British Breeds(of cattle) more suitable for commercial herds after B####t

[Wolds Beef]

Do people think that British native breeds are much better for a low cost breeding system after our date with destiny in March. They are acclimatised to the weather, used to living on grass and forage and therefore cheaper to keep! And like the breed I am involved in(the Lincoln Red) will live and be managed cheaply. Often hardy enough to be wintered outside they are also relatively docile and therefore can be handled easily for management tasks. I grant you there are other native breeds that are similar like the shorthorn, Galloway types and the angus. As we get less staff on farm we need animals that will tolerate people they are not used to handling them. If you are interested in this then Newark on the 23rd March should be pencilled in your Diary.
@JP1 @Doc @Henarar @HM

 

[Al R]

British Blue

 

[Wolds Beef]

I did use the word Native!!
WB

 

[hendrebc]

I've already told you my thoughts in another thread so yes I do think more native bred cows will be kept instead of more continental types in future. I think this is already happening or it seems to be around here anyway. I think this would have happened brexit or not to be honest.
Continental cattle won't dissappear though they will still be used as terminal sires as long as finishers are played on confirmation via the Europ grid.

 

[roscoe erf]

no

 

[Henarar]

Do people think that British native breeds are much better for a low cost breeding system after our date with destiny in March. They are acclimatised to the weather, used to living on grass and forage and therefore cheaper to keep! And like the breed I am involved in(the Lincoln Red) will live and be managed cheaply. Often hardy enough to be wintered outside they are also relatively docile and therefore can be handled easily for management tasks. I grant you there are other native breeds that are similar like the shorthorn, Galloway types and the angus. As we get less staff on farm we need animals that will tolerate people they are not used to handling them. If you are interested in this then Newark on the 23rd March should be pencilled in your Diary.
@JP1 @Doc @Henarar @HM

We are getting on better with smaller harder cows for our suckler herd, thinking a lot about reducing cow size a bit and certain native breeds have a lot to offer, we have a few LR cross cows [sadly had to miss out on some more because of fodder worries] and we have found they leave a good calf and keep themselves uptogether very well as do other native breeds we have, out wintering isn't possible here but we are looking to shorten the housing period in years that we can and feel a lighter cow will help this

all that said we won't be going away from our blue bulls for producing suckled calves for sale as its still what the buyers want and the only native breed that comes anywhere close for terminal use is the Angus for the premium from what I can see at market

 

[Henarar]

I did use the word Native!!
WB

they are partly shorthorn as are LR's I believe

 

[tinsheet]

Just need to look at countries without subs and what cattle they run!

Nearly all British natives, sad thing is their now better at breeding them than we are!.
We've missed a trick and will be playing catchup instead of being world leaders!

That's my 2 pence worth! Feel free to shoot me down.

 

[Henarar]

Just need to look at countries without subs and what cattle they run!

Nearly all British natives, sad thing is their now better at breeding them than we are!.
We've missed a trick and will be playing catchup instead of being world leaders!

That's my 2 pence worth! Feel free to shoot me down.

That is true and the market may change in time but till it does

 

[milkloss]

Just need to look at countries without subs and what cattle they run!

Nearly all British natives, sad thing is their now better at breeding them than we are!.
We've missed a trick and will be playing catchup instead of being world leaders!

That's my 2 pence worth! Feel free to shoot me down.

Correct me if I’m wrong but don’t some of these countries round the cattle up with helicopters and horses into huge corrals? Still hot brand them, shoot pigs out of helicopters whilst doing the lookering etc etc

Different world to here imo.

 

[M-J-G]

AA, Her & BSH (the most common natives) vary from cows at over 1000kg to cows at half of that.
Just like many others breeds.

It's worth keeping in mind that most non subsidised countries are using most of their good land in kinder parts for producing crops, and are farming cattle in harder land in parts with poorer climate, rarely keeping cattle on ploughable land like we do in the UK.
In these harsh more parts smaller lower maintenance cattle that will live on rubbish tend to have an edge.

But if you are keeping more traditional native bred cows on any kind improved grassland, I would suggest being careful that you could end up weaning little growthless calves off little overfat cows.

 

[Wooly]

I knew Sussex cattle and Romney sheep were the future 25 years ago.

Both cheap to keep and feed; little depreciation as they last years and the saving on labour cost per animal is significant.

Sometimes the simple systems are the most profitable and it’s not always getting the top price in the market !

