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Funny all the hereford bashing lately

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I think the key you touched on Big Swede is the "finding the right ones" part. We need to forget that old BS line about Angus + Hereford = Profit, and train our brain to think like this:

Great Cow + Great Bull = Great Calf that gives us the POTENTIAl for Profit.

Can't make the math much simpler. Forget color and all the other jazz, just seek out the best damn bulls/replacements you can afford, and get 'em bought. I bought 150 purebred Galloway females this winter, putting us over 200 registered females, which is right where we want to be in that regard. Consequently, that required more bulls. So I spent 2 months seeking out the best Galloway bulls I could find, and I spent good money getting 6 of them bought, however, I feel that I am now right in the position to make the math work: Great Cows + Great Bulls = Great Calves.

Keep up the good work Swede, you'll find your way.
 
Cattle are cattle to me. Most every breed has the same genetic diversity in them but the smaller the breed, the harder some traits are to find. You can make whatever kind of cow suits you. I do see the value in crossbreeding personally.
 
Hello Shorthornguy. I'm glad you are a part of this discussion. Your breed is the one nobody thinks about for an English option. Where is a good place to see some of the breeds genetics? Are there many cattle with a solid color pattern, black ones maybe? Always looking at different ideas.
 
This thread should be on Cattle Today with all the 'my breed is best' ya ya!!!!

The reason black is popular is because the packers are paying more for black. Their idea was to bring consistency to the final product...pay more for black hides and all producers would go to Angus cattle. Didn't work...the die-hard breeders instead turned the hide color of their favorite breed black and tried to sell them as CAB (only about 20% of black cattle submitted for CAB qualify...that should tell us something about what makes quality beef :shock: ). Adding to the problem is that every black steer with nuts becomes a potential herdsire...particularly for producers looking for a cheap cow freshener and black hided calves.

Tough beef comes from stressed cattle...sickness, bad disposition, lack of feed at some time(weight lose).

Cattle are herd animals that are comfortable in THEIR herd...we all know what happens when we add new animals into our herds...a lot of pushing, shoving and fighting. The way our industry is run, we are always mixing cattle...causing stress, hurting quality of the final product!

All breeds have good cattle when matched to and adapted to their environment(which includes management). Poor doing cattle that produce tough meat are largely a result of a bad environmental match and poor management...do us all a favor, turn your junk cattle into burger.
 
PureCountry said:
I think the key you touched on Big Swede is the "finding the right ones" part. We need to forget that old BS line about Angus + Hereford = Profit, and train our brain to think like this:

Great Cow + Great Bull = Great Calf that gives us the POTENTIAl for Profit.

Can't make the math much simpler. Forget color and all the other jazz, just seek out the best damn bulls/replacements you can afford, and get 'em bought. I bought 150 purebred Galloway females this winter, putting us over 200 registered females, which is right where we want to be in that regard. Consequently, that required more bulls. So I spent 2 months seeking out the best Galloway bulls I could find, and I spent good money getting 6 of them bought, however, I feel that I am now right in the position to make the math work: Great Cows + Great Bulls = Great Calves.

Keep up the good work Swede, you'll find your way.
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You mean you did'nt just buy a cow freshener.I bought a new bull this winter also I had no intention of buying a bull but when I found this rascal I bid till I owned him..
 
On the subject of Shorthorn. The best cows I have ever owned bar none were Blue Roan Shorthorn crosses. Not too many around but when they show up, keeping them would be a good bet.
 
If you guys are looking for solid horned herefords i know at least 1 guy doing it right. He has his own ideas they are simple- working cattle that are sound, uniform, fertile, long lived and easy fleshing. Northern rancher if you are looking it is worth the trip. He has buyers come out to his branding to look at the calves as babies and so they can see the mommas he is developing quite the solid reputation. He sent a good bull up into that loon lake country last year i think that is somewhere close to you. Despite what the HH old boys club might say in the business this guy has some of the best HH bulls you will find anywhere and to top it all off they are intensly canadian bred.
 
per said:
On the subject of Shorthorn. The best cows I have ever owned bar none were Blue Roan Shorthorn crosses. Not too many around but when they show up, keeping them would be a good bet.
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My dad has a blue roan short horn cross cow that is a perfect cow she was born on the farm. she has a 1/2 sister in the herd and now two hefiers, her mama was a blue roan also. she always claved late and her calf would alway go with the heavies during sale time in the fall. was a sad day on farm when she went to town herself (showed up open)
 
QUESTION said:
If you guys are looking for solid horned herefords i know at least 1 guy doing it right. He has his own ideas they are simple- working cattle that are sound, uniform, fertile, long lived and easy fleshing. Northern rancher if you are looking it is worth the trip. He has buyers come out to his branding to look at the calves as babies and so they can see the mommas he is developing quite the solid reputation. He sent a good bull up into that loon lake country last year i think that is somewhere close to you. Despite what the HH old boys club might say in the business this guy has some of the best HH bulls you will find anywhere and to top it all off they are intensly canadian bred.
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I run Horned Herfs, and when I go looking for bulls I will pay more for a Canadian bred bull than anything else. something about the build and the aggressive breeding that really sets them apart.
 
