Missouri | 68milkman - 3/15/2016 05:50 Beanplanter, If a man used that bull on a set of red angus cows how much white or roan would you get? Also what about milking ability?
That's a tough one to predict because they're both basically recessive genes from their original breeds. All I can say is I do not get much color at all out of my Red Angus cows, but I have been running mostly red bulls with just a little white on their underlines. They will often come with a more shorthorn red tint over the traditional red angus red and when this normally happens there's generally some white in the switch of the tail. I got all my color from when I clashed a white shorthorn bull with our black commercial herd. Those two dominant color genes will fight with each other for several generations letting the roan come through where the red cattle just seem to turn red.
As far as milking ability, it depends on what lines you tie into. Keep in mind, back in the day Shorthorns were basically considered a dual purpose breed. They were big thick beef animals that milked, but eventually the breed split except for a few herds that stayed with the dual purpose type animals. The milking shorthorn association still exists today and the cows range from the dual purpose type all the way to the current traditional dairy type cattle. If you find a pedigree rich with dual type animals and the milk epd is pegged, you can normally count on it being real and it'll move a low milking herd to a milking herd in a hurry. On the other side, there are a portion of the breed who raise the more ranch oriented animals who don't want milk because they don't have the grass to sustain a strong milking herd. Unless I know I have a problem, I stick to just slightly above average as extremes have proven they don't work too well here.
If you're considering using one and the color is bothering you, many of the more ranch cattle oriented breeders have basically turned their herds completely red. They believed that was the best way to keep the cattle relevant and profitable when black took over the world. Sneed in Central Missouri has been mostly red for a long time and has been crossing with red angus and even that other mostly red breed that starts with a G for a few years. He retains ownership and can prove his cattle perform on feed. If you go west, Loving Farms out in Kansas has been raising mostly red cattle for a long time and they're about as honest as you'll find. They also offer some Angus and Red Angus crossed cattle. They just had a bull sale, so you can scroll through the bulls on their website to see their coloring and how they crossed. |
It must be spring! (pics)