 

[Doc]

Not a great picture but illustrates a point,I hope, about natives. Taken this week.
August LRed Calf on left belongs red poll cow 3rd right, not the blue in the middle. The blue in the middle has black mid October calf in background. Last to calve in packet of 20 autumn Calvers.
On haylage and mineral buckets. No creep.
I’m happy with the L RedX as part of my minimal intervention, easy care system and calving time is a doddle. It has to be, as I’ve another full time job. Calves are marked (rings and tags) in the field in first few days on my own in the evening. I consider them excellent quiet commercial cattle. The calves will wean at 8 months around 2/3+ dam BW with nowt but grass, bales and mineral buckets. They seem to find buyers in spring as weaners for reasonable money to warrant me stil doing it.

 

[CharcoalWally]

Do people think that British native breeds are much better for a low cost breeding system after our date with destiny in March. They are acclimatised to the weather, used to living on grass and forage and therefore cheaper to keep! And like the breed I am involved in(the Lincoln Red) will live and be managed cheaply. Often hardy enough to be wintered outside they are also relatively docile and therefore can be handled easily for management tasks. I grant you there are other native breeds that are similar like the shorthorn, Galloway types and the angus. As we get less staff on farm we need animals that will tolerate people they are not used to handling them. If you are interested in this then Newark on the 23rd March should be pencilled in your Diary.
@JP1 @Doc @Henarar @HM

In short, no.

On the other hand, at least you got 8 lines into your post before mentioning the Lincoln Red @Wolds Beef .

 

[CharcoalWally]

Just need to look at countries without subs and what cattle they run!

Nearly all British natives, sad thing is their now better at breeding them than we are!.
.

Not sure this is true as much these days . Go on a lot of American sites and they've introduced some Continental bloodlines to the mix.

 

[Bill the Bass]

Salers and Limousins are hill cows in France, decent ones will live happily of forage and wean much better quality calves.

The Stabilisers that the consultants wax lyrical about are half continental (Gelbvieh and Simmental) - and that’s the dam line.

So no, I think there will still be continental cattle, assuming the government allows migrants to man the slaughter houses after 29th of March otherwise it’s all academic really.

 

[Wolds Beef]

@Henarar Yes. @hendrebc Nice to hear - I sold LR heifers into Wales. LRed cross well with most continental's @tinsheet I hope you watch Frontier Woman! They run a lot of Angus and Hereford!
@Wooly We used to run pure Lincoln's many years ago. It was father that put other breed's in but that certainly made harder work feeding them! I have put 20acres of grass in to cut the concentrate bill.
@CharcoalWally You have to advertise somewhere!! @Doc They look well! I am pleased your happy!

 

[tinsheet]

@Henarar Yes. @hendrebc Nice to hear - I sold LR heifers into Wales. LRed cross well with most continental's @tinsheet I hope you watch Frontier Woman! They run a lot of Angus and Hereford!
@Wooly We used to run pure Lincoln's many years ago. It was father that put other breed's in but that certainly made harder work feeding them! I have put 20acres of grass in to cut the concentrate bill.
@CharcoalWally You have to advertise somewhere!! @Doc They look well! I am pleased your happy!

Were would I see this frontier woman?
Run Angus and Hereford myself!.

 

[Woolless]

@Wolds Beef God loves a trier

I mulled this over after coming back to the Hereford thread on here recently. From what I hear, the supermarkets tend to like beef from the dairy herds and are encouraging it for enhanced consistency. Having looked at the rearing calf market recently, BBx seem particularly popular.

The other trend I think will be suckler herds moving on to more marginal areas. This, combined with the downward pressure on carcase size, will lead to more native blood being used in the dam line. These thriftier types of cows will mean more beef coming from grass, which will combat the bloody vegans and their ramblings!

If I had space to run a suckler herd, I think the cows would be Hereford x with AA as the terminal sire, if the calves were to be grazed here in their second summer. High demand for stores, I believe. A continental might get a look in if they were going as suckled calves.

All IMO of course and my beef headage runs to three stirky calves at the minute!

@Lovegoodstock will have a worthwhile take on this.

 

[CharcoalWally]

@Henarar Yes. @hendrebc Nice to hear - I sold LR heifers into Wales. LRed cross well with most continental's @tinsheet I hope you watch Frontier Woman! They run a lot of Angus and Hereford!
@Wooly We used to run pure Lincoln's many years ago. It was father that put other breed's in but that certainly made harder work feeding them! I have put 20acres of grass in to cut the concentrate bill.
@CharcoalWally You have to advertise somewhere!! @Doc They look well! I am pleased your happy!

Joking aside @Wolds Beef , your breed does cross well with a number of Continental breeds. I had some super Simmental X Lincoln Red cows years ago and they did very well.

Your biggest problem up here is getting your hands on them in any numbers.