Shorthorn questions...

[taylor tay]

They are easy to catch cause they are always standing at the gate waiting to be fed.  LOL ;D

My market steer actually does that!

 

[Jacob B]

I still think the coolest thing about the shorthorn breed is DIVERCITY.  No matter what kind of cattle you want to raise, there is a shorthorn that can fit the bill.  They have been so popular in the showring, and yet if you look beyond that they can be so good in the real world of production cattle.  There are a lot of breeders out there that will tell you that there cattle will do whatever you want.  The difficult thing is finding one that will sell you or find you what you actually want even if they don't have it instead of trying to lead you in the direction of there cattle.  I enjoy the showring thing, I personally think there are shorthorns for the jackposts, majors, and the commercial sector no matter what your market is in that area of breeding cattle.  I love to see cattle on such a wide range all in one breed that I can appriciate for so many different reasons.  Great breed of cattle and even better people for the most part.

 

[justintime]

I still think the coolest thing about the shorthorn breed is DIVERCITY.  No matter what kind of cattle you want to raise, there is a shorthorn that can fit the bill.  They have been so popular in the showring, and yet if you look beyond that they can be so good in the real world of production cattle.  There are a lot of breeders out there that will tell you that there cattle will do whatever you want.  The difficult thing is finding one that will sell you or find you what you actually want even if they don't have it instead of trying to lead you in the direction of there cattle.  I enjoy the showring thing, I personally think there are shorthorns for the jackposts, majors, and the commercial sector no matter what your market is in that area of breeding cattle.  I love to see cattle on such a wide range all in one breed that I can appriciate for so many different reasons.  Great breed of cattle and even better people for the most part.

Diversity is a great attribute but I think it has also been a bit of an antagonistic problem for the Shorthorn breed. If you look at other solid colored breeds, like say Hereford and Angus, it seems that the majority of their breeders are trying to head in the same direction ( at least the same general direction anyways). The Shorthorn breed is blessed with a fairly wide genetic pool, when compared so some other breeds, and while this is a good thing, it also creates smaller groups of breeders who want to go in different directions. I have often said that trying to get a group of Shorthorn breeders to head in the same direction is very similar to trying to herd cats. They want to go in different directions and at different speeds. This would be all fine, if each group would allow the other groups to " do their own thing and live or die by their decisions". As has been seen here on SP, there is a wide variation of views from the Shorthorn people on this forum, on what is the right way the breed should be going. As far as I am concerned there is room for anyone to raise whatever they want to raise.In my world, I will do what I want and everyone else can do the same. I will select the breeding stock I want to use, and others can do the same thing. If we all survive raising the cattle we want to raise, then I would say we are all doing the right thing.

 

[JTM]

I like Justintime's opinion. I think you should do whatever you want to do and whatever makes you successful in your neck of woods. I have not had a lot of experience with cattle (10yrs) and what I have had involves Shorthorns, Maine Anjou, and some Angus and black crossbreds. It has been very obvious over the last 10 years that there are several different sects of Shorthorn breeders out their. I have used Shorthorn genetics that would be considered club calf, "major show" breeding type, and commercial breeding. I am commercially minded and I want my cows to earn their keep but we operate our shorthorns with the end in mind being seedstock and show stock. I am trying to keep a pretty strict program when it comes to culling cows. With this in mind, the cow doesn't have to wean half it's body weight  necessarily but it has to raise a calf that I can easily market to the various markets that are available. If you are totally honest and upfront with all of your customers, they will know it and trust that they are buying what they are looking for.
Another thing that I just have to mention is the fact that I have got burn't trying to use so called "calving ease" commercial type breeding and I have had some club calf genetics out perform all of my cattle. My example is breeding a Studer's Prince James daughter to Shadybrook Scotty, it was a hard pull and a heifer. The Scotty heifer was then too small pinned and we had to crank out her first calf(dead) and she didn't get up for three days. She went to town a month later. In contrast, we have had nothing but success using ALM Chiller on heifers. I have an ALM Chiller cow that has excellent teat structure, is about 1200 lbs, has her calves on her own, and consistently weans 500 lb calves. Go figure. It's these kind of experiences that have me strongly looking for consistency in my herd moving forward. Proud Jazz has taken over as our calving ease sire but the results are about the same as ALM Chiller with front ends that aren't near as nice.

 

[Jacob B]

well said justintime.  That's why I think it's important to know what you want to do with them before going out and spending your money to do it.  i understand differnces can be harmful to the outsiders that know nothing about a breed, those trying to sway people in other directions.  That's what I like about the breed, so many directions to go if you choose.  I do agree, and I think that too many breeders are telling people that there way is the only way.  I think it takes a well rounded cattleman, maybe I should say cattleperson, that understands the different areas that the breed has and can find the positives in those areas no matter what they are breeding for.  That may be why people like sue and lakeside are gaining so much popularity as of late.  She understands and has a wide knowledge base about many of the different areas of the breed.  Breeders that have been around it for a long time and that have seen all the fads can help you understand the good and bad of them all.  I have never tried to heard cats, and don't believe I ever will.  So I will leave that to people with more time on there hands than I do.  But for now I like what the breed has to offer.  Like JIT said, you breed what you want to and you can be succesfull.