Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

Here is a question for you to consider.....
You are a purebred breeder with a herd of 50 breeding age females. You are looking for a herd bull to use in your herd as you only A.I. a few head each year. Your cows are almost all polled and about 1/2 of them are at least 3 generations polled breeding and the rest are two generations or less. You have three horned females in the herd.
In your search for the next great herd sire, you find two bulls that you really like. Both have excellent bloodlines and both are selling in the same sale.The only problem is that the one you like the best is horned while the other bull is polled and not quite as good. You also know that the chances are that the horned bull will sell for considerably less money than the polled bull will. You also want to try to produce some bulls that can be developed to sell, so you are conscience of the discrepancy that often exists between horned and polled animals.
THE QUESTION IS>>>> WOULD YOU TRY TO BUY THE HORNED BULL AS YOU THINK HE IS THE BEST BULL.... OR WOULD YOU PASS HIM BY BECAUSE HE IS HORNED AND TRY TO PURCHASE THE POLLED BULL? Have at it.....

I say take the best animal no matter what. Horned and polled doesn't really matter to me. About the only time I wouldn't take the best animals is if he was stocking legged, THC and horned. People get to wrapped up in the little things like horns and hair color and forget to evaluate the whole animal. It is amazing how much genetic progress some people are willing to miss out on because they refuse to use horned or roan or any other vice they might have in their herd. I would never pay more for a subpar animal who's only advantage is being polled, horns just don't make that much of a difference in our operation.

Probably would go with the polled bull, especially when selling to commerical bull buyers. Although I'm not intimidated by them, I've heard alot of fuss about them- not to mention their % horned progeny being discounted at the sale barn. However, I'd say there's some pretty good genetics in some Horned Herefords (Cooper/Holden and others) but seeing the gap between Horned and Polled in the Hereford breed more people are reluctant to combine genetics to furture the breed.

you could alway burn the bus so they dont grow and you cant see them then when at the sale barn

cpl. I think the horned vs. the polled herford deal was coming along. When I was judging herfords in college(1981) I know the horned herford people and polled herford people would almost come to blows when disscussing the two breeds. Now they are under one association. I had the impression that the horned herfords were better butted back then than the poll's. I think the herfords are a under rated breed that work well in rough tuff enviroments.There is alot of tradition in the herford breed and alot of proud people that breed them.

cpl. I think the horned vs. the polled herford deal was coming along. When I was judging herfords in college(1981) I know the horned herford people and polled herford people would almost come to blows when disscussing the two breeds. Now they are under one association. I had the impression that the horned herfords were better butted back then than the poll's. I think the herfords are a under rated breed that work well in rough tuff enviroments.There is alot of tradition in the herford breed and alot of proud people that breed them.

Many of the State Associations still have different associations for horned and polled. They also have different sales and shows. But its coming along.

Also, not everyone's commerical herd is going to be 100% polled. I know quite a few herds that have cows in the herd that were dehorned or horns sawed off, etc. The cows with horns generally run cheaper at the sale barn, so they buy those and then buy an angus bull (to take horns off and change color). The job of a bull breeder (any breed) is to produce a product that will do as good as or better than an angus bull. A horned bull is just one strike.

Just while were on the subject, most commerical farmers have very busy lives. They have bills that need payed and sometimes work 2 jobs. From a few I've spoken with and know they barely spend any time with their families, let alone have time cull bad females, monitor progeny, doctor up cows/calves that come down with something, etc. They want something that's not going to take a lot of input from themself (dehorning horned calves for example), but still return a profit. Again not every beef producer is this way, but there are quite a few in my area, and it makes since to get a product that appeals to them.

does anyone clip the hair first?  the problem i had with pasting them in the pasture, is that momma would come lickety split and lick it off, so you needed to keep them separate for a few minutes.  amazing how fast that stuff burns through to the muscle if you ignore it.

Quote from: knabe on August 07, 2007, 10:59:03 AM

does anyone clip the hair first?  the problem i had with pasting them in the pasture, is that momma would come lickety split and lick it off, so you needed to keep them separate for a few minutes.  amazing how fast that stuff burns through to the muscle if you ignore it.

I clip 'em and paste 'em - I lock the babies in a pen for a couple of hours and then just wipe the paste off - don't want to burn the tongue or udder of the unsuspecting mother!

CPL while I do agree with much of what you said and we are all busy, if cattlemen don't have time to "cull bad females, monitor progeny, doctor up cows/calves that come down with something, etc" then maybe they should consider getting out of the business - shouldn't the first priority of a good stockperson be taking care of the stock??.

Good points from the both of you!