Switching to beef cattle

[MLOaks]

We have been raising cattle for 15 years. We focus on breeding good family milk cows, train them up, and sell them to individuals as family cows, or small dairies. It’s been going well. In fact, we had a waitlist for our heifers five years ago. Now, I think people realized how hard milking is and the market has dropped over the past two years. Our last heifer sold for half what they did two years ago. We also raise steers for meat, but now we’re thinking about switching to a beef breed altogether. My background in college is with commercial cattle, mostly. We moved closer to town and have less pasture, so we’re going with a medium sized breed, rather than the great big ones (plus, easier to fit in the freezer). We’re looking at Belted Galloways. You know, Oreo cows.

Found a great breeder and made it clear we weren’t interested in show cattle. We just want some correctly built animals with good udders and devent weight gain. We’ll start with two heifers and halter train them. I like teaching cows to lead. It makes it so much easier if they have any issues. One of our girls got into the grain and just made up a baking soda slurry in a syringe, caught her up, and squirted it down her throat.

[wsmoak]

I’m not sure what they’re doing with them but a nearby farm has Highland cattle. So much hair! (They’re from Scotland… really not sure how comfortable they are here in the hot, humid Southeast US.)

[MLOaks]

Wsmoak, I loved Highland cattle ever since I first studied Animal Science in college. If I would have stayed out West, I’d have a herd of those pretty little beef cattle. Alas, you are absolutely right; they don’t fair well down here. i know a few breeders in our region, but they’re all north of us.

The Belted Galloway is also rather fuzzy, but not nearly as much hair. There was a herd even further south than us and they did well for decades. We have good shade trees and I can squirt them with a hose on the hot days. One of our cows used to beg for that on hot days whenever I filled the trough, lol! We never had trouble with our other cows losing weight in the summer, so I think they’ll be fine.

[Willesdon]

What of some of the rare American breeds, smaller, hardy, often good converters on poor graze?

[MLOaks]

We looked at Cracker Cattle and some other regional breeds, such as Pineywoods, but their beef isn’t as flavorful as rare breeds from other countries. Belties won taste tests and do well as grass-fed, which is how we’re set up. I also looked at Randall Lineback cattle, but they are from the Northeast and really hard to find down here.

I love talking about rare breeds of cattle. Belties are in the ALBC. They’re considered a heritage breed, too.

[MLOaks]

Here’s a cool link:

There are breeds of horses, too, if you scroll down.

https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/conservation-priority-list#Cattle

[fordtraktor]

My family has been pasture raising Angus for decades. We have targeted use of some other breeds occasionally for faster growth, so have a nice variety of colors. My fave is our 7/8 Angus Charlais crosses. White with black skin, super smart, and just a really nice cross. My biggest champion was this cross.

I honestly think the best way to do well right now is selling direct to consumer. Beef prices are poor in recent years at the big markets. If you are low on space, I would rather raise fewer cattle that finish out well than smaller animals.

[goodhors]

A friend of mine has a Milking Devon cow, which she milks part time. Sometimes she will put a second, purchased calf on the cow if she won’t be able to use up all the milk. This keeps the cow milked out, much less chance of udder problems with excess milk. She kept the heifer calves by a beef bull, in her herd. The steer calves grew quite well. The Devon cow and her partbred daughters do produce nice meat calves, raise them well. All are sired by a beef bull, but I forgot which breeds. Friend loves the Devon cows, thinks they are easy to handle. Not sure if cow is dehorned or not. Friend lives in Missouri, which is hot but may have better grazing than ranch lands in the south.

If you decide to sell directly to customers, you might consider Dexter cattle which are the small ones. They do have polled lines now, saves dehorning. I won’t have horned cattle, so I was checking the polled Dexters. It is a smaller carcass, but families are smaller, might prefer a lesser meat quantity than larger cattle produce. Dexters do well on pasture, could be grass-fed if your market wants that. Mine gained very well on hay and grass, more than doubling her weight from 300#s to almost 750# in about 7 months. She got a little grain for treats, plain corn and oats. Smaller cattle are easier on the land as well. They are smart cows, can be quite entertaining to interact with. Udders tend to be high and tight, even on aged cows I have seen. I understand the Dexters do not sell well at auctions. Too different for “traditional” commercial buyers.

As a cattle raiser for my own freezer, I always feed the animal a mixed grain feed for the last six weeks before processing. Our cattle are on pasture, getting lots of exercise to spread the fat through the meat nicely. This grain adds some fat to the meat for tenderness in eating. Our family wants meat with some fat, to prevent meat from being tough. I have tried a number of different “grass-fed” beef products and do not really care for them. Despite various prep methods, by good cooks, the meats tend to be chewy, dry without fat in it. The family does not care for grass-fed meat either. So I will be sticking with meat having some fat and marbling for better taste and tenderness.

The Belted Galloway are cute, perhaps you could sell the hides seperate from the meat for extra income. There are plain colored Galloway too, might be less invested getting plain colors. Can’t eat the stripes!

