Cattle Breeds: Should Owners Be Upset About Getting A Black Baldy Calf In Their Purebreed Livestock?
10/28/2009 11:23AM
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Q: I am a veterinary student and we are discussing a case involving a black angus bull getting loose and inpregnating some of the purebred herefords. The owners furious because they were going to have a black baldy calf. Everything I've seen shows that that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not familiar with the beef industry, I thought I'd ask an expert for more information as to why these owners were so upset about getting a black baldy calf in their purebreed livestock?
A: If the Hereford female was registered with the breed association then it is possible that the breeder raises seedstock animals and markets purebred bulls and/or females. In this production/marketing scenario, a crossbred calf has less value simply because the marketing objective of the operation is to raise animals that will be registered with the Hereford association and designed to sell at a premium to be used as seedstock. In a commercial setting crossbred calves are more desirable due to the impact of heterosis. In some seedstock operations the goal is crossbred animals (i.e. SimAngus, Balencer, LimFlex, etc.) however in this case the problem arises due to an unexpected deviation from the intended marketing objective. If the breeder wants to abort the female, they can give her an injection of prostaglandin. The problem is that if she is aborted and then bred later in the season she will obviously calve later and potentially calve later the following year. If aborting her is not an option, then some breeds will allow for a purebred female to receive credit in the breed database for halving a calf (i.e. she was not open and weaned a calf), but the calf will not be registered.
Source: Dr. Matthew Spangler, Assistant Professor of Animal Science, Animal Science, University of Nebraska - Lincoln