Sunday, October 19, 2014

Benefits Of Irish Black Cattle

By Dominique Martin


Raising beef for sale takes a lot of effort for most people. The rancher must remain on the lookout for blood lines that can improve the quality of the herd being maintained for breeding and to raise the ratio of salable cuts of meat to pound of living stock. Many beef ranchers have incorporated Irish Black cattle into their herds to achieve this goal.

Improvements to herds that have this breed introduced to them are well documented. A single bull will be able to impregnate over one hundred cows per season and the calves are guaranteed to carry all the genetic markers of this bull. Regardless of the breed of your cows the calves will look like and be built like the sire. The rate of successful impregnation is rated to be over eighty percent and bulls from this breed can be fertile for up to ten years of age.

When born the male calves will weigh nearly eighty pounds while the heifer calves will weigh slightly less. They can be expected to mature fast and within thirteen months will weigh enough to be slaughtered. Carcasses contain less back fat and the meat is gently marbled giving it tenderness and excellent flavor. They also feature big rumps and produce steaks up to fourteen inches across. The final dressed percentage will be around sixty five percent.

Increasing the size or quality of a herd becomes an easier task when these cattle are introduced into it. The bull will mate with any breed of cow available and adding a few head of Irish Black heifers can help with blood lines when older cows are removed from the herd. The new heifers will mature in less than a year and be available for breeding during the next season. The cows can deliver in the field without assistance and the resulting calves will be vigorous and healthy.

Their short, sturdy stature is an advantage to ranchers because the additional feeding in stock pens is far less than with larger animals. This allows the rancher to afford a larger herd for sale. It also provides the ability to increase the size of a breeding stock herd without effecting the profits available.

Additionally important to raising this breed of stock is that they are very adaptable to the environment they habituate. They have shown the ability to thrive in over twenty two of the fifty states in America. Breeders in the high altitudes up to twelve thousand feet above sea level have reported absolutely no cases of brisket disease among their herds.

After creating what he considered the perfect cow, rancher Maurice Boney imported three Friesian bulls from Europe along with sperm from other Friesians from Spain and Italy. He then set about breeding and documenting the heritage of his special stock. In 1971 he closed the books on linage and today all of this breed can be traced back to the original five cows and three bulls. In the 1990's he obtained a trademark for the line and started the non-profit organization that controls the purity of the breed.

This breed of stock sets a standard of excellence for quality beef production in America and their reputation has grown over the years throughout the world.




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