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Post by pwbedy on Aug 1, 2014 23:17:00 GMT -6
Welcome 2the Breed Matt, Glad 2have a new Hereford Man!
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 25, 2014 15:28:02 GMT -6
 I have just joined today and thought I'd introduce myself. My husband and I are not young but we always wanted to farm. We bought our small hundred acre farm in 2004. Initially we rented out our grazing but in 2011 we decided it was time to buy some cattle. We wanted a British native beef breed suitable for grass rearing and considered a number of different breeds, but I had always loved Herefords. I used to work with them when I was younger and I loved their docile temperaments. Sadly Herefords are not popular in the UK nowadays as the way beef farmers have been paid since the 1980s, mainly by supermarkets, favours large framed muscular continental type cattle. However in recent years there has been a slow move back to more traditional breeds of cattle in more affluent areas and there is now a Pasture Fed Livestock Association. Our own Herefords are quite a bit different from the photos I have enjoyed on this forum - they are Traditional (Original Population) Horned Herefords, now a rare breed. they are recognised by the UK Rare Breeds Survival Trust who suggest that there are only about 750 breeding animals left in the world. They are defined as pure Hereford able to trace their ancestry back to the original herd book of 1846 and having no imported bloodlines. We love our little herd but we like all Herefords and talking to other breeders. |
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Post by Glenn on Aug 25, 2014 16:05:37 GMT -6
Welcome aboard!
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Post by strojanherefords on Aug 25, 2014 17:04:07 GMT -6
I have just joined today and thought I'd introduce myself. My husband and I are not young but we always wanted to farm. We bought our small hundred acre farm in 2004. Initially we rented out our grazing but in 2011 we decided it was time to buy some cattle. We wanted a British native beef breed suitable for grass rearing and considered a number of different breeds, but I had always loved Herefords. I used to work with them when I was younger and I loved their docile temperaments. Sadly Herefords are not popular in the UK nowadays as the way beef farmers have been paid since the 1980s, mainly by supermarkets, favours large framed muscular continental type cattle. However in recent years there has been a slow move back to more traditional breeds of cattle in more affluent areas and there is now a Pasture Fed Livestock Association. Our own Herefords are quite a bit different from the photos I have enjoyed on this forum - they are Traditional (Original Population) Horned Herefords, now a rare breed. they are recognised by the UK Rare Breeds Survival Trust who suggest that there are only about 750 breeding animals left in the world. They are defined as pure Hereford able to trace their ancestry back to the original herd book of 1846 and having no imported bloodlines. We love our little herd but we like all Herefords and talking to other breeders. It is good to see some nice horned cows. |
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Post by larso on Aug 25, 2014 17:17:47 GMT -6
Welcome from Larso . I became a member about 6mths ago and have found this forum most informative. The knowledge of some of the breeders and members is invaluable and if we all remain civil and respectful of other peoples opinions its members will continue to grow.
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Post by nicky on Aug 25, 2014 20:33:01 GMT -6
View AttachmentI have just joined today and thought I'd introduce myself. My husband and I are not young but we always wanted to farm. We bought our small hundred acre farm in 2004. Initially we rented out our grazing but in 2011 we decided it was time to buy some cattle. We wanted a British native beef breed suitable for grass rearing and considered a number of different breeds, but I had always loved Herefords. I used to work with them when I was younger and I loved their docile temperaments. Sadly Herefords are not popular in the UK nowadays as the way beef farmers have been paid since the 1980s, mainly by supermarkets, favours large framed muscular continental type cattle. However in recent years there has been a slow move back to more traditional breeds of cattle in more affluent areas and there is now a Pasture Fed Livestock Association. Our own Herefords are quite a bit different from the photos I have enjoyed on this forum - they are Traditional (Original Population) Horned Herefords, now a rare breed. they are recognised by the UK Rare Breeds Survival Trust who suggest that there are only about 750 breeding animals left in the world. They are defined as pure Hereford able to trace their ancestry back to the original herd book of 1846 and having no imported bloodlines. We love our little herd but we like all Herefords and talking to other breeders. Welcome! Please give us more details about where you live etc. And more pictures of course.  |
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 26, 2014 1:47:20 GMT -6
Thanks for welcoming me.
