if the brangus would thrive better in the high desert range we have. I may start with just a few brangus and see how they fit in with the rest of the herd. Have a cousin coming up in a few days to help gather. His family runs all brangus on similiar country - planning to pick his brain a bit.
 

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