Shortgrass said:
When an animal can get a CAB premium because the hide you pulled off was black, their Association is doing their job.
Not the case, come on now Shortgrass. Couple of points to help you out with your black-hided aggravation.
1. CAB is about carcass quality. Yes, the cattle have to be black to begin with, but they have to have the carcass quality. Only about 17% of the black-hided cattle make the program. CAB is not the same as all of this generic Angus rip-off marketing that you see at places like Burger King or Hardee's. People are buying quality meat when they buy CAB. That quality is in the form of marbling, just below USDA Prime.
2. If the Charolais Association started a meat marketing program (which they are free to do), would they allow black or red cattle into that program? Doubtful. The Charolais board would probably say that, without registration papers or DNA, the only way to know if it's a Charolais calf is if the hide color was white, smokey or buckskin. Don't you think? This is the thought process that the Angus folks were using in the 1970's when they started CAB and there were pretty-much no other black cattle besides Angus in the U.S., at least none that were prevalent at the time. The hide color was unique to the breed. The black Limo's, Simmy's, Gelbviehs, Salers all came on board much later.
3. I really like Charolais cattle and I think that the breed has some great traits that are tremendous for our industry. So please do keep raising those cattle and I will keep admiring them.
My best to you!
HP