We live in the south west of Scotland where there is plenty of grass in the summer but the winters are very wet. We rarely get long spells of very cold weather but the cattle have to come in for the wettest part of the year to save the grazing. Our cattle are not fed any concentrates, just hay and minerals and the calves get no creep feed. The problem is stopping the cows getting too fat in summer and making decent hay / haylage when it rains so much. We have not bought in any more stock preferring to use AI to keep our gene pool as wide as possible. Fortunately the Rare Breed Survival Trust has a good supply but there are few photos of the bulls so it's a bit of a lottery. Most of our calves so far have been heifers which is great for building up our herd but not great for our business as we will only kill steers for beef. However we have one almost ready to go. We live across the valley from a farm butcher and we shall probably sell our beef in boxes. It is a new venture for us so we'll see how it goes! The cows weigh on average about 600 - 700 kgs (can't think in pounds) but are probably not as tall as most American Herefords, although they are very broad. I'll try to post some more pictures.
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 26, 2014 8:43:24 GMT -6
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 26, 2014 9:01:05 GMT -6
Cattle of varying ages for you all. Above post shows our 2 yo bull, a group of older cows and heifers and a 3 month old calf. This one shows a young cow with her 7 month old calf, a 2.5 year old recently calved heifer and a yearling heifer.  Attachment DeletedAttachment Deleted |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2014 9:14:17 GMT -6
Great photos Tartan, thank you for sharing.
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Post by hoekland on Aug 26, 2014 13:06:17 GMT -6
great pics of great cattle, I just love the old English herefords, it's such a pity the RBST don't want to sell any semen to me, I've tried to buy in the past on numerous occassions. Maybe we can do some business in the future!
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 26, 2014 14:23:42 GMT -6
great pics of great cattle, I just love the old English herefords, it's such a pity the RBST don't want to sell any semen to me, I've tried to buy in the past on numerous occassions. Maybe we can do some business in the future! Thank you very much! There is semen available from Traditional bulls as I know some from our bull's grandsire was sent to Argentina in 2011, also embryos. The trouble is there are so many regulations to do with export / imports. I would love to be able to export semen from one of our bulls one day! The RBST has semen from a lot of different bulls but from most of them they have less than 100 straws, so I can understand their reluctance. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 17:23:04 GMT -6
true "britishers"! who did you buy your original females? |
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 28, 2014 3:28:01 GMT -6
true "britishers"! who did you buy your original females? Thanks - though nowadays "Britishers" are nearly all North American or Australian! We bought them from Paul Carter (Shefford) - sadly he no longer breeds Herefords after 20 years. Since his wife died he went over to the "dark side" (American Angus!) His stock were mostly originally from Llandinabo.
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Post by Carlos (frmaiz) on Aug 28, 2014 6:45:41 GMT -6
great pics of great cattle, I just love the old English herefords, it's such a pity the RBST don't want to sell any semen to me, I've tried to buy in the past on numerous occassions. Maybe we can do some business in the future! Thank you very much! There is semen available from Traditional bulls as I know some from our bull's grandsire was sent to Argentina in 2011, also embryos. The trouble is there are so many regulations to do with export / imports. I would love to be able to export semen from one of our bulls one day! The RBST has semen from a lot of different bulls but from most of them they have less than 100 straws, so I can understand their reluctance. In the link below you can see 6 photos of the breeder's herd that imported the semen and embryos, as I have been told. link |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2014 7:07:01 GMT -6
true "britishers"! who did you buy your original females? Thanks - though nowadays "Britishers" are nearly all North American or Australian! We bought them from Paul Carter (Shefford) - sadly he no longer breeds Herefords after 20 years. Since his wife died he went over to the "dark side" (American Angus!) His stock were mostly originally from Llandinabo.
