Re: Cattle

Posted by Jerry/MT on March 11, 2009 at 09:56:03 from (206.183.116.129):

In Reply to: Cattle posted by Mark on March 11, 2009 at 08:32:31:

There is more difference within a breed than between breeds. Black Angus have a very successful marketing plan through the American Angus Association, and therefore usually will bring a premium price at market. It's so effective that even black Simmental cattle benefit from it!
The Continental(Charlois, Simmental, Gelvieh, etc) breeds usually mature at higher weights and therefore heifers cycle later. They have higher mature weights which means more feed for maintenance for the mature cow heard.

I've helped people with Simmentalcows calve and this herd has more calving assists and failure to mother up than I have ever encountered with British breeds(i.e. Hereford and Angus, Red and Black). I also have some Simmental/Red Angus Crosses that I have had some mothering up problems with and since I have never encountered this with the British breeds, I'm sure it's a Simmental trait.

All this means more cost per pound of weaned calf. Whether these cattle pay off depends on the total weaned weight and the calf price and feed prices. Now you can select out the undesirable traits but that can take some time.

I raise Red Angus and I do that because I am partial to the British breeds and red cattle, and because the Reds have, in my opinion, the best performance EPD data available for selection. They require whole herd reporting,(you don't report performance on just your top animals) and have a Maintenance Energy (ME)EPD that allows one to select for more feed efficiency in the cow herd. They tend to me more moderate size cattle though there are what I call oversize cattle for those folks who have a great quantity of cheap feed and can afford them. Their maternal traits, in my opinion, are superb and their carcass performance is very much in demand. I plan to cross with Hereford to market Red Baldy cattle, a combination that feeders like.

As I said, I'm partial to the British breeds for the excellent experience I have had with them, the quality of the selection data that are to be had with Red Angus. You can develop any breed to work for you but you need really good performance data to do that quickly if you are starting from scratch or if you are reacting to new market or production conditions. That's where I think Red Angus has a big advantage-excellent performance data.

Opinions are like belly buttons- everybody's got one. These are mine.

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