I dont think people are understanding what chambero is trying to say here. He is not talking about Herefords in the show ring. He is talking about Herefords in the commercial segment. It hasnt been that many years since Hereford and heavily Hereford influenced cattle dominated the commercial cattle industry. But in recent years, especially since the AAA released its CAB program and black hided cattle took dominance, the amount of Hereford influence in the commercial industry has dwindled. Hereford marked cattle which once brought a premium at the markets and feedlots, now get docked just as hard as any other non black hided cattle.
I think people have begun to misunderstand what a "Seedstock" operation truly is. I have actually asked that question to many people, and the answer I get most often is that any purebred operation is a seedstock operation, but that isnt true. A seedstock operation is an operation thats focus is to produce replacements, not to produce terminal animals. Back in the day most of your big commercial operations that sold most of the feeder calves didnt keep their own replacements, because they wanted their cow battery to be heavily maternal and their bull battery to be heavily terminal. That way they had cows that would definately raise a calf raising calves that would fair well in the feedlot. If their cow battery had to much terminal blood in it then the cows wouldnt raise calves efficiently, vice versa if their bull battery had to much maternal genetics, then they didnt sire calves that performed as well in the feedlots.
Yes its true that a lot of seedstock producers were purebred operations, and in that era almost all purebred producers were seedstock producers. So all your show cattle typically came from seedstock producers. But over the years the show world has become very specialized. As you all know I dont personally believe that the show world and the commercial world are as far removed from each other as many would argue, but I will definately agree that in this day and age most of the big show calf producing herds are focused solely on the show ring. Not that those cattle necessarily cant perform in commercial settings, but commercial industry is not considered by those outfits when they are producing those calves.
But what chambero is trying to say is that in the true seedstock industry, herds that are producing replacements for the commercial setting, the herefords have definately lost the dominance they once had, in fact they have been dwarfed by other breeds, and all purebreds have been outdone by composites. I agree with chambero and others, I dont think registration numbers and sizes of shows are necessarily good indicators of how well a breed is doing anymore, since the dominance of composites and crossbreds emerged in the commercial world, I find that the largest portion of cattle being registered by any breed are largely cattle that at least at some point were intended for show. I am not saying that is all cattle registered, just saying I feel that is the heaviest influence. Yes there will always be a lot of Herefords in the show ring. The biggest reason I find for this is their disposition. Herefords are the number one recomended breed for young showmen or new showmen because they have such a great disposition typically, then the people fall in love with them and their sweet personalities and continue to raise and show them. So yes they will always have big numbers in the show ring, and yes there are some exceptional Herf femailes out there, I have used several Herfs to win supreme at Heifer shows.
But in the grand scheme of things, outside the showring, Herfs have seen a huge decline. Yes Star Lake has been a dominating force in the Herf show ring, especially the carload, etc shows, but to my understanding for most of their history Star lake was largely a seedstock producer as well. With the decline of demand of Herf seedstock, I dont see how they could continue to support a herd that size based on show alone. Much the same Michigan States herd has to be a research focused herd, there arent many, actually any that I know of, university herds using show cattle as their research herd. They are researching for the commercial industry, so their herd needs to be more in line with what you sommonly see in the commercial industry.