did you see any other breeders herds when you were looking to start a herd? did you see Llandinabo? |
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 28, 2014 10:16:23 GMT -6
Thanks - though nowadays "Britishers" are nearly all North American or Australian! We bought them from Paul Carter (Shefford) - sadly he no longer breeds Herefords after 20 years. Since his wife died he went over to the "dark side" (American Angus!) His stock were mostly originally from Llandinabo.
did you see any other breeders herds when you were looking to start a herd? did you see Llandinabo? Yes we visited Llandinabo - beautiful place, wonderful cattle. I enjoyed so much talking to Peter Symonds - he was so knowledgeable and he and his stockman were always willing to give advice. Sadly I don't think they have as many cattle now either - Peter must be quite elderly now. I know when we were there the autumn calving cows had been sold. We looked at one other place - didn't like the cattle as much. |
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 30, 2014 16:27:55 GMT -6
Thank you very much! There is semen available from Traditional bulls as I know some from our bull's grandsire was sent to Argentina in 2011, also embryos. The trouble is there are so many regulations to do with export / imports. I would love to be able to export semen from one of our bulls one day! The RBST has semen from a lot of different bulls but from most of them they have less than 100 straws, so I can understand their reluctance. In the link below you can see 6 photos of the breeder's herd that imported the semen and embryos, as I have been told. linkThank you very much for this - sorry not to reply sooner - somehow I missed your post. Yes I think you are right -this is the herd that imported the embryos. Don't speak the language though - the website doesn't mention them does it? I would love to know how they turned out as the dam of one of my cows was a donor. |
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Post by Carlos (frmaiz) on Aug 30, 2014 16:50:29 GMT -6
It's a very big family business, one of the welthiest here in Argentina. The Perez Companc family. I will try to visit their herd sometime in the future and find out how they are doing. Was impressed with the pictures, very nice Hereford type. They mention somewhere that they started with 80 heifers imported from Canada.
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Post by tartancowgirl on Aug 31, 2014 1:48:11 GMT -6
It's a very big family business, one of the welthiest here in Argentina. The Perez Companc family. I will try to visit their herd sometime in the future and find out how they are doing. Was impressed with the pictures, very nice Hereford type. They mention somewhere that they started with 80 heifers imported from Canada. Wow! That would be amazing! |
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Post by pwbedy on Dec 12, 2014 8:49:02 GMT -6
Beautiful Cattle Tartan!
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Post by scubamom on Jan 8, 2015 7:51:23 GMT -6
Hi y'all, I'm Lynn McKamey and live in Gregory, TX near Corpus Christi. Hubby is a 4th generation cotton farmer and the family has always run about 80 head of Herefords since the early 1900s on around 200 acres of our land that is good for grazing but not farming. We have two roundups a year to tag and vaccinate and cull out ones for the auctions. No one has really paid them much attention in the last few years, so I've decided to make them my "project"! Been roaming around them in our old Tahoe, taking tallies and trying to match up calves to moms. We bought two new bulls last year and we'll see what the year brings.
The surprise lately is finding two heifer twins! We have a roaming coyote that got one new calf a few weeks ago and are on the look out to take that critter down.
Look forward to learning from all y'all!
P.S. The cows helped get the family through the great depression. Kenny's granddad traded cows for all kinds of things from food to oriental rugs! His granny raised hogs for bartering. Never know when these cows are gonna come in handy! :-)
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Post by nicky on Jan 8, 2015 18:55:09 GMT -6
Welcome!
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Post by pwbedy on Jan 9, 2015 0:55:11 GMT -6
Beautiful Story Lynn!!!
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Post by scubamom on Jan 9, 2015 6:56:09 GMT -6
Glad to find y'all! Hope to learn a lot! Being a farmer/rancher usually means a big garden too, so one should never starve. That said... in the middle of the horrid Texas drought, hubby pointed out... not enough rain for the garden and not enough grass for the cows. Our hay ran low and we had to cut the herd down to 40. Been trying to rebuild it ever since. Slow, slow process.... such is the life of a non-city folk! :-)
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