The New Breed

At the beginning of February we sold all of our bred heifers and unfortunately the amount we got for our heifers was pretty disappointing.  So when a farmer or rancher stops making money it's time for a change.  So we've switched up the operation and bought some older bred cows.  We are now running a calf-cow operation.  Which is when we calve out our cows and raise the calves to weaning.  Weaning is the time when the calf is pulled away from the mother cow. 

When we were breeding heifers we would only purchase Black Angus.  This year we have Black Angus, Red Angus as well as some Black White Face cows.  The Black White Face are a crossbred of Black Angus, and Hereford cattle.  When raising cattle for beef production there is an advantage to having crossbred cattle.  The cattle that are crossbred have a greater genetic diversity, and they typically outperform cattle that are purebred in things like calving birth weight, weening weight, etc...  The technical name for this is performance improvement is heterosis and it is also known as hybrid vigor.  We have about 30 red cows and about 20 white faced cows the rest of our herd is Black Angus.

So far we have about 25 calves and we have only have 1 black white face and 4 red calves.  The rest of the calves are all black because it is the genetically dominate trait.  In order for the calve to have red coloring both the sir (father) and dam (mother) both either have to be red or have the recessive gene for the color red.  This is true for humans as well; the red hair gene is recessive and it only appears when the parents are both carriers of the gene. 

Everyday we go out and check our herd for new born calves.  When we find them we tag their ear and if they are a bull we castrate them.  We do this in the open pasture and sometimes it can be interesting getting the calf away from the cow.  The more protective cows will come after you and you have to keep an eye on them through the whole process.  The guy that works with the cattle the most on our farm has told me that there have been times when he had to roll under his pickup to get away from an angry mother cow. 

I think I've learned more about cattle in the last month than I have in the last year on the farm.  Taking care of the new born calves requires a lot more time than the heifers, but it's worth it to see all the cute baby calves running around. 

-Ear Tagger Extraordinaire Ryan

• My Grain Headaches Suggested Reading: Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle - If you are considering raising cattle or would just like to know more about cattle breeds, genetics, handling techniques, and calving I would recommend reading this book.