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

What kind?

Help Support Ranchers.net:

Jigs wrote
around here I take a hide discount, every one is sold on black cattle, but I will sit back and wait...the colors will turn again, from what I am seeing is the angus guys are in a buying ring and inflating each other....that bubble will burst, and I will be ready to sell them good calves
Click to expand...


I run Polled Hereford Bulls and the cows are out of that as well. We have always just saved from within until this year. I went out and bought 4 unpapered heffers from a local breeder to go along with the ones I picked out of my own. It might be a waste of time and money but I wanted to see what some new blood would do for my herd. I am like Jigs I take a hit based on color but I also have a very easy keeping herd that dosen't eat me out of house and home. It really was a boost for my mental side of my program last year about 4-5 months after I sold calves. A feller came up and told me he bought some of mine and that they gained just a little over 3 lbs a day. He went on to say that some of the "GOOD BLACK CALVES" he had bought from a local barn (that if it is black critter no matter if the calf is a dud or gold nugget) it is refered to as that "GBC" struggled to gain a pound a day. He grinned and said "Good calves are good calves and that has little to do with color. " I haddn't felt that positive about my program in years as I did at that moment. I have to agree a solid genetic package is what it takes in the beginning and a savvy feed program finishes them in the end..... 8)
 
We run registered Angus and Angus based commercial cows. Use Black Angus bulls most of the time. Sometimes I run some comercial cows down at my dad's to use his Polled Hereford bulls. Bee thinking of buying a couple 1/2 Simmental or 1/4 Simmental x Angus bulls to run on the commercial cows and see what happens.

We mainly breed for the factory (maternal) with decent growth performance. We got into selling our calves to a grass finishing outfit so high perfomance growth cattle don't matter too much.
 
Was riding this weekend with a guy who raises Red Angus. He claimed that over the last 4 years he has even been taking a hide discount.
Said his average prices where better than herefords though.
So if im hearing you guys right your claiming it takes less feed to grow a hereford than an angus?
When they are on grass I cant see any difference between the two. How they do at the feedlot is beyond me?
The biggest problem with the herefords are they teats. The sun reflects off the snow and they get sun burnt which causes endless other troubles.
To me the black angus or baldies are a real low maintance cow.
The herefords are nice to work around but with them it seems your doctoring all ther time.
 
DiamondSCattleCo said:
RoperAB said:
How much does the local market dictate what breed of cows you run?
Click to expand...

When I started my own herd, versus working for others, I went with black because they were the hot critters at the auction market at that time and I knew I was going to need every last nickel I could eke out. Now that I'm established, most of the debt paid down, I can afford to run what I want. I found a market for my Shorthorns, so I don't take hide discount, and when I'm ready to finish my own animals, I know I'll have a leg up on grading.

Rod
Click to expand...

So with the shorthorn your getting better quality meat than with an angus?
Im just a laymen but I honestly cant tell any difference between hereford or black angus as far as the quality of the meat. To me the both taste great.
 
RoperAB said:
DiamondSCattleCo said:
RoperAB said:
How much does the local market dictate what breed of cows you run?
Click to expand...

When I started my own herd, versus working for others, I went with black because they were the hot critters at the auction market at that time and I knew I was going to need every last nickel I could eke out. Now that I'm established, most of the debt paid down, I can afford to run what I want. I found a market for my Shorthorns, so I don't take hide discount, and when I'm ready to finish my own animals, I know I'll have a leg up on grading.

Rod
Click to expand...

So with the shorthorn your getting better quality meat than with an angus?
Im just a laymen but I honestly cant tell any difference between hereford or black angus as far as the quality of the meat. To me the both taste great.
Click to expand...
But,But But....that can't be true,just look at almost any half decent restarant in Alta. they toot the angus horn...angus has to be better it just has too,I mean we can't be brainwashing our restarant customers into thinking one certain type of beef is WAY better then others....man if only the other breeds were as smart as the angus breed was,thier PR is awesome :!:
 
The Black Angus Assoc. has done a tremendous job of marketing. You can't fault them for that. However, the end product had turn out as the advertising indicated or all the marketing in the world wouldn't work.

