Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

There seems like there are certain times of the day when cows bunch up and start fighting flies. Seems like a certain humidity and temperature. One thing I noticed while checking water and what not that dads black cows bunch up about an hour before my red cows. I think the black hide is just a tad warmer faster in the sun. Not that this is an advantage or disadvantage. I know some guys are doing some studies on cow lines that seem to be less vulnerable to flies. They actually study fly counts on each cow.

It would be interesting if data was gathered that encouraged the industry to use red cattle. Lets say KSU research centers decided that black cattle don't gain quite as good and are less effiecent in feedlots. If the industry decided to turn their cattle red it would be fairly difficult cause the homozygous black color is dominate. You can make a calf black in one mating but you can't make it red in one mating. It would take some time to undo the black deal. You can make a calf black in one mating but you can't make him good in one mating. Lets call cattle what they are. They are not black hided. They are black simmi,black longhorn,black angus,black angus cross,McDonalds spotted angus,black, limi,black salers, or black Gelbvieh.jmo

Would the Angus breed ever do the "tough in pink" deal like the rodeos? Only paint all the calves pink. For the cancer deal.

Bumper sticker?........"Got black cattle? Got heat? Maybe you need red cattle."

Quote from: aj on August 09, 2010, 07:11:09 AM

Bumper sticker?........"Got black cattle? Got heat? Maybe you need red cattle."

that's true. I dated a gal in Maverick County, Texas, and took a lot of trips down there. Sub-tropical Savanna/ Brush/ Thorns/Desert. Didn't see very many beef brood cows, and, the ones I saw were by percentage maybe only 5% black. Saw a lot of Black bulls being used as terminal sires. Bulls looked like 9 miles of bad road, because they couldn't take the environment. Red & Brindle &Spotted cows were fat & sassy. The second thing I noticed was that 75% of all the cows were horned, and, still displayed their crowns of beauty. Why? Because feral hogs will devour a newborn calf, if they can find one with a polled mama.

Relax, aj! Those that think they know something really annoy the crap out of those of us that DO. However, we are outnumbered, about 99 to 1.
GB

I guess if Brahman, Santa Gertrudis, and Longhorn influenced cattle float your boat. But what happens when you live in Idaho and the snow gets two feet deep and its -15 outside. You have all your hairy Maines and black Angus just lounging around, but there's that Santa Gertrudis wet, shivering, and without ears. I guess if you were in texas they would make sense though, but I can tell you from first hand experience that a Longhorn can't take the winters here. We don't have hog problems here, but we have enough coyote problems. I guess that's why I have an Irish Wolf Hound.

industry is changing and select cuts of meat are being sold at a higher price with less discounts.....even making them a premium for a month or 2 last year.
and when you get this little assoc formed and do your research you will see that black cattle finish and marble better than most other breeds

I think the last part of this is a little misleading...I am a graduate student working for a University doing research in finish and marble...on an average black cattle dont finish or marble better than any other colored cattle out there...Herefords for example finish and marble as easily and as well as anything else we just dont get the amount of product out of them...I am not promoting or dissing any breed..I like good cattle regardless of color...but the driving force is the consumer thinks black is better so they are going to pay more for black...but honestly the majority of those same consumers couldnt tell you what finish or marbling is or what significance it plays in the quality of their steak...like most americans they believe whatever they are told by media without any research or education....so why do they think black is better? because the Angus Association developed the Certified Angus Beef program which kicked all other seedstock associations tales when it came to marketing..and for years every time you turned on the the TV there was and ad. proclaiming the dominance of black hided cattle!

I DIDN'T READ all 8 pages of this subject and maybe someone has touched on this  already ,but in the summer month's (JUNE JULY & AUGUST ) their is a lot of black finished cattle in these months that die , I haven't went out an surveyed but talking to people feeding them make hauling dead black's out a daily routine especially when high heat, humidity an no air movement ...Maybe feeding those blacks they make that much more than CHAROLAIS X , RED ANGUS an X ,AND OTHER CATTLE NOT BEING BLACK...BRAHMA cattle don't work up here usually... One  test a vet told me about is black finished or close to will have 15 degrees more heat , than CHAROLAIS an X CATTLE, HEREFORDS RED ANGUS,RED  GELVIEH ,HAVE A 7 DEGREE ADVANTAGE ...many feed lots you can drive by sure show this ,saw a lot this summer with red white face & black's mixed and the black's were fighting to get under shades put up , a  couple blacks were very sick on outside of shade, red white face over by the water tank laying down chewing their cud's ....These feedlot's must make a lot of money on the live one's , cause one was up around 700 loss & 8 another color besides black...A friend lost some an didn't question him on number ,but he called dead truck at 8 in morning an was informed their was already 1000 ahead of him ....REASON I had been watching this an old cattle buyer use to buy cattle for big feed yard for summer months and stopped death loss and said in a couple of year's doing this he could have gotten along with 2 less men in that period ..!!Some vet's have told me a lot of these big black cattle are having breed back problem's and noticed these RED ANGUS are getting a premium for females ..  A vet today that raises RED ANGUS  told me that crossing them with moderate made CHAROLAIS  are working very well as feeder's and also as replacement females ..!!   A few year's ago I also know in a big feedlot area their was 5000-to 6000 lost due to heat an being black...  I'm a little operator an I couldn't imagine losing this many ..!!