About 75 - 80 percent of the herds in the US fall into the 50 head or fewer category. This group of producers contribute much to the local economies. Property taxes, equipment, feed, repairs, groceries, etc and many of them have off farm jobs and incomes.
Some of these producers have registered animals and some raise a few bulls to sell. Many of these small herds have some very good animals that can perform quite well, but the bull studs especially will not give these breeders the time of day. If you look at sire directories they cater to just a certain few.
Small family farms are a very important segment of agriculture. No group is hurting more in this group than the family dairy farm. This year alone has seen hundreds of contracts with these family farms canceled in favor of larger operations. Many of these farms have been in production for 6 or more generations. Was visiting with a small producer the other day that they have been milking cows continuously for 182 years, but they don't know how much longer they can hold on.
When I first started breeding cows in 1974 it was nothing unusual to drive 300 - 500 miles a day and be within 30 miles. Many of my customers were small dairies. Today we only have one dairy left in the county. This is happening all over the U.S.
This same scenario is beginning to happen in the beef industry as well.
There was a time when the Hereford and Shorthorn were king. But the Angus breed did an excellent job of marketing. As the old saying goes "If you can't beat'em, join'em", so all the other breeds incorporated Angus into their breeds. We have had calls the last few weeks from breeders getting fed up with their breed associations because the associations want to cater to the black breed composites.
Do we need a Black Shorthorn? The Breed needs to stay true to its roots and do more promotion of the breed. If you are going to have a Durham Rex/Shorthorn Plus, they should be 5/8 Shorthorn and 3/8 Red Angus.
Don't mess up a good breed trying to turn them black.
