angus blood

[steel]

I have noticed that the seems to be alot of people losing steam on the Angus breed.  More and more Angus cows are for sale around me.  I personally love having Angus cows around so the defects must be playing a big role in this.    So with that being said.  Can any one or everyone give me a quick crash course in what blood lines to stay away from.    Seems like this mite be a good time to buy a few of the better Angus cows around for alot less than in years past.

 

[the angus111]

Its the Precision cattle on the"curly calf " deal.STEEL.i dont know that the breed is losing steam ,the economy is sure taking its toll.I think alot of producers are selling off their older cows too.I have seen alot of commercial guys buy future direction bulls for there comm.cows or even making recips out of these Precision cattle.Gardiners still fare well at their sale.home of curly calf.rusty

 

[Freddy]

The Angus cattle has some big problems in a lot of the breed, an some people are pushing carcass , other growth, an others grass feed so the breed is really split up with not much direction...

 

[knabe]

not much direction...

this is actually a good sign.  markets are made up of individuals making individual decisions. for some reason, people don't like this.

 

[Show Heifer]

There are actually quite a few bloodlines to stay away from if they are not tested. Best way is to muddle through the angus web site and find the list of carrier OF ALL DEFECTS, not just curly calf, and go from there.

I don't think angus is losing steam.... yet. Shifting gears yes. I have been to many breed sales of different breeds and all are suffering from the economy and lack of a clear direction on all breeds part. Plus with high feed cost, many producers are selling their bottom end to save cost.

What I would caution you about is buying "commerical angus" without papers. The angus assoc will not register known carriers, and therefore many are selling carriers without papers. DEMAND,DEMAND, DEMAND a blood test for known defects.

I wish you luck and remember, if you deal with someone you trust, and demand a test, there will be no surprises down the road!!!

 

[DL]

GAR Precision 1680 carries both NH and AM. Precision is believed to be the founder of NH and his sire 9J9  is a carrier of AM and may be the founder for it. Animals involved in FCS have not been publicly identified. The Long nosed dwarf traces to 7D7, but his dam (extensively used in ET) has not been tested. The mutation involved in  marble bone (osteopetrosis) in black Angus cattle has not  identified , while the OS mutation in RA has been identified and is not the same as black Angus. Thus the animals involved in OS in tbe blacks have not been named. Investigations are on going regarding the defect called "Itty Bitty" which is proportional dwarfism.......

 

[GoWyo]

The Angus breed is pretty diverse with bloodlines that fit within a variety of programs and environments.  It really pays to do your homework on bloodlines to see what will fit.  Curly calf (AM) and waterhead (NH) are the bad defects from the Precision 1680 lines -- Future Direction is a double carrier, but there appear to be some clean progeny.  There are also some rumblings concerning fawn calf syndrome (perhaps DL can chime in on this one) and a test in the works with some fingers pointing toward Bando 598, but I didn't start that rumor.  I have some 598 cows and they have been good cows.  Then there is "itty bitty syndrome" which may or may not be a type of dwarfism defect -- or might just be from selecting for calving ease to the extreme.

Check out Advantage Cattle Services for some chatter about Angus -- there are some interesting discussions over there to help you with your research.

 

[GoWyo]

I see DL beat me to it.  Disregard what I say.

 

[simtal]

there are more angus cows for sale because there are more angus cows than anything else

 

[Cattledog]

there are more angus cows for sale because there are more angus cows than anything else

That would be my guess as well.

 

[the angus111]

The Angus cattle has some big problems in a lot of the breed, an some people are pushing carcass , other growth, an others grass feed so the breed is really split up with not much direction...

Freddy i dont see this being not much direction,but diversification.there are producers that have found effective marketing by offering grass fed cattle.same can be said for programs that look or provide great carcass  cattle.rusty

 

[kfacres]

I tend to agree.. the Angus on the commercial side of things might be losing some steam, at least around here...  not sure if it's the genetic problems... or just people wanting to do something different and get some hybrid vigor back into their cattle...  think the improvement in the other breeds hasn't helped the Angus on the comerical side either...  Some of those cont based cattle has just as much maternal ability, plus their advantages in termenal too! 

All breeds have their genetic problems, and with time I think it could become more prevelent. 

IMO a dirty cow, of any breed can still be good, as long as it's mated right- and has the honesty factor compliled into it... at least on the commercial side of things...  Calves that get harvested, doesn't matter if their a  carrier or not! IMO 

Prob going to start a can of worms off this one! (pop)

 

[chambero]

A lot of higher profile (i.e. those with lots of advertising), mid-sized (even some of the real big ones) Angus outfits are really owned by City folks looking for a toy to play with.  As the recession has killed their income, a lot are liquidating assets they can readily get cash for - i.e. their toy cows.  That's a lot of what is going on with Angus dispersals and has for a little while now.

I disagree on the risk of defects with the commercial Angus thing - but no evidence to prove it of course.  There are many, many, many Angus breeders in my part of the world that have always just bred good black cows but never wanted to play the Angus associtation marketing game.  You can buy lots of good unregistered - but straight Angus - cows that don't come from the big name bloodlines that these defects are coming from. 

A commercial cattlemen that targets the feedlot business (as most do) really doesn't have to worry about whether his cows are carriers or not - just make sure you buy or use clean bulls.  There's gettiing to be so many defects in so many different breeds that I don't see how a large operation can really do anythign different.