mytfarms
Well-known member
Good post. Very relevant to today's cattle industry.
Best Angus Bull and Some Planning
- Thread starter mytfarms
- Start date
Grassfarmer
Well-known member
True - crossbred bulls will breed what you would expect crossbred bulls to breed - a cross section of the breed types contained in the parents genetics. If you want consistency go with a purebred, preferrebly line bred bull.
Hay Feeder
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2008
- Messages
- 555
Grassfarmer said:
Ones needs to have a purebred sire Chary, Hereford or Angus for the sire of the calves.
Its nice to see composite bull calf photoed here however that is the end product. One can not sell the end product as breeding cattle.. Ask some of the cheerleaders of Select Sires about that.
Nicky
Well-known member
guest1 said:
And that's different from the guys who raise straight angus commercially for the same reason???
Grassfarmer
Well-known member
Yep, cos Angus is the "in fashion" breed :roll: :wink:
Northern Rancher
Well-known member
I've just spent two days presorting and weighing 2,000 head of yearlings-I can't believe how much bad temperament costs the industry. We had about 300 mixed exotic yearlings come in that literally took as long to work as all the rest put together-crazy wild-the shrink they caused themselves by ping ponging around the yartds plus no doubt some bruising has got to be costly.I can imagine the gong show when they are processed at the feedlot. On the average I'd say Baldies and straight Herefords are the easiest to handle-then blacks-then the exotics. Not saying all exotics are bad and all British are good but on the average over several thousand head that's what I see. Flighty cattle don't do real well on grass either-hard to handle for pasture moves and other stuff.
mytfarms
Well-known member
Grassfarmer said:
Black Angus is always in style.
That's one reason I raise 'em.
per
Well-known member
Silver said:MYT Farms said:Grassfarmer said:
Black Angus is always in style.
Stick around :wink:
Maybe in your lifetime myt. I remember a time when you couldn't move a pen of blacks.
Soapweed
Well-known member
per said:Silver said:MYT Farms said:Black Angus is always in style.
Stick around :wink:
Maybe in your lifetime myt. I remember a time when you couldn't move a pen of blacks.
When I was a kid back around 1960, my old great uncle was talking about the differences between Herefords and Angus. He was around 70 years of age at the time, had retired, and was living in town. His sons were running straight Herefords then, as was my dad.
My great uncle (my grandmother's brother) said, "If you plan to sell calves right off their mother, Angus would be the best as they weigh better at weaning time. If you sell yearlings, the Herefords catch up and do just as well."
There were no other breeds around at that time, except for a very few Shorthorns.
Another of my old-time mentors summed up his evaluation of the difference between Herefords and Angus. He liked Herefords the best, and had cowboyed out in Nevada and Utah where grazing was limited and "challenged." He said, "Herefords are survivors. They can live on practically nothing. If the going gets really tough, the cow will abandon her calf but save herself. Then the 'factory' has been saved, and she will have a calf again the next year."
He went on to say, "Angus can't live on as little as Herefords can. Angus cows are too good of mothers. They will try to save both themselves and their calves, and when the grazing is really bad, they will both perish."
He didn't like Angus bulls either, because they didn't stay scattered. He liked horned Hereford bulls, but I don't think he would have liked polled Hereford bulls for the same reason he didn't like Angus.
Just thought I'd throw this in the fray. :wink:
Faster horses
Well-known member
I'm still waiting to find out what the pictured calf is genetically. Or did I miss it?
Soap, I agree with you whole heartedly. There is a rancher near Wibaux that runs Hereford cattle purposly to harvest his grass without much input. He maintains Angus cows couldn't do what the Herefords do, mainly because of the reasons you stated. Herefords will take care of themselves instead of their calves and that is definitely needed in some areas. They tend to be a low producing cow. They can stay in good shape on less forage than an Angus cow...anyway an Angus cow in these times.
We started out on a Hereford ranch and when we leased it, we had to run Hereford cattle. A lot
of folks had Herefords BEFORE going to Black Angus. When we moved to
W. Montana, a neighbor from Wyoming who ran Black Angus, came to visit. By that time we had changed to Black Angus cattle, having bought
our first black heifers in 1979. Anyway, he drove through the cattle on the way in and when he got to the house his
first words to us were, "You've finally seen the light". :lol: :lol:
And we had.
Mr. FH maintains the best deal is a black cow and a horned hereford bull.
He says you can't beat a black cow and you can't beat a horned hereford bull for getting cows bred. That said, we run straight black angus. No
mixture here and they do just fine. Easy to calve, easy to run, easy to sell.
There is a older rancher here in SE Montana that has a good reputation as a cowman. He was Hereford Breeder of the year a few years back. He crossed the Herefords with Black Angus and his findings were the first cross was 'dynamite' and it was downhill from there.
FWIW
Soap, I agree with you whole heartedly. There is a rancher near Wibaux that runs Hereford cattle purposly to harvest his grass without much input. He maintains Angus cows couldn't do what the Herefords do, mainly because of the reasons you stated. Herefords will take care of themselves instead of their calves and that is definitely needed in some areas. They tend to be a low producing cow. They can stay in good shape on less forage than an Angus cow...anyway an Angus cow in these times.
We started out on a Hereford ranch and when we leased it, we had to run Hereford cattle. A lot
of folks had Herefords BEFORE going to Black Angus. When we moved to
W. Montana, a neighbor from Wyoming who ran Black Angus, came to visit. By that time we had changed to Black Angus cattle, having bought
our first black heifers in 1979. Anyway, he drove through the cattle on the way in and when he got to the house his
first words to us were, "You've finally seen the light". :lol: :lol:
And we had.
Mr. FH maintains the best deal is a black cow and a horned hereford bull.
He says you can't beat a black cow and you can't beat a horned hereford bull for getting cows bred. That said, we run straight black angus. No
mixture here and they do just fine. Easy to calve, easy to run, easy to sell.
There is a older rancher here in SE Montana that has a good reputation as a cowman. He was Hereford Breeder of the year a few years back. He crossed the Herefords with Black Angus and his findings were the first cross was 'dynamite' and it was downhill from there.
FWIW
Northern Rancher
Well-known member
So the math is simple -heterosis is alive and well-I rest my case-black baldies sell at or above straight blacks in the ring-baldie fat cattle will quality grade just as good and yield grade a bit better than straight blacks. our Daddies knew it-our GrandDaddies knew it now it's just up to us to admit it lol. We've had Angus cattle here for probably close to 80 years but they ain't perfect-the breed is busy trying to be everything to everybody which will probably hurt it in the long run-by the way Hereford or Angus back on a black baldie works pretty damn good-if the replacement heifer deal wasn't so good I'd probably breed our baldies exotic and feed them all out.