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YOUTUBE video - new breed called AUBRAC
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<blockquote data-quote="Aubracusa" data-source="post: 485684" data-attributes="member: 3755"><p>Hello, everyone --</p><p></p><p>Aubracs are not a derivative of Brown Swiss or Jerseys; the information on the Oklahoma State website is incorrect. We've asked them to correct that information on a couple of occasions, but they haven't made the change yet. Aubracs come from a mountainous region of southcentral France where they have been developed for grass-fed beef production. Cattle producers there have developed two highly successful grass-fed beef programs using grass-fed Aubrac beef during the last 20 years.</p><p></p><p>Scott Fredrickson posted the video on Youtube.com so that people who've asked about the cattle could see them easily online. I think the take-home message of the video is that viewers can see first hand the structural soundness of the breed, the good feet and legs, the depth of rib and deep guts as well as the sexual differentiation between Aubrac bulls and females. Notice, too, some of the frozen ears, an indication that these cattle aren't pampered but raised on tough rangeland in eastern Montana.</p><p></p><p>If you can't appreciate the cattle, then maybe you shouldn't be in the cow business.</p><p></p><p>During the last year we have conducted two separate roughage bull tests in Nebraska (the second one is underway right now). The purpose of the test is not to see which bull has the biggest appetite (a mistake many people make when defining efficiency) or to see which bull grows the fastest (a second mistake people make when defining efficiency), but rather to put a relatively large number of bulls from a wide array of breeders into a similar management situation and to see which ones develop into the balanced animals (structural and reproductive soundness, carcass merit. etc.) that are best suited for our production system. Our ultimate objective in using the breed (which many of us have been using for nearly two decades) is not rapid expansion within the commercial cattle industry, but to develop a tightly knit group of breeders who understand the production and product-quality attributes of the breed as a way of marketing forage-based beef products directly to consumers. As time goes on, we hope to invest in new technologies that will allow us to measure the residual feed intake (RFI) of individual Aubrac cattle, so we can more effectively zero in on those cattle that gain well but don't eat much, and hope to have that information available at our annual national sale sometime in the future.</p><p></p><p>In addition, we recently acquired DNA information for feed efficiency on 41 head of fullblood (100%) Aubrac cattle using the Bovigen GeneStar test. A ranking of 1 star is least efficient while the highest ranking (most efficient) is 8 stars. The average score for all 41 head was 6.1 stars. Thirteen head had either seven or eight stars. On a smaller sample of four Aubrac bulls tested last fall, one rated 8 stars, two rated 7 stars and one rated four stars. The lowest scoring bull was a percentage bull, not a fullblood.</p><p></p><p>My understanding of the test is that a score of 7 or 8 places your cattle in pretty elite company. You can read more on Bovigen's website.</p><p></p><p>A disclaimer: I realize fully the pitfalls of these DNA tests, and understand that much more needs to be learned about the genetics of cattle before we can make absolute claims about the genetic merits of specific animals (too many times on this site people use dna tests as marketing tools not as genetic improvement tools). But the test results so far do support our ongoing assertion that the breed has desirable genetics to improve the efficiency of your cow herd.</p><p></p><p>Best regards,</p><p></p><p>Aubracusa</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aubracusa, post: 485684, member: 3755"] Hello, everyone -- Aubracs are not a derivative of Brown Swiss or Jerseys; the information on the Oklahoma State website is incorrect. We've asked them to correct that information on a couple of occasions, but they haven't made the change yet. Aubracs come from a mountainous region of southcentral France where they have been developed for grass-fed beef production. Cattle producers there have developed two highly successful grass-fed beef programs using grass-fed Aubrac beef during the last 20 years. Scott Fredrickson posted the video on Youtube.com so that people who've asked about the cattle could see them easily online. I think the take-home message of the video is that viewers can see first hand the structural soundness of the breed, the good feet and legs, the depth of rib and deep guts as well as the sexual differentiation between Aubrac bulls and females. Notice, too, some of the frozen ears, an indication that these cattle aren't pampered but raised on tough rangeland in eastern Montana. If you can't appreciate the cattle, then maybe you shouldn't be in the cow business. During the last year we have conducted two separate roughage bull tests in Nebraska (the second one is underway right now). The purpose of the test is not to see which bull has the biggest appetite (a mistake many people make when defining efficiency) or to see which bull grows the fastest (a second mistake people make when defining efficiency), but rather to put a relatively large number of bulls from a wide array of breeders into a similar management situation and to see which ones develop into the balanced animals (structural and reproductive soundness, carcass merit. etc.) that are best suited for our production system. Our ultimate objective in using the breed (which many of us have been using for nearly two decades) is not rapid expansion within the commercial cattle industry, but to develop a tightly knit group of breeders who understand the production and product-quality attributes of the breed as a way of marketing forage-based beef products directly to consumers. As time goes on, we hope to invest in new technologies that will allow us to measure the residual feed intake (RFI) of individual Aubrac cattle, so we can more effectively zero in on those cattle that gain well but don't eat much, and hope to have that information available at our annual national sale sometime in the future. In addition, we recently acquired DNA information for feed efficiency on 41 head of fullblood (100%) Aubrac cattle using the Bovigen GeneStar test. A ranking of 1 star is least efficient while the highest ranking (most efficient) is 8 stars. The average score for all 41 head was 6.1 stars. Thirteen head had either seven or eight stars. On a smaller sample of four Aubrac bulls tested last fall, one rated 8 stars, two rated 7 stars and one rated four stars. The lowest scoring bull was a percentage bull, not a fullblood. My understanding of the test is that a score of 7 or 8 places your cattle in pretty elite company. You can read more on Bovigen's website. A disclaimer: I realize fully the pitfalls of these DNA tests, and understand that much more needs to be learned about the genetics of cattle before we can make absolute claims about the genetic merits of specific animals (too many times on this site people use dna tests as marketing tools not as genetic improvement tools). But the test results so far do support our ongoing assertion that the breed has desirable genetics to improve the efficiency of your cow herd. Best regards, Aubracusa [/QUOTE]
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