• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Breed or hide color discounting

Over the years- I've watched the reds take a discount at weaning time sales- and especially the Herefords which seemed to take a big hit...But then when those same calves sold next year in Aug/Sept as grassfed long yearlings-- most of the difference had disappeared....
One fellow that runs a bunch of yearlings told me that once you get them to that 18 month age- most price difference disappears unless you're selling into some special program.....

Today I was at a sale where I watched lot after lot of bred heifers sell..

Hot market-- lots of bidders...

The tops were blacks bred black angus that sold for $1585... The black baldies brought close to the same- red baldies bred red angus dropped about $100- and the herefords bred red angus dropped another $100-$150....
Interesting was that in a couple of these herds selling- they had some white Char/X's -- that showed a lot of black influence-- that sold way lower than all- or in one case were no saled by the seller.....

But apparently nobody wanted a milk cow- as I saw a big holstein heifer- bagging and ready to freshen- that they were barely able to get $1000 for..... :wink:
 
Well we are locally seeing a definate change here as they are doing very little sorting off of odds and not as much discounting. Demand has it's advantages!
I explained to him that everyone has biases in everything. Some like blondes, some brunetts. Some will only use green tractors and others red and they same in cattle. But once past the local markets how much discounting is done on cattle due to color or breed?
 
Honestly I don't know how much if any. Took a meat animal evaluation class in college and saw lots of cattle hanging on the rail with the hide off and you couldn't tell what color they had been unless they were of dairy or some kind of Brahman influence,then you'll notice some yellowing of the fat instead of a clean white.
 
Breed doesn't mean much any more. For one thing you can't even tell what breed an animal is by colour alone. It's more of a body type evaluation now that leads to discounts.

We've learned a very interesting bit of information lately... We've learned that Certified Angus, in this country at least, does NOT mean Angus. The label is applied to any carcass that meets the criteria, and breed has nothing to do with it....


... and that's when the fight started. :wink: :D :D :D :D
 
Last Man said:
Honestly I don't know how much if any. Took a meat animal evaluation class in college and saw lots of cattle hanging on the rail with the hide off and you couldn't tell what color they had been unless they were of dairy or some kind of Brahman influence,then you'll notice some yellowing of the fat instead of a clean white.
Click to expand...

Are you sure the 'yellow fat' wasn't from coming off of grass?
 
You Americans are very funny! And a very good salesmen. Turned cattle black in a few years.

But wouldnt consumers be disappointed if they order a good Black Angus beef and they end up having (for example) dry and tasteless black Limousin beef? or does Limousins marble nowadays in your part of world?
 
If I had my choice, I would eat a Limmy every time, as long as I didn't have to feed it out.
 
Kato is right and the CAB thing is a scam on consumers. Never been directly involved on the feedlot level but presume most if not all cattle sold from lots are sold on yield and grade therefore hide color or breed would not be a factor. Guess the real question is do the feedlots discount on aquired data or just personal bias.
 
We sold our calves last month I can finally say that there was NO discount on our red neck calves..... Sold as well or better than some blacks we had.... And we sold third to last on the sale list...... I do believe quality is now rocking the price.. Not color or weight.... Well not so much on the weight..... What I mean is skanky black selling better than nice quality reds..
 
Cutterone is that a Braunvieh bull in your avatar-they can make some pretty good F1 females-back in the char days we had some and they raised huge calves-the biggest unassisated calf we ever had was a 135 pounder out of one of them.
 
Yep. We don't have any issues with birth weights and nothing that big ever. You are right on the growth and F-1's. Adding Bv genetics to almost any other breed will add muscle, growth, and milk with less surface fat and great yield and grade. Several who don't understand good growth gentics from any breed can get big bw but once they understand the management they love them. We are crossing them with Angus and Maine a lot now and are getting some tremdous heifers.
 
A ranch I worked on when I was younger had Braunvieh/Hereford cows bred Charolais-they were tough productive cows. I never had to pull any calves from ny BraunviehX cows but they were crossed with exotic so fired out some big calves. Are you retaining ownership on the steers.
 
Not really. We are small compaired to most on here and we produce breeding stock and show calves and sell most of the steers or culls as butcher beef. We don't put anyone down for there breed choice but crossing a Bv bull on those angus cows make some darn good terminal steers with efficiency and grade/yield.
 
P.A.L said:
LazyWP said:
If I had my choice, I would eat a Limmy every time, as long as I didn't have to feed it out.
Click to expand...

Feed it out? why its difficult?
Click to expand...

I have never fed any of them out, recently. Back in the early 80s, we fed out 4 or 500 calves each year. The folks always ran a Pinzgauer cross on to a Char cow. Made for excellent feed efficacy on the calves, but BIG at calving time. It wasn't uncommon to have 150 pound births. Dad tried about all the breeds at one time or another, and the Limmy's at that time, were harder to feed out.
The guys I summer cattle for, run all Limmy bulls on Red Angus cross cows, plus feed all their own calves. They have the best meat I believe I have ever had.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top