Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

Dr. Martin Lee has written an interesting article on the history of "Black Noses On Shorthorn Cattle" that is in the Cattle Viewpoints section on the Heritage Shorthorn Society website (www.heritageshorthornsociety.org).

They were and remain probably the greatest cow family from the time they arrived on-Ill take a black nose anytime as good as those cattle are

Do you ever sell commercial? Hed probably be a blue maker

Dark hoofs are definitely more durable if the cattle come from non-fescue to fescue Its not that bad when they are born on fescue.

Several years ago, I was asked to cull a set of 380 yearling bulls of all breeds on feet and legs in a bull test station. Virtually every breed was included. Everything was going fine, with a few bulls eliminated from every breed, for feet and leg issues, until I got to the Red Angus bulls. I was concerned whether I should use the same scrutiny in them as I did with all the other breeds. They had, by far, the most bad footed bulls of any breed in the station. The biggest problem was toes that crossed and some of them were extremely bad. I think the Red Angus breed has worked hard to eliminate this issue but I am sure some still shows up occasionally.
In regards to black noses, many of the black noses in today's Shorthorns do go back to some of the Irish imports. Black noses also have existed in the breed since the very early days. i remember several imported bulls from Scotland that had black noses. Drynie Argosy was a herd sire at Remitall Cattle Co in Alberta and he had a black nose and Louis Latimer still imported him, because he thought he was the best bull he saw there and he decided to import him and breed around the black noses.  Another famous bull that came from Scotland was Glamis Benefactor, who many considered to be the best Shorthorn bull ever developed in the breed. He broke some price records when he sold. He not only had a black nose, but he had black pigment all over his body. His hair color around his eyes was black, and the skin around his anus was pitch black. I remember going to Louada Farms in Ontario, shortly after they purchased and imported the entire Denend herd from Scotland. I was surprised at the number of cows in that herd that had black noses.  A few years ago, I had a great opportunity to visit with Donald and Diana McGillvary, who owned the famous Calrossie herd in Scotland. In our discussions about the Shorthorns in the 50s and 60s in Scotland, Donald said that the reason Shorthorns had almost become extinct in the UK was because the breeders in the 50s and 60s refused to breed cattle that the commercial producers were wanting. He said that there was issues in Shorthorns in that era, with things like double muscling and he also mentioned black noses and black pigment. This visit with the McGillvary's was one I will always remember. The Calrossie herd set all sorts of records back in that era. Donald told me that in 1952, he took 13 bulls to the Perth sale and he averaged over 12,000 guinneas on them, which amounts to over an average of $120,000 in today's money evaluation.

Exactly-and its probably from the ancient white cattle that ran basically wild centuries ago and whos genetics made Shorthorns very easy keeping foragers for a time -(them days is long gone Bucko)-I wonder who the "purists" sell any cattle to- when they keep eliminating phenotypes that commercial people actually would use and or not worry about such as black noses-which probably beget sturdier dark hooves. Similar to all the so-called syndicated or $150 semen bulls who are "travellors" in the same constricted circles of "breeders"-none of whom have ANY relevance to a commercial person who might try a Shorthorn in their travels or the huddled masses who only have a few cows-Which really represents a majority of Shorthorn breeders

Im talking about down here-The cattle here are alot different than the Canadian cattle-Also referring to the cattle I remember in the sixties-There were plenty of things wrong with them-but the ones I used to see stayed too fat on way less than the cattle of today-and people quit using them because they thought the carcasses were too fat

Black noses are acceptable as long as they are not accompanied by blue tongues or pink eyes.