Zach -- our new Aubrac bull

[WalnutCrest]

Nice bull, there is a breeder about 1 hr south of me I met them at a Beef congress show a few years back . They are a impressive breed but the coloring gives the buyers a reason to dock and get good animals at discount. I went through this with roans until I sold directly to feedlot and they could see how they performed now I sell at premium.

Several of the larger Aubrac breeders get premiums over solid blacks as well, even going through the sale barn. Once buyers figure out their efficient performance, their hands stay up a little longer the next year.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

He's a hoss,, sires nice calves..

 

[djinwa]

Nice bull, there is a breeder about 1 hr south of me I met them at a Beef congress show a few years back . They are a impressive breed but the coloring gives the buyers a reason to dock and get good animals at discount. I went through this with roans until I sold directly to feedlot and they could see how they performed now I sell at premium.

Several of the larger Aubrac breeders get premiums over solid blacks as well, even going through the sale barn. Once buyers figure out their efficient performance, their hands stay up a little longer the next year.

Serious bull there. A bull that looks like a bull.

I've long been interested in the efficiency thing since an ag econ class ruined me decades ago. Efficiency is unit of input per unit of output. Most can measure output, such as pounds of gain. How was the input measured for your Aubracs? Was the feed weighed as they did in this trial to get pounds of feed per pounds of gain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6hSQMz8hyo

I hear many saying their cattle are easy keepers because they're fat, but I'm not sure if they know how much they eat. My "easy keeper" is a pig.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Thanks for the compliment on the bull.

I don't "feed 'em out" (I'm a grass-only guy) ... I was referring to a producer I know in the western US who runs Aubrac and Angus cattle. My recollection is that he had two pens of steers -- same age and same starting weight -- who finished at the same time and the same weight; the pen of "high Aubrac percentage" cattle (I believe they were all at least 75% Aubrac, but there may have been some F1s in there) finished (as compared to the pen of Angus) with about 20% less feed dumped in their troughs and hay put in hay feeders and with about 10% of the vet bills (if I'm remembering correctly; he sent me an email a year or two ago with the details, so I'm going off of memory (vs. working hard to find the email to re-verify these stats)).

The only thing negative I've heard about Aubracs finishing is that one guy found the ribeyes so much bigger than the angus they were used to selling, their market wasn't wanting to pay more for the larger ribeyes. This producer had a long-standing restaurant market and the buyers had expectations about the size and quality of various cuts -- the Aubracs made the grade in every regard, except the ribeyes were too big. I never thought that could be a real problem, but, as we all know, everyone's situation is a bit different.

 

[ram]

Thanks for the compliment on the bull.

I don't "feed 'em out" (I'm a grass-only guy) ... I was referring to a producer I know in the western US who runs Aubrac and Angus cattle. My recollection is that he had two pens of steers -- same age and same starting weight -- who finished at the same time and the same weight; the pen of "high Aubrac percentage" cattle (I believe they were all at least 75% Aubrac, but there may have been some F1s in there) finished (as compared to the pen of Angus) with about 80% lower feed dumped in their troughs and hay put in hay feeders and with about 10% of the vet bills (if I'm remembering correctly; he sent me an email a year or two ago with the details, so I'm going off of memory (vs. working hard to find the email to re-verify these stats)).

The only thing negative I've heard about Aubracs finishing is that one guy found the ribeyes so much bigger than the angus they were used to selling, their market wasn't wanting to pay more for the larger ribeyes. This producer had a long-standing restaurant market and the buyers had expectations about the size and quality of various cuts -- the Aubracs made the grade in every regard, except the ribeyes were too big. I never thought that could be a real problem, but, as we all know, everyone's situation is a bit different.

:bs: Zach is a nice bull no doubt, but he looks like a midget to me short legs and big body. I can't believe folks repeat BS like it's fact. You are a breed pimp in a specialty market, trying to sell a product that can't sell themselves.

 

[wacocowboy]

Big ole nice looking bull.

 

[ram]

Walnut, are you saying the Aubrac x Angus only consumed 20% as much as the straight Angus and still finished out at the same time? That is pretty amazing!!!

Thanks,
Tim

If you believe that I've got some oceanfront property for sale in Arizona.

 

[Rafter S]

Walnut, are you saying the Aubrac x Angus only consumed 20% as much as the straight Angus and still finished out at the same time? That is pretty amazing!!!

Thanks,
Tim

If you believe that I've got some oceanfront property for sale in Arizona.

LOL...well I was trying to get confirmation without being rude to Walnut...it is hard to believe for me yes. Maybe he miswrote???

Maybe got it backwards and meant they consumed 20% less?

 

[WalnutCrest]

It was about 20% less. I'll look for his email to verify the specifics.

