Horned Herefords

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Aussie

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Spent today clipping Horned herefords for a new client. It was a pleasure. great hair great disposition. I know horns are out and Horned Herefords could soon be an endangered breed but it was good to work with them. ;D
 

Dozer45

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Cool thing to hear, I purchased a heifer last fall and she turned out to be horned. Everyone told me to de-horn her but I left her the way she was born.
<cowboy>
 

Silver

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Dietrich, ID
know a guy who just got put in charge of a commercial operation and the first thing he did was go and buy 20 horned herefords to cross on his angus cows. More improvement in his first calf crop than the guy before him did in 10 years. Its just plain tuff to beat a black baldy
 

justintime

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Many Western Canadian ranchers prefer Horned Herefords over Polled Herefords and I would have to agree with them. The Horned herefords have more hardiness and fleshing ability in my opinion. I recently sold a horned Shorthorn bull to a rancher who runs Horned Hereford cows. He strongly believes that horned cattle in all breeds are superior to polled ones. He said that he had used some Polled Hereford and black Angus bulls a few years ago, and he had culled all the replacement females from these sires within 3 years. He said they simply could not handle his environmental conditions. His cattle have to graze year round as his ranch is extremely rough terrain. He is the 3rd generation on this ranch and he has successfully raised a family of 4 children, all of which he had put through college, with his last daughter half way to completion. Guess I cannot argue with any man who makes his entire livlihood from his cowherd and has been successful doing it.

We ran 60 Horned hereford females for several years here, and it was a learning lesson for me. We sold most of the bulls through a ranch bull sale in Sturgis SD. I found it interesting that the Horned Hereford bulls sold very well there, however, Polled Hereford bulls were extremely hard to sell with almost all of them passing with no bid. The Horned Hereford bulls would average over $3000 in the same sale. I also took some Shorthorn bulls there on one occasion, and my only horned bull sold for $2800 and the polled bulls topped out at $1900. So, from what I have experienced, there is still a market for some horned genetics.

In 2010, we sold more horned bulls than ever before. One commercial producer purchased 5 bulls of which 3 were horned. He said that being horned was what made them good. How can I argue with that?  I have found over the years that in the Shorthorn breed, my best calves are either horned or they have horned genetics close up in their pedigrees.
 

LostFarmer

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Eastern Idaho
I bought my grandfathers simixangus cows from the family at his death.  I culled 8 of the 36 right off as old and or open.  I then ran horned hereford bulls on them.  No better commercial mama that a black baldy in my mind.  I am now crossing back with simmi, angus, and a little maine onto those new black baldy females.  I like the quiet of a hereford based cow and bulls that want scratched.  LF
 

trevorgreycattleco

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Anyone cross shorthorns and horned Herefords on here? I use to want nothing to do with herefords but after researching them on cattle today and seeing some awesome cattle, I feel they have their rightful place as well.
 

Dozer45

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always wanted to but never have. The shorthorns around here tend to be hard to put weight on so i think a hereford cross would really improve the rate of gain
 

justintime

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trevorgreycattleco said:
Anyone cross shorthorns and horned Herefords on here? I use to want nothing to do with herefords but after researching them on cattle today and seeing some awesome cattle, I feel they have their rightful place as well.


I think there is a real place for some producers to produce F1 Shorthorn X Hereford females. In the past two years, I have had orders for over 300 Shorthorn X Hereford females. One rancher would have taken 150 if I could have found them and was willing to pay a nice premium for them. I phoned every customer of ours who was using a Shorthorn bull, and I found a few, but most every one of them said they had purchased the Shorthorn bull to produce their own F1 Shorthorn X replacement females. I think there is a real place for these females. They are fertile, hardy and great mother cows. The same thing goes for Shorthorn X Charolais females. When we had our herd of 100 purebred Charolais cows, I always bred the Charolais heifers to Shorthorn bulls and also bred some Shorthorn cows to Charolais bulls. I kept all the heifers and sold them as bred heifers. I had standing orders from 3 commercial herds and all I had to do was let them know when I had some available. It was good business. I would still be doing this if we had not needed downsize our herd due to a labour shortage in this area. If I was struggling to sell my purebreds, I would buy one of the best Horned Hereford or Charolais bulls I could find, in a heartbeat. With a little promotion, I think it would be a pretty good cash generator
 