QUESTION said:
If you guys are looking for solid horned herefords i know at least 1 guy doing it right. He has his own ideas they are simple- working cattle that are sound, uniform, fertile, long lived and easy fleshing. Northern rancher if you are looking it is worth the trip. He has buyers come out to his branding to look at the calves as babies and so they can see the mommas he is developing quite the solid reputation. He sent a good bull up into that loon lake country last year i think that is somewhere close to you. Despite what the HH old boys club might say in the business this guy has some of the best HH bulls you will find anywhere and to top it all off they are intensly canadian bred.
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So who is it?
 
Biggest problem with shorthorns now is that is getting harder and harder to find fuctional shorties. There is so much maine influence and problems with genetic defects as a result that it's hard to find a solid bull to buy, not saying it's impossible, can think of a few guys still raising the right kind of shorthorns but it's getting harder every day.
 
Murray and Cam Fraser have the most practical run herd of Hereford and Angus cattle up here I don't need to look anywhere else-I wore out enough truck tires doing tht already-straight Canadian bred Horned Hereford isn't necessarily a good thing.
 
Lehr Ranching - solid no nonsense cattle they work or they get culled. The reason he goes more for the canadian bred is he is into solid working cattle not bulls bred for numbers. NR you have to see them to appreciate them. i have sent customers to him that were pretty sour on the hereford thing and now they have drank his coolaid and think he has the best herefords in the country because they work - plain and simple.
 
There are good shorthorns out there and they work but they also have to fit the environment as well as any other beast. Robert mac explained it rather well. Shorthorns dont fit every place as like any cattle weather it be angus hereford chars or whatever. If i lived farther south or north i might need to use something else but they work well for me for what i am doin. But i dont care who you are or where you are at a crossbred cow will make you more money every time. And you angus guys know there is very very few true bred angus out there. I know guys who preach angus till they cant breathe and yet dont own a true angus. But thats there gig. The shorthorn cross works well with me. I just wish i had some of northern ranchers cows down here so i could get some good carcass cattle that can live on grass year round for replacments they are getting hard to find. There are some damn good shorthorns in kansas down around abilene. This guy raises them the right way and with no mercy. If you want his number let me know.
 
per said:
On the subject of Shorthorn. The best cows I have ever owned bar none were Blue Roan Shorthorn crosses.
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And yet the Canadian and American Shorthorn associations refuse to promote what is probably the best of the Shorthorn breed: the Shorthorn and Shorthorn cross cow. When the Durham Red program was a couple years old and seemed to be all about promoting crossbred bulls, I called in to both (US and Canada) associations and asked why they weren't looking at a Durham Black program or another program to promote the Shorthorn cow. I even offered to do carcass trials ON MY DIME, with the idea that if everything worked out, they'd start up a promotional program. The response I got was puzzling to say the least. In effect it was "don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out".

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Rod
 
To make the system even more attractive to meat packers, the scientists have just added an image-analysis program.
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I recently wrote an article for the AGBA (American Galloway Breeders' Assoc) that was based on research in Germany. The Image Analysis System (also known as Computer Image Analysis, CIA) is the real truth detector in the world of beef quality assurance. CIA can view deposits of fat down to the 4 pixel level, whereas the human eye (i.e. the usda grader) can see down to around the 100 pixel level. Research has shown that the distribution of fat, and its form, punctiform or reticular (punctiform are small point like deposits, and are more desirable than reticular, which are larger streaks of fat) most affect eating quality of beef. The distribution of the marbling is also very important for producing a good eating experience. The more evenly distributed the fat, the better. Therefore, a steak with larger, more visible streaks of fat may grade better than a steak with smaller, less detectable parcels of fat distributed more evenly throughout the meat, even though the latter cut will provide the better eating experience.
 
your exactly right big muddy. I am not bashing angus cows i have several and they are damn good cows even the few registered ones that i have are good cows with there white teats and white bellies. They are still good mamas i have some chars that you aint got enough money to buy and wish i had a few more of them. my thing is the angus people who preach black black black and they dont realize that angus cow is good because of put in genetics. Granted they over the years have made the angus cow a good animal but not with out a lot of help from other breeds.
 

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