Do we have any beef cow experts? We are looking to buy a beef cow or two, we are moving into my grandmother's house till we sell/build ours on 40 acres. The pasture at my grandmother's is probably 5-6 acres.

My question is what breed would you guys suggest? I read were black angus are little more aggressive than say herefords but they have better beef. We are open to suggestions and advice.

It's been a number of years for me but I always raised Holstein steers for beef. They look like a a skeleton with a black and white blanket thrown over them while out in pasture but it was the best tasting beef I ever had.

I also raised Herefords also known as white face but I thought the Holsteins were much better.
I made the switch on the advice of my butcher at the time. He had been doing it for years.

I purchased them at about a year old and continued to feed them calf starter along with allowing them to pasture for the first couple months and then weaning them off the starter to strictly grass for the last 6 months before butcher.

Not saying this will work for you but it did for me at the time.

My Uncle raised Black Angus, but he would be out in the field with them every day so they stayed nice and calm. He didn't want them running around burning off the fat he was trying to put on them.
Rod

Charolais are good. Depends on how much $$ you want to spend.

I grew up raising Angus every year, although one year we did Charolais. They were all alfalfa fed and finished with a good 3-way. Best beef I've ever eaten and I don't recall ever having them be aggressive. The only thing that ever got them riled up was when my brother and I tried to ride them, so I wouldn't suggest doing that. Otherwise, Angus are fine.

I have been chased by big pissed off Angus bulls, mind you, but never steers.

I agree on the Holstein steers make great beef. The Dairy breeds can carry more meat, and do well on grass, and will be cheaper to buy as dairy farms like to get rid of the bull calves.

If you want to have a rind of flavorful fat on your steak, go with any of the older beef breeds like Hereford, Angus, Charolais or crosses of them.
If you are looking for the less fat, more lean type of beef, any of the dairy breeds, such as Holstein, Jersey, Brown Swiss or crosses.
It depends a lot on what is availabe for sale locally and your feed/pasture and what your ultimate expectations are when you do butcher your own production.
I personally do not care much for the lean and less fat variety, but a lot of people do.

Regardless of breed, pure grass fed will be tasteless.

You have to give a good mix of feed - "a good 3-way" as Gustofer says - the last two-three months.

I buy half a steer every couple of years, and lambs, from my butcher to supplement everything else I buy from him - let him do all the work, after all, undoing the freezer paper is work enough.

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Trusting my Texan grandfather and great-grandfather and my experiences, I would consider polled Herefords bulls breed with Hereford and Angus cows as old school breed options for the purpose of food. Angus lineage bulls can be aggressive, so they were turned into steers with pocket knives.

My grandfather hated Brahman, especially neighboring Brahman bulls.

I studied Charolais in school. They seemed like a good idea, but I have no experience with them.

I'll edit to add that Angus seemed aggressive relative to Herefords. I used to literally butt heads with an Angus heifer and even did so when she became a cow. I suffered no injuries.

quote:

Charolais

Great beef. My family has been raising them for 40+ years. There are 2-300 head on the farm my dad manages and he isn't out there with them all the time, so they aren't the most docile things, but if you have more interaction with them, they can be quite gentle. Never quite like Angus. Don't like the texture and it isn't as flavorful to me. None of the ones I have ever been around were crotchety, they were actually quite easy to work.

Any of the heritage breeds will be hardy, but 5-6 acres of pasture isn't much (especially for 2), unless supplemented with grain or hay. A Dexter is about the smallest breed that I can think of and 1-2 of those would be suitable for that small parcel. Some of the other breeds I can't tell you much about but they may be better suited for a small lot. One aspect that people overlook is how much water a cow drinks in a day. Some breeds go upwards of 30 gallons of water per day and that can tax a small well with ease.

Something else to consider are goats & sheep. Less food and water intake on a daily basis than a cow.

Hope this helps.

A) Ask for steers, not cows

B) Much of the temper can be due to strain. We bred Line 1 Domino Herefords, but the Western ones were different in behavior and temper than the Eastern ones.

And, a high quality Hereford looks nothing like the mongrel ones.

I think Dexters are nifty, but never professionally worked with cattle. My father did, and found them deeply upsetting.

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Originally posted by redleg2/9:
Regardless of breed, pure grass fed will be tasteless.

I respectfully, and STRONGLY disagree. My father-in-law has raised prize bloodline, registered Hereford cattle for the last 50+ years, going straight grassfed for the last 25 or so.