It doesn't do any good to do something if no one knows you are
doing it.

I applaud the Angus Association for their good work for the
benefit of their breed.

I applaud the Beef Check-off for their good work for the benefit
of the beef industry.

Both fine examples of marketing a tremendous product.

I never feel bad when BEEF sells well.

(I also never feel bad when a good horse sells for a lot of money.) :wink:
 
RoperAB said:
So with the shorthorn your getting better quality meat than with an angus?
Im just a laymen but I honestly cant tell any difference between hereford or black angus as far as the quality of the meat. To me the both taste great.
Click to expand...

Its not so much that, as no-one can possibly tell the difference between an Angus steak and a Hereford steak, as long as they grade the same. But thats the catch: making sure your animals can grade.

I can't make the table come out right, but Cargill did a small Shorthorn feed study in 2001. Shorthorns came out well ahead of the ball game, with 2% making prime, 78% making AAA, and 20% going AA. Total premiums averaged out to $136/head.

Lanigan did another, larger test. The Shorthorn results were also impressive:

AAA - 48% - Industry average - 43.9%
AA - 50% - IA - 49.2%
A - 2% - IA - 4.7%

Yield grade results were also very good:
YG 1 - 90.4% - IA - 61.8%
YG 2 - 9.6% - IA - 28.1%

I had some additional test results kicking around here somewhere that never made the internet, but I can't lay my hands on them right now. The results were similar.

What it boils down to is you can get a higher than average yield, and higher than average grading, which means more bucks in your pocket. Combine higher sale dollars with easy keeping and good feed efficiency (lower costs), you can make more money.

<chuckle> I sound like an advertisement, but I hope that helps to explain things.

Rod
 
I've always liked Shorthorn, so I need to find out more about this.
When we lived in W. Montana some of the best "Angus" calves sold
had a Shorthorn background. I think the only thing out of the norm
was a little roan in the tail.

Yes, I need to dig into this further.
 
Bear in mind FH that this is a Canadian feed test with Canadian Shorthorn genetics as the basis. While I don't want to turn this into a US vs Canada debate, the Shorthorn breed within the US suffered far worse from the showring and "The Angus Advantage" than the Canadian herds did. While there are certainly some good beef producing Shorthorns in the US, I haven't seen anything that compares to Aussie or Canuck Shorthorns.

Rod
 
I wouldn't know about that, but you are probably right.

I remember when we first started in this business in1963,
the fellow that helped us get started had some 'roany' cows
that I just loved. Good calves, good dispositioned easy-fleshing good
udder cows; they had it all.

Our best milk cow was Holstein/Shorthorn cross.

When we bought our first cattle (Herefords) what I wanted was
the 'roany ones.' But since I didn't know much I got voted down. :wink:

(I must say we were on a Hereford Ranch and had to run Herfords.) :wink:
 
I kind of have to chuckle at guys "needing" black cows.


Just buy red ones and breed them to black bulls.


The red ones are cheaper, and the black calves make money.


Funny how good advertising can make a person part with a buck, isn't it?


Badlands
 
Badlands said:
I kind of have to chuckle at guys "needing" black cows.


Just buy red ones and breed them to black bulls.


The red ones are cheaper, and the black calves make money.


Funny how good advertising can make a person part with a buck, isn't it?


Badlands
Click to expand...

When hired help is scarce and cowboys have the choice to handle black cows or off colored ones, many choose to work for the owners with the black cows. No sunburns etc. makes life a lot easier.
 
:roll:

Now, red is off-colored.


If you quit calving in the middle of Winter, you don't have sunburned udders.

"Real" cowboys know this. :wink: They also don't like to drive iron to feed cows too much. Your "cowboys" are obviously different than mine.

Badlands
 
Jason
When hired help is scarce and cowboys have the choice to handle black cows or off colored ones, many choose to work for the owners with the black cows. No sunburns etc. makes life a lot easier.
LOL
did you try and sell me a vacum cleaner the other day?
Click to expand...
 
