RoperAB said:
Old timers tell me that years ago a lot of people ran shorthorns in southern AB. Everybody says they were great cows. Nobody can tell me<around here> why they dont run them anymore.
A few things happened to Shorthorns:
1) Western Canada's fascination for those large framed exotics of the 80s. Thankfully, just a fad that quickly faded when guys realized just how inefficient those monsters were.
2) Angus breeders really made strides in improving their breed, while many in the Shorthorn industry kind of rested on their laurels. I've watched the same thing happen to Hereford.
3) The show ring. Shorthorns became very popular in the big city show ring, and those guys just simply can't breed a beef animal. So we saw Shorthorns move from small to moderate frames with lots of volume to those leggy, pencil gutted pieces of junk that seem to win the ribbons. Many new breeders looked at what was being shown, and didn't realize there were still Shorthorn breeders around who raised and fed BEEF animals. Unfortunately, those junk animals also made it into the semen catalogs of most AI guys, and I really don't blame anyone for not wanting to use junk. To this day, I rarely see a good Shorthorn in semen catalogs, even though I know they're out there.
Once the Shorthorn breed faded away, the Canadian and American Shorthorn Associations simply didn't promote as well as the Angus (and other breed) associations did. Those of us running Shorthorns are trying to change that, and with the help of a few feed studies, people are beginning to understand that Shorthorn animals are desirable in this cold hell we call Canada
Rod