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West Central Iowa | Mark,
By reading your posts I know that you are very knowledgeable, but I do have concern with your following comment "those Black exotics have the same or higher %'s of AM, CA, and NH as the Angus does". Do you have any validation of this statement, because unless you do, I would think that is statistically impossible to prove on a "breed by breed" basis.
Furthermore, making generalized statements about defects associated to specific breeds is painting a pretty broad brush. No matter what defect you look at (dwarfism, TH, PHA, CA, NH, or AM) the seedstock within a breed is no better than the people selling them. It's like saying I won't buy, a Ford/Chevy ever again because of problem X....or Seed corn company Y's product greensnapped and I won't ever buy it again. No matter what the breed, seedstock suppliers are willing to chase the almighty dollar and some choose to sell carriers in that pursuit. I have rid my herd of all carriers minus 2 cows. Their calves get tested each year (even though I use clean bulls) and if they are carriers they ARE NOT retained in my herd let alone sold to customers. Avoiding breed X, Y, or Z because their might be a defect concern without testing individual animals is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Buying from a reputable & honest seedstock supplier who does not sell carriers/potential carriers to the public is more important than the breed of cattle themselves.
Remember, a defect free bull of any respective breed WILL NOT PRODUCE AFFECTED CALVES and WILL NOT WORSEN A PROBLEM BEYOND WHAT IS ALREADY PRESENT IN A PRODUCERS COW HERD!!!!!!
Edited by RCD 4/24/2011 23:57
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higher number of open cows, than I think feasible...
