Advantages Of Irish Black Cattle

By Dominique Martin


Creating a prosperous beef ranch is a demanding profession for ranchers. To be successful the stock must be healthy and robust. An owner needs to constantly be on the alert for stock that will improve the profit margin when the cows go to market by increasing the quality and salable weight of the carcass when butchered. The overall profit ratio increase has convinced many ranchers to purchase Irish Black cattle for their herds.

The advantage gained by using this breed of stock to improve the herd is amazing. One bull is capable of breeding with and impregnating up to one hundred fifty cows a season. They are very fertile and the rate of success is well over eighty five percent. Calves from these bulls will retain the very best attributes of the sire and because of genetics they will all look alike.

The heifers generally weigh around seventy pounds at birth with the males weighing five to seven pounds more. Calves mature to slaughter tenderness within thirteen months and the carcasses contain less fat and excellent marbling for flavorful cuts of meat. The carcass will provide large butts and rib eye steaks up to fourteen inches across. Ranchers can expect dressing percentages between sixty four and sixty seven percent.

If you plan to increase the size and quality of your herd obtaining one bull and six or seven cows will prove to be effective for short term strategies. The bull and cows will provide very successful mating results and whatever breeding stock you have will produce calves from the new bull. Heifers mature quickly and will pass through estrous the first year and be ready for breeding the next season. The cows deliver without help and the calves are quick to gain their feet and begin nursing.

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.

Another advantage these cows have is their adaptability to different environments. They have shown themselves to thrive at any altitude and in virtually any climate. Their popularity has spread to over twenty states nationwide and they do very well at altitudes over ten thousand feet. Mountain ranches have no reported cases of brisket disease which afflicts other breeds at high altitudes.

The creator of these cattle worked for decades to perfect the breed. He spent years breeding cows that met his standards and when they were ready he imported three Friesian bulls and additional sperm from Europe. All of the cattle in this breed can be traced back to the original five cows and three bulls he used. During the initial years he documented each calf as it was born and tracked their linage until 1971 when he closed the book on the genetic lines. The breed was trademarked twenty years later to protect the genetic pool and future.

This breed of stock has become a standard of quality measurement over the past fifty years and continues to gain respect and popularity from breeders across the nation and from the international cattle industry.




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