[Willesdon]

Well then, Suffolk Red Poll, excellent meat but can be milked. Quite small in stature and good natured. Naturally polled. I believe there are some to he found in the USA. Sussex, improved breeding in last 20 years so no longer just “small and fat”, hardy, docile, do well on rough graze, good meat, and a beautiful red coat. British White, with black or more rarely red points. Very ancient breed, mainly beef, placid, naturally polled. Being white, cope well with heat. Active stud book in USA

[ReSomething]

They were called CHP cows where I used to live. After the black and white highway patrol cars. There was a large herd off the highway by the road course at the Raceway near my mom.

I see angus, charolais and limousin here, but mostly angus.

[MLOaks]

Resomething- Charolais/Angus/Limo crosses are what I started with. Good animals, but we’d have to have less of them here due to their size. I am also wary of Chars because of some increased dystocia in the breed. I’d rather go slightly smaller, but beef specialty and heritage type.

Goodhors- I love Dexters. Great dual purpose cattle, but we want to shift to a beef breed. Plus, they perform dismally at auction in a pinch season. Milking Devons are neat animals, but we want to get away from dairy. I’m sorry you’'e had a bad experience with grass-fed beef. Everyone is different. The heritage breeds do better on grass. I was underwhelmed by grass-fed commercial cattle, but ours was quite tasty. Those gorgeous steaks in the store disappoint us with their bland flavor. It’s all a matter of preference, I suppose.

Willesdon- I’ve heard of Red Poll. Is that the same as Suffolk Red Poll?

Oreo cows are definitely distinct and have that eye appeal small buyers like. Plus, they can also fair well at auction, if need be. You don’t eat the hide, but if you’re investing in a purebred to raise seedstock, it doesn’t hurt to have nice looking animals. The Beltie/Angus makes for an outstanding F1, but, again, you’d need more room than we have to maintain multiple bulls.

[goodhors]

Be careful with the Charolais, they can be bad tempered to handle. Another friend had a heifer who got dangerous in the field. She got the cow into the trailer for processing by standing inside and just yelling at it! When the cow charged her in the trailer (leaving cow friends behind) they slammed the gate behind the cow, while friend slipped out the side door!!

Other cattle friends tried them, got rid of them for being rough to work with. Not much walking thru the group, you ride the tractor to be safer. The breed plus parts of size, fast maturity, were not worth the problems of dealing with them. Even the Charolais crosses can be “difficult” to handle.

I would not take one as a gift, hearing these experiences! I listen when my friends tell me things like that.

[MLOaks]

My first cow was mostly Charolais, with Angus in there, too. Daisy was a sweetheart. Each breed has it’s own personality, but the breeder can select for temperament, if they choose. We were very successful in selecting for easy going cows that allowed you to approach them when they had newborn calves on the ground. Beef is too tasty to keep mean ones around.

I’m waiting on pictures of a couple of Beltie heifers from a very well-respected breeder. His animals have a good reputation for tractability. We might pick them up before the end of the month.

[jawa]

There is a gentleman a few miles away that is raising a type of Angus that is bred to be smaller in overall size. I don"t know the actual name of them. They seem to mature quickly. He has limited pasture and uses strip grazing to maximize it’s productivity. He has grown his herd over the last 4 years and has rented some pasture from the neighbor and cuts hay from several other neighbors that have fields that have been kept mown but haven’t had any livestock on them in many years.

My neighbor from years ago breed Tarentaise. They were beautiful and seemed very playful, even as adults. He liked them because they were very mild mannered. https://www.thecattlesite.com/breeds/beef/47/tarentaise/

[candyappy]

It is hard for people to find disease free , well trained family milk cows so I am shocked you are not getting the prices your asking?

We are making a change too and going from row crop to beef cattle as well. It will be a long slow process as we need to get all our hayfields fenced first and then get the bottom ground planted in hay.

We are leaning towards polled Herefords.

@MLOaks Good luck on your new venture.

[OfCourseItsAnAlter]

@jawa

There is a gentleman a few miles away that is raising a type of Angus that is bred to be smaller in overall size. I don"t know the actual name of them.

They may be Lowlines. The history is really interesting (well, if you’re a cattle person, anyway ). Some researchers in Australia used selective breeding to create two distinct lines of Angus plus a control - Highlines (bigger), Control (average size), and Lowlines (smaller). The goal was to look at the impact of size on a variety of parameters, include feed efficiency (i.e. which ones were better at converting grass to meat).

The Lowlines are now a distinct breed. They are supposed to be highly efficient with low-waste carcasses and good dispositions.

[enjoytheride]

I used to buy beef from a farmer who raised Holsteins for meat. I don’t know why he picked them, as they are usually used for milking, but they were delicious.

[ThreeFigs]

Charolais are big-time jumpers, besides being ill-tempered. We used to have an Angus bull who was a complete sh*t. He didn’t last long…

[ThreeFigs]

@enjoytheride

I used to buy beef from a farmer who raised Holsteins for meat. I don’t know why he picked them, as they are usually used for milking, but they were delicious.

One of the tastiest steaks I ever ate was Holstein! Memorable – and how often can you say that about a particular steak?

[Chips_mom]

My friend raises beefalo and can’t keep up with the orders for beef. She brought in a British White bull a few years ago and It was a very good natured bull. It’s also very pretty breed. She also ships any aggressive or I’ll tempered cows to the slaughter house because she doesn’t want to pass on those traits. She halter trains all her calves for showing and easier handling.