 

[WalnutCrest]

I found what I was looking for; the author was Chad Armstrong (Armstrong Angus; Cardwell, MT) and it was written in the fall of 2011 -- I bolded the part that I was trying to remember off the top of my head:

***********************

I have been raising Angus cattle for all my life (40 years) and have had Aubrac cattle now for 4 years. To me, fertility and longevity are two of the most important traits to cowman and these traits take many years to analyze. The cattle are old and gone before these traits can really be proven. With that said, 4 years is not enough time to really evaluate some of these traits, although many deductions can be made by the performance of the cattle over this length of time.

I have noticed that the Aubrac cattle as well as any other breed have some variation within the breed for their traits. This means that not every animal will fit the traits that most of the breed may be noted for. For example, not all Aubrac cattle will be calving ease cattle. With this said, I will try to compare the breed average's between the two breeds for different traits as I have noticed them to be.

Calving ease- As a rule the Aubrac cattle have been small birth weight, easy calving cattle. They seem to calve as easy or even easier than my Angus cattle. The calving ease seems to be more consistent within each sires group of calves for the Aubrac cattle. The Angus calves seem to be a little thriftier at birth especially if the weather gets colder (below 0 degrees Fahrenheit).

Mothering ability- Angus have long been noted for their great mothering ability. From my experience, the Aubrac are better mothers. Most Aubrac cows are quiet, gentle mothers while yet aggressively licking their calf to get it up. Throughout the calves life while nursing it's mother, you will rarely find an Aubrac cow very far from her calf and she almost always knows right where it is.

Growth- Aubrac cattle seem to be an early growth animal. They have way more muscle and fleshing ability than most Angus cattle. The Aubrac calves are born small and kind of frail looking, but will start to muscle up within weeks of birth. The Aubrac cattle seem to be done growing by 2 years of age, which makes it easier to put their nutrition into maternal traits at that time (like nursing a calf and rebreeding). I feel many present Angus cattle have more performance (growth) than is necessary for commercial range cattle, especially late growth (after they are 2 years of age). With this said, I feel that the Aubrac cattle have adequate growth, although they don,t have as much performance as Angus cattle.

Fertility- Aubrac cattle have historically been selected for body type and fertility traits rather than performance. Therefore I feel that these cattle are more fertile than many breeds available today. The bulls are very masculine and the females feminine at a young age. The bulls I have been around have been very good breeders. They tend to breed more cows fewer times than my Angus bulls. The females have rebred well for me, although they don't seem to reach pubrity as early or cycle as soon after they calve as my Angus.

Disposition- Some Aubrac cattle have been very docile, while others have been very easy to get worked up. The Aubrac cattle seem to be more of a group animal than my Angus. Aubrac cattle also seem to find less comfort in humans than Angus cattle. Aubrac cattle seem to be more sensitive to new or strange people than my Angus cattle. If disposition is a big concern, they need to be selective as to the cattle breeding lines that they purchase within the Aubrac breed.

Feed efficiency- Here lies the Aubrac cattle's most beneficial trait. After feeding a few 4-H steers and a few bulls on the grow safe feed efficiency system at Midland bull test, the Aubrac breed of cattle seems to have a big advantage in this area. While their gain is almost as good as the Angus cattle, their daily feed intake is considerably less (around 2/3 to ¾ on average of what I have seen). This translates into a big input cost reduction over the life of the animal. The Aubrac also seem to convert poor feed way better than the Angus. They seem to have a big advantage on an all forage diet over the Angus. For the commercial cattleman, this means that they can graze longer on dry, low feed value feeds and still maintain or improve fleshing ability, which also results in feed cost savings. They will also fatten rather easily on nutritional green grass.

Carcass quality- The Aubrac cattle are noted for their huge ribeye area's. They tend to have high dressing percentages due to their added muscling while not having really big bone structure. While their marbling is not as high as Angus, it is higher than many other breeds. From the few examples I have had or heard of, the Aubrac meat seems to be very tender with better than normal flavor.

Chad J. Armstrong

 

[wacocowboy]

Walnut have you ever seen them crossed with Brahma?

 

[WalnutCrest]

I have not. I would love to work with a Brahma breeder who has good stock, though.

 

[Muddy]

Why would someone needs to cross Brahman to Aubracs?

 

[wacocowboy]

I have not. I would love to work with a Brahma breeder who has good stock, though.

I would use JDH bloodlines for my money they are the best in Brahma.

Why would someone needs to cross Brahman to Aubracs?

Why do we cross Brahma with Angus, Hereford, Shorthorn, Char, Sim and any thing else? It is like ketchup makes all better. Lol

 

[djinwa]

Thanks for the reply on efficiency.

Boy, if it's possible Aubracs are 25 to 30% more feed efficient, seems there would be some serious research going on. That would mean more profit, or ability to have more cattle for the same feed.

