Angus cattle

[Plowboy]

We have been wanting to get a couple of Angus heifers to keep as brood cows and now we are ready. Of course beef cattle are at an all time high but even so the prices are all over. Good weanling grades are bringing $1 per pound and just got a price on a really nice registered heifer for $1500. Almost tempted to get the high dollar one hoping her calves would be worth more but wondering if that market will dwindle down the road and we’ll be eating registered steaks from her calves. After some carefull consideration I’m thinking of trying to find two really nice grades that I can buy a pair for less than $1500. That was our initial plan to raise freezer beef for ourselves and a few interested friends and family. Maybe the registered business can come later if it’s still lucrative? Any thoughts?

[Vicki]

Just my opinion as a small-scale beef cattle raiser: go with grade or cross-breds if you want to raise meat for yourself and a few customers. Crosses will have hybrid vigor. They tend to be smarter, hardier, better dispositioned, thriftyness, and usually look pretty too. I have friends who went registered angus; they are difficult to get bred and their temperament is awful.

I love a hereford crossed with a heritage breed like the Milking Devon or with a charolais or simmental type mutt. Even a beef x dairy like the old style baldies holstein x hereford) are nice in my experience.

If you’re not trying to make money selling fancy club or show calves, why go registered?

I do admit I am NOT partial at all to modern pure angus cattle.

[dominiquer60]

Dennis,
I agree with Vicki. A Hereford cross is a good bet, we run up to 50 head of Hereford and modern Baldie (HerefordxAngus, with some BaldiexBaldie too). They are easy to deal with and “thrive on negelect,” not to say that they are neglected, but that they don’t always have the best pasture or get moved a couple days late and yet a single strand of hot wire keeps them in check. If there is going to be a trouble maker 9 times out of 10 it is a Baldie heifer, you can tame the Angus with red genetics, but you can’t cover it up completely.

There are a couple “grassfed” guys around here that are really getting into crossing their Angus type cows to Beef Devons and Beef Shorthorns, they seem to be nice herds as well.

Best of Luck with your beef project,

Erika

[Plowboy]

I really do like the Angus breed and have experience with them in years past. We raised a lot of Angus/Holsteins out of our first calf heifers growing up as well as running pure angus bulls with the heifers. I’m sure in the time lapse the genetics have been manipulated to maximize carcass on what has become the premier beef breed resulting in some undesirable traits. Temperment was never a factor for us. I have seen some really crazy bug eyed herefords over the years as well as the Devons I have been around are ornery to say the least. I think I may have found an Angus heifer out of a small commercial grass fed herd. I also looked at an Angus/Dairy? cross first calf heifer with a nice lineback heifer at her side bred back to a holstein bull. The cow looks a litttle rougher than what I wanted but has raised a really nice calf on just pasture and creek water so maybe thats woirth something. Whatever we end up with will be handled almost daily and trained to lead. WE figure if we finish beef at two yrs with only three brood cows we would end up with 9 head and as many as 12 before finishing off the oldest group. If we get more demand I would buy feeders and finish them as I think it probably costs more to keep the cow than the calf is worth most years. Keeping the cows will just be a hobby and It’s fun watching the calves grow up. AS far as function most beef breeds would work but we have a vision of looking out over the back forty from our window and seeing fine black cattle grazing and our black and grey horses on the other side. I could easily get some nice herefords if I was to change my mind. My Uncle and Grandfather still each run a small herd but I’m so far partial to Angus.
Vicki I’m curious how your experience was with charolais. My grandfather experimented with them in the 80’s and you couldn’t chew the meat. One of his Herefords in the same group you could cut with a fork. Just curious?

[jen judkins]

Dennis, I adore our two angus calves (I guess technically now steer). They are just delightful and I think very easy to handle and work around. My experience is limited to the wild highland I tried to raise last year, lol. These two came to me as orphans and alittle bottle feeding went a long way to curbing their ornery traits. They still don’t lead too well (like to plop their hefty butts right on the ground)…mostly due to my time constraints, but they follow me and can be tied up easily enough. I say go for the blackies! J

[Anonymous]

I visit a village every few months where the local farmer has a herd of Holstein cows and a Charolais bull. I’ve only seen the cross-bred calves up to the age of around 2 but will have a look around next time I’m in the area as I’m curious as to how big they’ll grow. They’re a mixed bunch but dark cream and white or dun and white.

[Vicki]

Hi Plowboy. We had a real nice 3/4 charolais bull. At just over 2 yrs., on early summer grass, we butchered him. He was less marbled and tougher than what our customers liked for steaks, but the ground beef and the chuck and round roasts were the best tasting stuff we’ve ever had! We probably should have kept him more confined and corned him a bit to get better steaks, but the huge amount of ground was SO GOOD! Sold out too quick!

He helped put bigger butts on our calves. We sold those calves live, though, and haven’t eaten them.

You know what you’re doing, so the angus won’t be a problem, especially since you plan to be in contact with them. But angus are known around here as escape artists. (I could suggest Dexters (ha ha) if you like black; the meat is fantastic! But I know so many herds of those are horrible, if allowed to be “wild.” ) Mine are tame and pet-like.

Best of luck to you and enjoy them.

[Steven Q]

Has anyone looked at Lowline Angus? Looks like a good idea on smaller acreage.
http://www.canadianlowline.com/beef.html

[Author]

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