Selling direct and sale barn from one herd

[tonyb]

I really cannot decide what kind of cattle to get next. Looking for suggestions.


Our goals are to:
1) Provide beef for ourselves
2) Sell freezer beef direct to customers
3) Have marketable animals for the sale barn, in case we need to go that route
4) Finish on pasture (simply because I don't want to pay for corn)
5) Easy calving
6) Strong maternal traits
7) High fertility/conception rate


For goal #1, we would like smaller animals. But that seems to conflict with goal #3. I also like red animals (just like their looks), but that also seems to conflict with goal #3.

[springvalley]

How about red angus, (Their red) (And Angus) nice cattle to be around, and should have a great market for you. Could work very well for you I would say.> Thanks Marc

[pancho]

Usually if you want smaller animals you can forget about the whole list except #1.

[ramiller5675]

Any type of cattle should satisfy #1 and #2.

If you want to sell at the salebarn, you need to go to the salebarn and actually see for yourself what is selling and for what price, it's possible that the red-hided cattle aren't selling for as much of a discount as you think, or the difference in price might be tolerable.

Finishing on pasture has more to do with the quality of your pasture than the breed of cattle.

The size of the cow can have as much impact on calving, maternal, and fertility traits as the breed. In other words, a tall lanky black angus cow isn't better than a moderate-sized cross-bred cow just because black angus cattle as a group have better traits.

If you want red-hided cattle, you could always get some red angus cows and breed them to a black angus bull to get black-hided calves to sell at the salebarn.

[Menglish]

Red Polls?

[MO_cows]

Get some Hereford girls and an Angus bull and make some good baldies. They will have hybrid vigor, they should sell as good as anything that comes thru the sale barn, or make good beef for your direct sales, and your base herd is still red. Just be choosy on your base herd because "bad udders and feet" isn't all a stereotype, they are still out there.