I bred Tuli cattle in Rhodesia, and have started a pure herd here.
Temprement is important as my disabled son takes care of them,heat resistant Bos Taurus, fertility and low maintenence are important considerations. www.tuli.co.za/
On the company farm we run Hereford and Angus to breed baldies.
 
I don't put much stock in feed yard tests. Olds college has one and Murry Grey's due well in it. Another year it could be the Galloway.
Who cares. Run the type and breed the you want to, Enjoy and can keep you in busisness.

It's been said many times that their is more difference with in most breeds that between breeds.
 
DiamondSCattleCo said:
RoperAB said:
So with the shorthorn your getting better quality meat than with an angus?
Im just a laymen but I honestly cant tell any difference between hereford or black angus as far as the quality of the meat. To me the both taste great.
Click to expand...

Its not so much that, as no-one can possibly tell the difference between an Angus steak and a Hereford steak, as long as they grade the same. But thats the catch: making sure your animals can grade.

I can't make the table come out right, but Cargill did a small Shorthorn feed study in 2001. Shorthorns came out well ahead of the ball game, with 2% making prime, 78% making AAA, and 20% going AA. Total premiums averaged out to $136/head.

Lanigan did another, larger test. The Shorthorn results were also impressive:

AAA - 48% - Industry average - 43.9%
AA - 50% - IA - 49.2%
A - 2% - IA - 4.7%

Yield grade results were also very good:
YG 1 - 90.4% - IA - 61.8%
YG 2 - 9.6% - IA - 28.1%

I had some additional test results kicking around here somewhere that never made the internet, but I can't lay my hands on them right now. The results were similar.

What it boils down to is you can get a higher than average yield, and higher than average grading, which means more bucks in your pocket. Combine higher sale dollars with easy keeping and good feed efficiency (lower costs), you can make more money.

<chuckle> I sound like an advertisement, but I hope that helps to explain things.

Rod
Click to expand...


Rod you should beable to take small group of any breed and beat the INDUSTRY AVERAGE. :cowboy:
 
we run crossbred cows with shorthorn bulls. I would rather have hereford cows with my shorthorn bulls but cant get many good ones around here. We also run a herd of reg. shorthorns. And there is many good herds of reg shortys in the u.s. That you dont see in the show arena. When i started running shorthorn bulls around here people thought i was crazy. After 2 years of watching me ride around and drink beer during calving season and watching my calves out grow theres 3 neighbors run shortys now. They ride around with me in the spring now. LOL
 
We A'I the best black cows Horned Hereford-the best Baldy cows back Angus and everything else gets A'I'ed South Devon. Every now and then we flush one of best black cows Angus to raise our clean up bulls. We run just about all Angus for that. It seems to work good-nobody can tell the calves apart and they finish pretty much together. The cows I flushed this year were 15 and 16-if you last that long the way I run things I'd better keep a bull from you lol. I don't keep very many south devon cross heifers-Megan has a couple purebred devons cows that we'll save them off of.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Rod you should beable to take small group of any breed and beat the INDUSTRY AVERAGE. :cowboy:
Click to expand...

Like you, I don't often pay attention to the very small scale tests or the tests at bull stations, as these tend to be a selection of best animals out of each breeders herds. The Cargill test was a good example of a small scale test, but I often point to it because those animals did outrageously well.

But how would you skew a random test?

Lets take the Lanigan test as an example. This wasn't a small scale test of 50 animals, nor did the breeders select particular animals. As COMMERICAL cattlemen delivered their animals, their Shorthorn influenced stock (minimum 50% Shorthorn) got sorted out into different pens and the feed test commenced. Three of the commercial guys in my area who utilize Shorthorn stock sent their full calf crop in, including their non-Shorthorn influenced stock, since Lanigan was paying pretty good dollars around that time. It'd be pretty tough to back a claim that the test was skewed.

Rod
 

Latest posts

Top