cow effeciency?

[cowman]

Most of my cows are crossbreds. based on a hereford/angus cross. I have a few purebred Simmentals. Now these Simmentals always look like they are half starved. Usually by calving time they are being fed with the three year olds because they are in poor condition. They have very good calves but not as good as some of the other cows. Now I see a lot of cows in pretty tough shape out east but I don't see a lot of Charlais or Simmentals. Is it because they just can't cut a tough diet? Some of these old hereford/angus cows seem to get the job done no matter what you feed them. Throw them in with a big char bull and they crank out a big heavy calf in the fall, whether its dry or not.
Do these big exotic cows pay when feed is scarce and the price is costly?

[mbfarmer]

I personally do not like a straight Charolais, Simmental or any breed. The exotics are nice to but some size into a herd but I like the 1300-1400 pound cow not the 1700-2000 like some of the simmentals and charolais . As far as I am concerned, if you are going to have purebred... you better be selling breeding stock...which also means marketing them properly...which adds to the expense. Here hay is selling for .03 per pound so the calves have to be pretty good to recoup the extra hay needed.

[pandiana]

An interesting topic. For me 'matching your cows to your environment' is the phrase that best sums up this topic. Size and type of cattle vary widely even within breeds, although purebreds would increase the probability of getting the 'type' that you are looking for. Some breeds are reknown for bringing in a calf under extreme conditions. This type of cow will come in in the fall bred and in good condition, but frequently at the expense of her calf. The other extreme is the cow that weans 60% of her body weight. This heavy milking cow will sacrifice herself for her calf. This type of cow works well only when the supply of feed is not limiting. I think this type of cow will also have a shorter productive life span as she will burn out quicker (udders on heavy milkers tend to break down sooner) where as poorer milking cow may stay in the herd longer.

If you calculated the pounds of calf weaned over the livetime of the cow I wonder if there would be a significant difference. The highly productive cow may eat more, burn out faster but in the end produce as many pounds as the lower producing cow.

The rub here, as per the topic above, is that it takes a lot of years to build a herd that fits your needs. During a period of drought you probably don't have the flexibility to redesign a herd. I think this is why most of us go for the average or balanced approach. I like 1300-1500 lbs cows that produce 600-700 lb calves although there are exceptions. We farm in a good grass area most years and forage is usually adequate for this size of cow. This past few years however, has put a severe strain on even the 'balanced' approach with increase in virtually all inputs.

[cowman]

mbfarmer: Hay at $.03/lb. would be considered very cheap out here. That works out to $60/ton. In Alberta hay was anywhere from $100 to $150. Not exactly profitable!
If you guys ever get a packing industry out there you will run us out of business!