Is there some BWs in the Shorthorn breed that are too big? Definite YES.
Is this a general issue in the breed? From my experience of calving a few thousand cows over the years from 7 purebred breeds as well as a large commercial herd - NO.
As I stated in previous posts, I believe that the BW issue in most Shorthorn herds is no worse than in many other breeds. Yes there are many Angus that have smaller BWs, but there are also some Angus BWs that are getting out of control as well. This breed will be dealing with this issue before long as well. There are some bigger BWs in the Shorthorn breed, and we need to address them. We do not have to mess with the entire breed population if this is not a problem.
Compared to the Herefords, Simmental, Maine and Charolais we have raised, the Shorthorns were consistently the easiest calving breed. We don't have many Shorthorns with any Maine influence in their background, but the ones we do have consistently have slightly bigger BWs than the others. Actually the Hereford cows we ran, had the most calving problems. We did not have many major issues with our Charolais cows but we did have an occasional c-sector from them- and from the Herefords and Maines. The Chi cattle we raised were easier calvers as well. Our family has ran cows on this place since 1903, and my dad saw his first c section in 1972, from a Simmental heifer. He had also not seen a prolapsed uterus until the Herefords and Charolais arrived. I think our Charolais cows had a higher incidence of prolapse than the Herefords. We have never had a prolapse in a Shorthorn cow and the Shorthorns have been here for 107 years now. Just last spring, I heard of a Shorthorn having a prolapse, and that was the first I had heard of. I expect there are more but they are unusual in the breed. My vet would look like the Maytag repair man if all he dealt with are Shorthorn calvings. In our last 3 years of calving, we have had vet assists on 3 occasions from 430 calvings. I will stand that record beside most other breeds today.
My theory is that some of the calving issues today are related to the man made changes we have made to our females. This obsession with the so called big hip in our females, can result in the pin bones being too high which results in smaller birth canals. Why do you think Brahman cows could be bred to an elephant and still calve it? It is because they have not altered the shape of the hip in their breed. I do not care how much rib shape or capacity a heifer has if she has a small vulva or does not have some folds of lose skin in her udder. These females are simply calving problems waiting for a place to happen. IMO, even heifer calves that have not reached puberty need to have some evidence of fertility in them. If there is a serious problem developing, it is this issue of small vulva's in the females. I am seeing far too many of them. I am not trying to be smart here, but I do not think this is as big a problem in Canadian cattle as it is in the US... that is just how I am seeing it. Some of these females look very attractive, but would struggle to calve a Longhorn sired calf unassisted.
So aj.... my experience says that my answer to your question if Shorthorns have a BW problem is : In general NO, in specific circumstances... YES... just like in other breeds. I happen to think that the Shorthorn breed has made some progress in this area in recent years, and more will come in time. We have sold 153 bulls in the past 5 years, with most going to commercial producers. In that time, I have not had one complaint about calving issues and many have been repeat buyers. Two commerical bull buyers purchased their 14th bull this spring. They both run large herds with bulls from two other breeds, and they are liking the Shorthorn cross calves they are getting. Not one comment about calves being too big at birth. One other bull buyer purchased a bull with a 105 lb BW in 2009, and used him along with a Polled Hereford bull on his heifers. I held my breath when he told me he had used this bull on his heifers, as I expected to hear some stories of calving problems. When I asked him how the calves came, he said he had no problems with the Shorthorn, but the Polled Hereford calves were way too big and created some problems.
I said in a previous post that we did not assist a single bull calf in this year's calf crop. There were 4 assists from 148 calves born, and all were heifers. 2 backwards, one was a convenience pull and one hard pull. I never got that kind of success from any of the other breeds we have had. I am not against the breed getting a better handle on BWs but I do think we need to identify what we are trying to do, and what the consequences will be. I think it would be wrong to end up with a breed with lower BWs and find out that we have lost some of the great attributes that have been bred into our cattle in the past few decades.
The bull that topped our 2010 bull sale, was a Saskvalley Pioneer 126P and was out of a Major Leroy first calf heifer. He weighed 78 lbs at birth, and he was the Reserve Grand Champion bull at the Iowa State Fair last Saturday. He weighed 1585 lbs and had been breeding cows prior to the show. I am glad that his owner did not believe, as aj has said, that you can only be competitive with high BW cattle. If this man believed that, he would never have taken him to the State Fair. This bull is an example of what I would like to produce in mass amounts. ( only hopefully with ears... it was -46 the night he was born and when I found him, his ears were froze solid, but he was sucking his mom with his tail slapping his sides.
Now... where is my drink?