OLD WORLD SHORTIE

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TX
i see a lot of money to be made by using Hereford genetics, its a great way to add muscle and make cattle a tick more moderate in their make up. With that comes all the great benefits of a Hereford. I dunno about being endangered, horned herefords will always be around.
As far as show cattle everyone has to have the hornes removed, so its really hard to find a horned hereford at the Texas majors
 

Aussie

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Shorthorn X Herefords used to be very popular the herefords did not have alot of milk so shorthorn was added. Traditionally with an Angus over them and later with a Euro bull. With the black cattle premium increasing that F1 cow has become less as people switch to straight angus herds. Horned Hereford numbers in the last 20 years have dropped dramatically. Once the most popular breed in Australia with large classes at shows they are now deligated often to the any other breed class.
 

CAB

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If you're ever @ the NWSS when the HH hit town, there are no better cattle to look @ than them IMO.
 

amss101

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An "old timer" once told me, lose the horn and lose the hip. Ponder that next time you are looking through a pasture that contains both.
 

sue

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CAB said:
If you're ever @ the NWSS when the HH hit town, there are no better cattle to look @ than them IMO.

I agree 100%
 

Okotoks

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if you want to see some really outstanding horned herefords you should check out Braun Ranches in Simmie, Saskatchewan. Great cattle with an emphasis on low birth weights and structural soundness. The bonus is the great prairie ranch and scenery.
 

justintime

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Okotoks said:
if you want to see some really outstanding horned herefords you should check out Braun Ranches in Simmie, Saskatchewan. Great cattle with an emphasis on low birth weights and structural soundness. The bonus is the great prairie ranch and scenery.

I agree100%. I have liked every Braun bred animal I have ever seen. I really need to take some time and stop there. Every report I have had, has been very good. I can think of several other herds of horned Herefords in Western Canada that could teach many people about what good, hard working, trouble free cattle should look like. If you want to see how Horned Herefords work on Shorthorn cows, either stop and visit Bodmin Limited  at Brussels, Ontario or contact them and talk with them. They have been producing these F1 females for several years and selling them privately from the farm for over a $1500 average for years. They have many repeat customers, some of which take 10-20 bred heifers each year. Ross Proctor told me they have sold over 100 females to one commercial man in recent years and he has no desire to ever raise his own replacements. This man uses terminal sires on these females and tops the markets each year with his calves.
 

CAB

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HFBS said:
An "old timer" once told me, lose the horn and lose the hip. Ponder that next time you are looking through a pasture that contains both.

Hum??? Not just with Horned Herfs!!!
 

Aussie

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An old timer told me remove the horns remove the brains. Are horned cattle quieter. Justintime one of the hfrs I clipped is out of a Canadian dam Embryos imported from Hirsche Herefords nice cattle a bit yellow in the coat.
 

5VSC

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Pilot Grove MO
The best acting/doecile Herford calves we have bought or raised were all horned claves they also have a bigger hip and wider top and rear. For sure!
 

trevorgreycattleco

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Sounds like we should be plugging in some HH into our shorties. Still get the english cross and then when bred to the black angus......... sounds good to me! So what HH bulls would work the best on shorties? I know very little about herefords peroid. But when you study some of the herds out there, IMO they are hard to ignore.  I like the sounds of a red baldy. I know red angus already beat us to it, but it's worth a try.
 

Okotoks

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trevorgreycattleco said:
So what HH bulls would work the best on shorties?

I know Saskvalley use Hereford bulls in their commercial program on shorthorns. The  cross the other way around gives some of the best mother cows you can get.
 
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