| Joelt - 11/21/2011 19:52
I watched a real nice set of herefords sell today and started wondering about what kind of cows are best suited to the drought conditions we are experiencing. I've heard that herefords are better suited than other breeds but i don't have anything to back that up. I know a black cow will get hotter on a hot day than a red or yellow one, but other than that i don't know how the hot, dry, and lack of grass affects different animals. It would be interesting to get different takes on what kind of cows a guy should be running during this drought.
Quite a few years ago I ran into some cattle guys from the high mountain country in north central British Columbia. They run their cows on high mountain plateaus ranging from 4500 to 6000+ feet. They told me that the hereford or hereford cross mama would in short grocery time kick wean her calf at as low as 300# but she would rebreed. They told me that their cows were very small 900 to 1050 # because it was just tough conditions. This is why they kept a baldy or black baldy cross for their mama cows - - it just worked. Now if you have lush growth and lots of it then I would certainly be looking in a different direction but for tough country I, too, would have baldy cross cows (hate them otherwise between the pickle teats and the poor milk (a handful of breeder have different though) and little of it and the pink eye and the sunburnt udders - - sploit!!) |
Is a hereford a better drought cow than angus et al?
