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Why Herefords Lost Market Share!!!

An F1 out of a HE cow always seems superior to one out of an AN. Must be that mitochondrial DNA. It is getting hard to find good commercial herds of straight HE cattle.
That said, nothing cures a breed like unpopularity and nothing hurts one more than being popular. There are good cattle in all breeds, and there are usually a core group of breeders with their heads screwed on straight. It just seems as a breeds popularity rises, the other type of breeder flocks in.
 
Not too many Hereford folks around here. There is however, a large Hereford breeder that lives on the same road as I do. It does nothing for me wanting to be using Herefords driving past his place. He bought a good set a Black Angus cattle a few years back. Now they are the kind that would make you want to switch to black. I hope that when I am ready for some Hereford in my herd someone is still raising them.
 
FWIW, as a sire breed average, the other forest permittee's hereford sired calves outweighed her angus calves by 74 pounds. The angus were mostly on her younger cows (4 years and under). I don't believe she usually has this large of a weight difference between her younger and older cows. She's going to be buying more hereford bulls this fall :wink: :D .
 
If it's the Hereford breeder I'm thinking of he'll have the black cattle screwed up PDQ lol. As for the F1 difference I haven't seen that much of a difference-we breed black cows Hereford and hereford cows black-I'd challenge anybody to sort through the cows or calves and tell me which is which-I sure can't.
 
RSL said:
An F1 out of a HE cow always seems superior to one out of an AN. Must be that mitochondrial DNA. It is getting hard to find good commercial herds of straight HE cattle.
That said, nothing cures a breed like unpopularity and nothing hurts one more than being popular. There are good cattle in all breeds, and there are usually a core group of breeders with their heads screwed on straight. It just seems as a breeds popularity rises, the other type of breeder flocks in.
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Couldn't agree more. Cows are selling so cheap right now, I'd love to sit in the auctions and buy every cow of a true grass type - lower statured, thick and fleshy - regardless of their color. If you forget the color and breed, you'd have a helluva set of cows in a few generations of culling out the chaff. One old fella west of us has been doing that for 30 years, never keeps replacements, just buys cheap, good cows. I never see him complaining about money either. :wink:
 
At our local sale barn it seems you can get 4 herfords for the price of one angus. The Baldy calves seem to sell very well so I feel if you want to get a cheap start you could get some herfords and a black bull and hopefully make money.

I have never owned a herford but the price differance is sure making me think about getting some and trying to find someone from a different area where they sell well and move them along.
 

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