The taste from his, and other grassfed herds I've eaten from, is much more pronounced than anything commodity/industrial farm raised (and typical grain-finished) that I've eaten most anywhere. I have friends that raise Red Angus, others that raise Black Angus, and they also agree.

Corn is used as an efficient weight gain mechanism, typically converting to fat; but not even typically true marbling in feedlot finishing scenarios, more intramuscular. Don't get me wrong, I love good amounts of fat on and in my beef, but it doesn't contribute to flavor as much as it does perceived "juiciness" when it melts, and provides a more forgiving window for a steak not seeming dry.

Properly cooked (which does take a different technique), a grassfed steak has a much more pronounced flavor than its grain finished counterpart. That said, I have a friend who bought a side of grassfed Angus from his neighbor, and found it "too beefy tasting" for his palate. Like any food, different tastes aren't for everyone, but tasteless is not a word most anyone I know would use to describe grassfed beef.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
It's been a number of years for me but I always raised Holstein steers for beef. They look like a a skeleton with a black and white blanket thrown over them while out in pasture but it was the best tasting beef I ever had.

I also raised Herefords also known as white face but I thought the Holsteins were much better.
I made the switch on the advice of my butcher at the time. He had been doing it for years.

I purchased them at about a year old and continued to feed them calf starter along with allowing them to pasture for the first couple months and then weaning them off the starter to strictly grass for the last 6 months before butcher.

Not saying this will work for you but it did for me at the time.

This is pretty much my experience as well. Like lastman, it's been years since we raised beef but we discovered raising Holsteins for great flavor via our butcher as well. Our pastures had a lot of clover mixed in with the grass and that helped with the fat content. In the fall I'd drive around the area picking finished corn stalks from neighboring gardens to finish them off to add fat. They'd eat the whole thing, leaving only the root ball. It made the fat a little yellowish, but really worked for us.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by mutedblade:

Any of the heritage breeds will be hardy, but 5-6 acres of pasture isn't much (especially for 2), unless supplemented with grain or hay. ... Some breeds go upwards of 30 gallons of water per day and that can tax a small well with ease.

Those are two very good points. 5-6 acres is not enough to pasture without cattle feed and / or hay. Even with much more land than that, my grandfather still supplemented his cattle's diet with cattle feed year round.

As for water, there used to be Federal subsidies for drilling a water well for livestock. Avoiding politics, I would guess those subsidies still exist, although there may be acreage requirements.

5-6 acres of pasture may be enough depending upon the quality and type of grass and soil. Some areas are more lush than others. For the size of steer you're talking about I'd say you can easily do 2 head and possibly three as they'll only be 400 pounds or so a piece. Plenty of clean water is very important as well. I'm going grass only on mine for the first time. Hopefully this fall I'll let you know how it turns out.

We have mostly polled Herefords, and a couple of black Angus cows. The Herefords are much more calm and gentle. The Angus are flighty, and test the fences more.

Back in my youth, the Herefords were the dominant breed in this area. Folks were not so concerned about daily weight gain, they were worried about their wives and children getting hurt around the cattle.

I can tell no difference in the taste of the two breeds.

They are grass fed and most folks think they taste better than grain finished. We have customers whose children will not eat store bought ground beef.

Buy two or three weanling heifers and they will be old enough to breed when you are ready to move to your larger place. Build an 8'X12' three sided shed on skids for shelter now, and you can take that with you, too.

Good luck.

quote:

pure grass fed will be tasteless.

If you want grass fed, shoot a deer.

I wouldn't say Angus has "better beef" than say Hereford (or any other beef breed for that matter), but the Angus beef marketing campaign of the last 25 years has been one of the most successful campaigns I have ever witnessed.

I wouldn't worry too much about slight differences in aggressiveness either, whatever breed you try will be in your small pasture, see you a lot, and should be gentle to work around in no time.

For what you're describing, I would buy whatever looks good to you at the sale--commercial herd crosses, typically black baldy, but could be crossed on about anything i.e. Simmental, Charolais, Gelbvieh, etc. etc.

If you plan on selling a steer or two, or a weaned calf--I'd go Angus cross; cattle buyers like black cattle. That said, you don't need registered anything.

Thank you guys for all the experience I appreciate it all. We have lots of thinking to do now.

My in-laws have been dairy farmers for decades as well. They mainly raise Holsteins and self-breed.

For what it's worth:

They keep 10-20% Jerseys milking at all times for milk-fat levels. The Jersey steers that they butcher boast some of the best steak I've ever had in my life. I have no scientific evidence to provide, only the fact that at Sunday dinner we can all tell if the steaks are Holstein or Jersey.