Or maybe they are just the wrong color. Will they be going black like the other breeds?

 

[djinwa]

Thanks for the compliment on the bull.

I don't "feed 'em out" (I'm a grass-only guy) ... I was referring to a producer I know in the western US who runs Aubrac and Angus cattle. My recollection is that he had two pens of steers -- same age and same starting weight -- who finished at the same time and the same weight; the pen of "high Aubrac percentage" cattle (I believe they were all at least 75% Aubrac, but there may have been some F1s in there) finished (as compared to the pen of Angus) with about 80% lower feed dumped in their troughs and hay put in hay feeders and with about 10% of the vet bills (if I'm remembering correctly; he sent me an email a year or two ago with the details, so I'm going off of memory (vs. working hard to find the email to re-verify these stats)).

The only thing negative I've heard about Aubracs finishing is that one guy found the ribeyes so much bigger than the angus they were used to selling, their market wasn't wanting to pay more for the larger ribeyes. This producer had a long-standing restaurant market and the buyers had expectations about the size and quality of various cuts -- the Aubracs made the grade in every regard, except the ribeyes were too big. I never thought that could be a real problem, but, as we all know, everyone's situation is a bit different.

:bs: Zach is a nice bull no doubt, but he looks like a midget to me short legs and big body. I can't believe folks repeat BS like it's fact. You are a breed pimp in a specialty market, trying to sell a product that can't sell themselves.]/b]

First, it appears that many threads here are people "pimping" their cattle.

But I'm wondering which cattle are selling themselves and don't require marketing?

 

[WalnutCrest]

Thanks for the reply on efficiency.

Boy, if it's possible Aubracs are 25 to 30% more feed efficient, seems there would be some serious research going on. That would mean more profit, or ability to have more cattle for the same feed.

All the money being spent is being spent by producers who are breeding better cattle for their own operations; not much is being spent by producers on marketing. For example, we've spent a small fortune in the last year DNA testing our cattle and the semen we have in the tank for some preferred beef-quality and milk-quality genetics, importing semen from France, accumulating the best live fullblood genetics (in our opinion) from all over North America to see which lines work best in fescue, and making embryos. I know they're good cattle; I don't need a university (or some other producer) to tell me that. I know the beef is excellent; I've had it taste-tested by hundreds of people in a blind taste testing and it always ranked very highly.

Over time, I'd love to work with angus (both black and red), brahma, hereford, etc. producers who'd have an interest in breeding a small subset of their better cows to Aubracs for some F1's for feed-out tests (in traditional feeding/finishing situations, as well as in a grass-only situation) ... and ... if those days don't come, then, someday, I hope to buy small groups of really good quality females of some/all of these breeds myself to test it all out. For now, I'm just building my own numbers of fullblood (100%) Aubracs and doing my own thing ... and am quite content to do just that.

We have (right now) 27 head (all classes) on 25 acres, grazing pasture. We'll start to give them some hay starting in a week or two. The extra hoof prints, dung and urine will help restore our pastures (we moved to this farm about two years ago, and the pastures were really run down), so we don't mind feeding some hay for a few months, although at some point, we hope to be out of the hay-feeding business.

So, if someone wants to come see what we're doing, we welcome it. And, if not, that's good, too. People can still raise the kind of cattle they want -- I'm not in any way shape or form offended by anyone who thinks they're raising the 'best' cattle; goodness knows, I hope nobody here is offended if I think the same about my critters. In fact, I think some of the cattle of other breeds I see posted here are really (!) high quality.

Or maybe they are just the wrong color. Will they be going black like the other breeds?

About a year and a half ago, the Aubrac association formalized the details of a breed-up program. Animals with 90% or more Aubrac blood (per pedigree parentage) are considered purebred Aubracs (fullbloods are 100%) ... only if they exhibit all (!) of the traditional Aubrac color markings. So, while some have (and some will, no doubt) breed higher-percentage Aubrac animals who have black (or red or whatever) coloring, they won't be able to be registered as purebred.

I'm happy to answer any/all questions to the best of my ability.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Walnut, are you saying the Aubrac x Angus only consumed 20% as much as the straight Angus and still finished out at the same time? That is pretty amazing!!!

Thanks,

Tim

I caught the typo and edited the original post to clarify my intent ... sorry for the confusion. I was trying to say 20% less (80% of the total).

Anyhow, I hope you read the rest of the thread from your comment down to this one to see the details about what I was trying to say (but messed up!).

 

[johnhhaskell]

Surely there is some feed test station near you where you could put some bulls in for test?

 

[johnhhaskell]

What are some price ranges for Aubrac bulls and heifers in the US? Seems the better bulls in France are €3500+, just wondering how that compares. thanks