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Columbia City, Indiana | The thread below on sale barn discounts got me thinking.
Hereford cattle are a tradition on this farm, when I started back in the cattle business 15 years ago I bought 8 Hereford heifers (which made Grandpa happy, he still owned and lived at the farm then) and used a friends Angus bull to make black baldies. Keeping my own heifers over the years, I’m to the point that I have nearly all (but 2) black baldy or black cows.
Even though Grandpa is gone now and I own the farm, I decided to honor his memory and buy a Hereford bull last year in the IBEP sale. This has been discussed previously on here.
I realize that a yearling bull was probably maxed out by me asking him to cover 24 cows, but that wasn’t my original plan. I was going to turn my Angus out for a month, sell him, and move forward with the Hereford. But a guy made me a fair offer on the angus before turnout, so I figured why feed two bulls for that few cows and took the offer. Fast forward a year and I’ve got 6 cows calved, a year ago now I had 18. Same turnout date. The calves on the ground are fine, all born unassisted. So far 3 rwf and 3 bwf, other than a lot more chrome than expected, especially on the rwf, calves are fine, other than not coming quick enough. These calves will go for freezer beef, so hoping to avoid the discussed sale barn discount for red/chrome.
This is actually my second Hereford bull, I used one on my heifers a few years ago but sold him because he was too thin and his calves were built like Holsteins. This bull also seems not to carry any extra condition. But he’s ok I guess. We will see how the rest of his calves are.
This leads me to my statement/ question: I’m starting to believe that the angus breed is so far ahead of the other breeds genetically and performance wise that it’s almost not fair to compare breeds. Is that a ridiculous statement? I realize there are many other breeds out there, and I’m not looking to upset anyone. I’m just looking to start a productive dialogue and hear some other ideas.
I do have one Charlais cow, she hasn’t calved yet but her first two “smoke” heifer calves were average calves, nothing to get excited about.
I don’t need flamed for my choice to honor my late Grandpa, I realize I was taking a chance, nobody held a gun to my head.
What are your thoughts? | |
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- Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - NEIndiana : 4/24/2019 10:17
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - oldskool : 4/24/2019 10:53
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - Simmfarmer78 : 4/24/2019 10:56
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - Border : 4/24/2019 11:11
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - tc806 : 4/24/2019 11:33
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - Galaxie64 : 4/24/2019 11:35
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - Womp : 4/24/2019 12:55
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - Jim : 4/24/2019 16:07
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - bacon : 4/24/2019 18:39
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - Kochia : 4/24/2019 18:58
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - JPT : 4/24/2019 20:28
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - eight : 4/24/2019 22:45
- RE: Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds - Austin : 4/25/2019 16:05
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Angus vs Hereford, and other breeds
