Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays is talking with the CEO of the Red Angus Association, Tom Brink about the value of Red Angus in crossbreeding and demand for Red Angus.
Brink said the Red Angus Association strongly supports crossbreeding and has close connections with other breeds.
“The Meat Animal Research Center, as most people know, has done a great job of researching that and putting out a lot of good data that shows the benefits of crossbreeding,” Brink said. “It is undeniable, and it is very important from a fertility and longevity standpoint, which are two of the most important profit drivers at the ranch level.”
Brink said Red Angus offers many functional traits to a herd, especially on the cow side.
“It is a maternal breed, high fertility, and our heifers breed up,” Brink said. “We have done studies within our database, and you don’t have to make those heifers gain two pounds per day to get them to breed at 15 months of age to calve at two years of age. They have a lot of natural fertility, longevity, and reasonable frame sizes for the most part.”
Aside from great maternal traits, Brink also highlighted the high-quality marbling and carcass merit of the breed.
“We call it an all-traits maternal leaning breed, and I think that really is what it is, so it can contribute to success for all segments, but of course, that starts at the ranch,” Brink said.
Looking back on this past year, Brink said while prices of Red Angus cattle are high, the herd size is noticeably smaller.
“Some people that had expanded their offerings of bulls left a few unsold and I think that is because people are looking for good bulls, and they are certainly looking for replacement bulls, but there is not any herd expansion going on,” Brink said. “Heifer bull demand is probably not quite as strong as it would be otherwise and that is probably going to pick up gradually over the next couple of years.”
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