Why do you like your breed of cattle?

[red]

Thought this might be an interesting topic. We've gotten some really good information from several Shorthorn breeders & of course our Lowline expert TJ!
I'm wondering what is it about your breed that you really like? Is it maternal, show ring appeal, carcass or just anything!

Thanks,
Red (welcome)

 

[red]

Why I like Maine-Anjou cattle!

I like their disposition
They for the most part are good mothers
Easy keeping
Feed out great
good show appeal
can come in my favorite color red! or black if you're so inclinded
great hair
love their disposition
nothing better than a pasture of red & black cows grazing w/ their calves!

 

[OH Breeder]

Shorty's
Grew up in the 70's -80's with them as a kid
Docile temperment
Mothering ability
Milk
Color= its always a interesting to see what you get

 

[NHR Shorthorns]

OH Breeder pretty much said it all!

Its like christmas as a kid, everytime one calves you dont know what your gonna get.

 

[renegade]

I like herefords for their docile temperment, their ability to grow hair and body wise and they really pop out in the ring especially here where it's angus or nothing. 

 

[knabe]

i have maine's for fun, mostly for eating and covering costs and give to friends.  i like them because they seem to be combine genes that in other cattle would be antagonistic like bone, milk, efficiency, marbling on grass, recent dual breed history and lot's of variability.  they also don't seem to be encumbered with a lot of pretension and marketing hype which blurs the lines.  that said, mine are black.  they seem to have a lot of genetic heterozygosity and potential for flexibility for inputs compared to other breeds which seem much closer to matching their inputs and rely to heavily on who the breeder is rather than who the cattle are.

 

[Doc]

I'm going to agree with Ohio Breeder!!!  (clapping)

 

[shortdawg]

Shorthorns

There are over 40 breeds of cattle that trace back the the shorthorns so, they obviously have many good traits. Personally I like their docility the most. I can put my daughter on my shoulders and walk through the pasture with no fear of being charged. Show ring presence, milking ability, color, and fertility are other traits I like.

 

[sjcattleco]

I like Shorthorns the best because when I got into the cattle business full time with my own money they were truely the only breed I felt like I could get a decent start in and actually make a real profit and 13 yrs later I feel like I was not wrong....

 

[DL]

Things I like about Maines
Maines - high percentage esp red and white
temperament
docility
fertility
size (big I like big cows)
structurally correct
great mothers

Things that don't really thrill me
show ring appeal ---> like Pete Seeger's "Little Boxes" -  (remember that JIT??) short, hairy, androgenous females that look like all other short hairy little androgenous females and have no zero zip breed character

horns I don't like so much either - but they are easier to deal with ;D

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

Red Angus - After working for a fittting service for 15 years I made the transition from commercial cattle to Red Angus. Of all the breeds that we worked, the Red Angus put the most good things togather in one package with the fewest unwanted characteristics. Calving ease, Maternal traits, heat tolerance, growth, disposition (most of them), roughage conversion, carcass traits, fertility, fleshing ability, and consistency. I still have many friends in other breeds that have asked why I went with the Reds 20 some odd years ago when they were a "minor" breed. I usually reply that the cattle are so good that the people haven't been able to screw them up (There are some that really try though). The biggest thing I don't like is the fact that the National association is so "pro" EPD and anti show. It has gotten to the point that the association influences the out come of alot of shows - cattle with the "right" EPDs win reguardless of how good or bad they might be.

 

[DL]

Red Angus - After working for a fittting service for 15 years I made the transition from commercial cattle to Red Angus. Of all the breeds that we worked, the Red Angus put the most good things togather in one package with the fewest unwanted characteristics. Calving ease, Maternal traits, heat tolerance, growth, disposition (most of them), roughage conversion, carcass traits, fertility, fleshing ability, and consistency. I still have many friends in other breeds that have asked why I went with the Reds 20 some odd years ago when they were a "minor" breed. I usually reply that the cattle are so good that the people haven't been able to screw them up (There are some that really try though). The biggest thing I don't like is the fact that the National association is so "pro" EPD and anti show. It has gotten to the point that the association influences the out come of alot of shows - cattle with the "right" EPDs win reguardless of how good or bad they might be.

RW - I have heard that about the Red Angus in regards to EPDs - re temperament - I have had several individuals "warn" me about certain lines of Black Angus to stay away from - and it is a breed I generally do not enjoy working with (give me a Maine or a Shortie any day ;D) but are their lines of Red Angus a person should avoid when crossing either for Durham Reds or use for calving ease on red Maines. Esp can you comment on Leachman Heavenly 8141 and his various offspring with Heavenly (or Heaven something) in their name)? thanks appreciate all the breed knowledgable people we have here, DL

