simtal said:
I think if you sold a group of calves that were shorthorn x angus and were black they'd bring good money, if they were advertised as angus sired. But if you advertised that those calves were part shorthorn, I doubt you'd have many bids.
That's the trouble with trends. I had an awful time dealing with the local Auction Market, and, all the owner would say was, "Dammit, cuz THat's what people believe!"
Seriously. A guy I went to High School with (who wasn't in FFA or 4H, he was a jock whose grandfather was a Cattleman), flunked outta the local Ju-Co (NACTC, Harrison, AR), went to ALaska as a Pipeline Welder, then inherited a typical NW AR 80 acres with 3 Contract Poultry Houses. You guys from Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, the Ozarks and Eastern Oklahoma and NE Texas, I'm sure, all know his kind. You know--the guy from the East that thinks that He's a "cowboy" & Team Ropes. Owns a Roping Arena, too. Anyway, he always buys only BLACK Corrientes to rope, because he can dehorn 'em and get good enough money out of 'em, when they get too ''stale'' to rope.
I can remember Hereford calves getting docked because they were red-necked. On the flip-side, if the all-perfect ''feather'' on the neck extened past the withers, then that calf was called a ''lineback" and recieved a larger discount. This was, mind you, Ladies and Gents, when folks in Y'alls' part of the USA were already breeding Yellow-baldy and smoky cows to Continental Sires. Change takes time everywhere, but, the wheel turns even slower here, if it ever turns at all. We're just now, finally within the past 5 years, going 'black'', with buyers finally asking whether or not, a group of calves are heavier on the Angus influence, or are they just Black-Continentals.
GB
