Where we are headed part II.... What bull buyers want
Mar 15, 2015 6:00:36 GMT -6
nicky, bltherf, and 2 more like this
Post by hoekland on Mar 15, 2015 6:00:36 GMT -6
A little history lesson of Herefords in SA.
At a time it was by far the biggest British breed, even up till the '80s, second only to Afrikaner cattle and later Bonsmara cattle. Those herefords were basically pure British till the late '70s early '80s.
Farmers, ranchers, whatever you wanted to call it run Hereford or Afrikaner cow herds even in the most extensive conditions. The belt buckle era never quite reached SA, but cattle in the '70s did get too small. Then came the frame race and USA genetics became a fad, then people started complaining that Herefords didn't have milk, Herefords were still used to open heifers and to an extent it still holds true today, but hardly anyone use Herefords to crate a cow herd in the Northwest where they were at one stage by far the most abundant in the country, simmental completely dominates that market now. (strangely enough the simmentals are now frame 5.5-6 cattle and carry a lot of muscle while still being very milky and growthy, even though they are a very long way behind herefords on fertility) CErtain areas in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape still have a lot of Herefords today and the numbers are certainly slowly increasing in the Western Cape again, but the important beef producing areas the herefords are really struggling.
This being an ongoing issue I've done a lot of research on why Herefords had lost so much ground and the answer had nothing to do with eyes, milk, birthweight, frame, etc. The bull buyers said that they are struggling to find Hereford bulls that are thick enough, ironic when you think they used to use Herefords to add thickness to the Afrikaner type cattle back in the day. By thickness I mean natural thickness, not just fat, they want bone and muscle in a moderate frame and they want the ability to get fat on nothing back.
To get back to where we are headed, I don't think we are getting back to belt buckle cattle, but I do think we are closer to being right now than we have been for 40 years, there is no need to make them any smaller, but also no need to recreate the tall slabsided gutless wonders that dominated the breed the last few decades.
I feel we need to get back to beef basics, make them thick, make them functional and make them look like herefords again.
At a time it was by far the biggest British breed, even up till the '80s, second only to Afrikaner cattle and later Bonsmara cattle. Those herefords were basically pure British till the late '70s early '80s.
Farmers, ranchers, whatever you wanted to call it run Hereford or Afrikaner cow herds even in the most extensive conditions. The belt buckle era never quite reached SA, but cattle in the '70s did get too small. Then came the frame race and USA genetics became a fad, then people started complaining that Herefords didn't have milk, Herefords were still used to open heifers and to an extent it still holds true today, but hardly anyone use Herefords to crate a cow herd in the Northwest where they were at one stage by far the most abundant in the country, simmental completely dominates that market now. (strangely enough the simmentals are now frame 5.5-6 cattle and carry a lot of muscle while still being very milky and growthy, even though they are a very long way behind herefords on fertility) CErtain areas in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape still have a lot of Herefords today and the numbers are certainly slowly increasing in the Western Cape again, but the important beef producing areas the herefords are really struggling.
This being an ongoing issue I've done a lot of research on why Herefords had lost so much ground and the answer had nothing to do with eyes, milk, birthweight, frame, etc. The bull buyers said that they are struggling to find Hereford bulls that are thick enough, ironic when you think they used to use Herefords to add thickness to the Afrikaner type cattle back in the day. By thickness I mean natural thickness, not just fat, they want bone and muscle in a moderate frame and they want the ability to get fat on nothing back.
To get back to where we are headed, I don't think we are getting back to belt buckle cattle, but I do think we are closer to being right now than we have been for 40 years, there is no need to make them any smaller, but also no need to recreate the tall slabsided gutless wonders that dominated the breed the last few decades.
I feel we need to get back to beef basics, make them thick, make them functional and make them look like herefords again.