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

As far as the disposition issues in the Reds - most of the problem cattle are coming in from black parentage outcrosses -EXT is a prime example of an outcross pedigree that has brought some disposition problems into the Reds. Red Quantock 27M was a bull that brought some nasty attitudes a few years ago. The Glacier Marias cattle are known to have some fire in them, the ones I have been around were like ticking time bombs- you just never knew when they were going to explode or what was going to set them off. The Heavenly 8141 cattle I have been around didn't have any serious disposition problems whowever alot of them had some serious foot and leg issues so we never used him. Heaven or bust is the other bull I think  you were refering to. He was a heavenly 8141 son that was known to be a reasonable easy calving bull with fewer structure problems than his sire. I guess for me there are too many good bulls available that are easy calving bulls with out sacrificing other traits or structural soundness. We have sold quite a bit of semen on our senior herd sire to clubby guys that are breeding their first calf heifers and it is my understanding that Sullivans used calving ease Red Angus bulls on their first calf shorty heifers. I would think that if the Duram Red deal takes off, it would be a natural progression that a large percentage of virgin short horn heifers would be bred to R A  bulls for their calving ease as well as the calves being "Durams". One word of caution to those of you who may be looking at this as an option, don't get too carried away selecting for calving ease traits - a bull with a -4.0 BW EPD will likely sire some pretty small calves even when used on a larger BW type cow. On a slightly different note - the bull that led our breed for the last couple of years in calves registered by the sire will be put down this week because his feet are so bad that he cannot get around even in a dry lot. This was not caused by too much feed and he was never foundered, it is a strictly genetic problem that has been passed on to literaly thousands of his offspring and I'm afraid this will be a problem that will haunt many breeders for years and generations to come. I am absolutely jumping through hula hoops happy that we never used him or any of his sons in our herd. I think it's time that we need to spend more time looking at the cattle and less time looking at the registration papers and EPDs when it comes to making our breeding decisions. 

 

[red]

RW- (clapping)

Red

 

[DL]

One word of caution to those of you who may be looking at this as an option, don't get too carried away selecting for calving ease traits - a bull with a -4.0 BW EPD will likely sire some pretty small calves even when used on a larger BW type cow. On a slightly different note - the bull that led our breed for the last couple of years in calves registered by the sire will be put down this week because his feet are so bad that he cannot get around even in a dry lot. This was not caused by too much feed and he was never foundered, it is a strictly genetic problem that has been passed on to literaly thousands of his offspring and I'm afraid this will be a problem that will haunt many breeders for years and generations to come. I am absolutely jumping through hula hoops happy that we never used him or any of his sons in our herd. I think it's time that we need to spend more time looking at the cattle and less time looking at the registration papers and EPDs when it comes to making our breeding decisions. 

AMEN (to your last line) and thanks for the great info. There are very few RA in MI and the ones I have worked on I would not take home to Mother!  What kind of foot and leg issues are you referring to with Heavenly? He also had a son Leachmans Heavenly 3043 (number may be wrong) but semen is not available on him. What RA bulls do you suggest for calving ease for heifers? Tell me about your sr sire (you may have covered him before but I can't remember where) and do you sell semen thru SEK? I love my Maines but most are related sometimes closely to the Maine calving ease sires - I have used Money Man this year on cows and if that works well could try heifers,; won't use Ali, and some of the others promoted as calving ease are not convincing....so looking to other options - esp with the red heifers - have a great one,

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

DL - The foot and leg problems are typicaly structural however, the Heavenly lines seem to have a problem with the actual hoof quality, I would assume this would be simular to horses hooves but really don't know. As far as calving ease bulls that are readily available to the public (Bull Stud Bulls) this year I used a couple of Canadian bulls - Pasquale 213P and Master Plan 17M available through Brylor Semen Sales (www.brylor.com). To be honest I am just not that thrilled with most of the bulls in the US semen catalogs. I usually buy my semen directly from breeders that I know and most of the time I have seen the bull and at least some offspring. Our Sr. herd sire was National Intermediate Champion bull in 2003. He started out to be a wholesale heifer bull (67 - 78# BW) but has actually developed into our premier female producer. He is an outcross pedigree to all of the AI stud bulls which in our small gene pool is a bonus. I have never attempted to get a semen "deal" with any one and just sell semen privately, so far this breeding season we have sold 420 units from North Dakota to Texas and really need to get him back up to the collection facility as soon as he is done breeding cows. Hope this helps!

 

[OH Breeder]

Road Warrior,
What do you think of the Cherokee Canyon Chief lines. I think WHR had some Durhams that looked amazing that were out of Cherokee. I have been tempted to use him on an older lined shorthorn cow that is larger framed flatter made long necked good rib and depth of body. Sound nice udder. She is just large. What do you think? Would like to see more muscle shape in her calves.

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

He would definatly down size them. However there are some other issues with Cherokee canyon that I would be very leary of using him and especialy keeping daughters, both structural and maternal. I eluded to the structural problems with him in an earlier post on this thread. Depending on how much "down sizing" you are wanting to do I would probably look at maybe something in the Advancer blood lines or maybe Super Vision or Continuance from the Von forrell herd to gain muscle shape and mass. I purchased an Advancer grandson this spring with the same idea as you have posted, good muscle shape and mass with moderate frame to use on some of our bigger cows ( yes we have several cows that will top 1800#s), they are really nice made cows but need a little moderation.

 

[Jill]

We raise both high and low % (for all the reasons mentioned)  Maine and a very few Shorthorns and Angus, Red Angus is one of the other breeds we have looked at seriously.  The lack of show ring thing is probably the reason they have stayed a true good maternal breed, but for us it is the biggest problem.  There are liitle to no Jr. opportunities and that for us has been a big deterant, there was a fabulous heifer to lead off the sale in Denver, but you don't as a Jr. have many places to go with her. 

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

This has been a problem for several years in the Reds. There is now a movement to get more junior invovement started. We are slowly getting people on the National board that are behind the juniors. Alot of states have pro active junior assn. and there are attempts being made now to get a junior national show in the summer off the ground, this has in the past met alot of opposition from the National office and the powers that be. We do hold a National Junior show in conjunction with the National show as well, this year it will be in Ft Worth in January.