Low Line Cattle

[unlacedgecko]

Any experience of the above among the collective?

 

[Whitepeak]

Chap near us has some. Reckons he can have a higher stocking rate with them than larger breeds, and therefore produce more beef per acre. Whether that true or not I'm not sure, as his is a very wet steep farm so would only have a low stocking rate anyway. He has shown them locally, they look like a chunkier, beefier version of a Dexter to me. But don't tell him I said that as he gets very upset if people mistake them for Dexters!

 

[Tim G]

I met one of the guys importing them a few years (5 or 6 I think) back at the Suffolk Show. He was there with them in the cattle classes as he said it was a cheaper way to promote them than having a stand. I'd never heard of these cattle so had a bit of a chat with him. They were bred at an Australian research farm for 30 odd years. From memory he said two lines were bred, highs and lows, as closed herds to see the differences between the carcases. The lows had better ko% and growth rates so that was what the concentrated on. I asked if they had dexter blood (didn't go down too well) but they are in fact pure Aberdeen Angus.
The breed was quite new here at the time and the animals were serious £, I don't know if they have more about now to make them a commercial proposition.

 

[BobbySusie]

Look at the wiki page, calves weight at birth is between 14-22kg. They get to around 300 kg max, plus very few people have heard of them.
If I was looking to increase my stocking rate, I would look at measuring my grass and improving the quality of my grass, first of all, think of the amount of cattle you can carry with an extra ton of DM. How many ton of grass do you grow per acre at the minute.

Teagasc have a done some work on dairy farming on heavier land and on wetlands, if you look at it you can pick up a lot of info on how to improve grass production.

 

[Agrivator]

They used to be the main type of Angus at the Perth bull sales about 70 years ago. They were to satisfy demand from Argentina for small bulls. The fashion knocked the Angus back locally for years, and it is only recently that there has been signs of a recovery.
But they can't hope to compete with Continentals, even Simmentals, because while demand for Angus x bullocks is ok, there is little demand for Angus x heifers.

The argument that you can stock more small cattle per acre doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It's easier to calve and manage 1 big cow than to calve and manage 2 piddling little cows. Within reason, and bearing technical efficiency in mind, keep the biggest cows that your land can carry.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Sounds like they have limited commercial application.

Maybe a good crossing cow?

Basically I'd like something to use to groom pastures for sheep. Would need to be very low input and out wintered, so small and hardy.

 

[unlacedgecko]

The argument that you can stock more small cattle per acre doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It's easier to calve and manage 1 big cow than to calve and manage 2 piddling little cows. Within reason, and bearing technical efficiency in mind, keep the biggest cows that your land can carry.

I've limited cattle experience.

But applied to sheep I cannot disagree strongly enough.

I have in my mind a cow that will produce a carcass of 600-650kg at 20-24 months. I'll happily use a beef sire, but I think I want a cow no bigger than 500kg.

 

[Extreme Optimist]

I have an Aunt who keeps 40 odd in Tasmania. As said before, the cows make 350 - 400kg and are very quiet and easy to handle. I was discussing them with my vet who reckoned that the carcase weight maybe too low for our abattoirs. Give me a shout if you want more info and I can put you in touch with her.

 

[Jim bean]

 

[unlacedgecko]

They yours?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

We had a wee mob (20) of them on a dairy farm, just for tidying up gullies and wetlands and stuff, great wee buggers IME and absolutely wonderful beef.
They wouldn't weigh much more than a kiwi x dairy heifer, but the complete opposite in every way - they ate rank fescue/cockfoot and all manner of weeds - and did really well on that.
Cattle selected to eat manicured "lamb tucker" wouldn't survive on that diet, unless supplemented with minerals etc.

Plus they could hide under the flax when the Environment Southland spotter planes went over ?

 

[Jim bean]

Lowline cows with speckle park bull in lower pic.lowline with angus calves in middle and 10month old speckle park cross lowline calf on top. Nice little cows, don't eat much, calve easy but l haven't kept any crossbred calves to see how big they get. They would be ideal for boxed meat sales.

 

[CharcoalWally]

Sounds like they have limited commercial application.

Maybe a good crossing cow?

Basically I'd like something to use to groom pastures for sheep. Would need to be very low input and out wintered, so small and hardy.

If it's just to tidy up grass, then how about some Spring born native breed bullocks of the hardy breeds off a hill farm? Keep them over the Winter then pass them on when they've done their job? Would save looking after cows, unless you particularly want cows instead.

 

[Agrivator]

You should have put a 50p coin on thr ground, just to give us some idea of scale. Or a Suffolk tup just prepared for Kelso.

 

[Tim G]

You should have put a 50p coin on thr ground, just to give us some idea of scale. Or a Suffolk tup just prepared for Kelso.

Both a bit hard to come by down under I guess........

 

[Danllan]

@unlacedgecko We looking into these after a I got a bit of a hammering by one of our own - full sized - bullocks a couple of years ago. I did the research and all the good bits about them are true, I think I started a thread on it.

However... the asking price then for a heifer* was £4k, so we thought 'F*ck that!' and decided on the smaller native beef breeds instead. If they are or will come down to <£1k a head, I'd give them serious consideration.


*not even in-calf!

 

[Jim bean]

Here’s one cooling her feet. The fence is about belly button height

 

[beefandsleep]

I've limited cattle experience.

But applied to sheep I cannot disagree strongly enough.

I have in my mind a cow that will produce a carcass of 600-650kg at 20-24 months. I'll happily use a beef sire, but I think I want a cow no bigger than 500kg.

I’m sure you mean 6-650kg live weight not carcass weight.
There is a saying that you can’t breed rats from mice and it holds more than a grain of truth.
I’ve been taught that a lamb will finish at 50% of the average mature weight of its parents. So if you want a 40 kg fat lamb and have 70kg ewes then a terminal sire breed with a mature weight of 90kg is necessary. Obviously if you are happy to keep your lambs longer and grow them out before finishing larger killing weights are achievable from smaller breeds. I think a similar principle is true of cattle.
If you want a 650 kg finished beast with an acceptable level of fat at 20-24m then I don’t think that is achievable from a 500kg cow. Possibly with the bullocks if the right bull is used but not likely with the heifers and you may find calving a challenge.

 

[unlacedgecko]

I’m sure you mean 6-650kg live weight not carcass weight.
There is a saying that you can’t breed rats from mice and it holds more than a grain of truth.
I’ve been taught that a lamb will finish at 50% of the average mature weight of its parents. So if you want a 40 kg fat lamb and have 70kg ewes then a terminal sire breed with a mature weight of 90kg is necessary. Obviously if you are happy to keep your lambs longer and grow them out before finishing larger killing weights are achievable from smaller breeds. I think a similar principle is true of cattle.
If you want a 650 kg finished beast with an acceptable level of fat at 20-24m then I don’t think that is achievable from a 500kg cow. Possibly with the bullocks if the right bull is used but not likely with the heifers and you may find calving a challenge.

Sorry I was doing a few things at once.

I mean a 250-300kg carcass.

 

[unlacedgecko]

@unlacedgecko We looking into these after a I got a bit of a hammering by one of our own - full sized - bullocks a couple of years ago. I did the research and all the good bits about them are true, I think I started a thread on it.

However... the asking price then for a heifer* was £4k, so we thought 'F*ck that!' and decided on the smaller native beef breeds instead. If they are or will come down to <£1k a head, I'd give them serious consideration.


*not even in-calf!

Yes I read your thread. I was wondering if things had advanced any since then.

That price is ridiculous. They'd have to be sub £750 before I consider them. Otherwise why not just get kiwi cross draft cows and AI?