Cattle and other Animals Slaughtered for Human Consumption Deserve the Benefit of Modern Technology .... just like we Humans do.

This lovely cow is J.West's Nell Opal, sired by J.West's Bounder, an English Woodbastwick Turpin sired bull, and Nell Opal has never missed a calf. Her calf at foot is sired by J.West's El Presidente. I really enjoy this video from a year and half or so ago, gives me a quiet happy feeling. Yes, the calf looks muddy with the August summer sand turning to mud with the fluids of birth . . . but look how very alive and curious he is, how grand and milky and beautiful his dam, my Nell Opal. I've just about finished, only in the last hours, a silly struggle to keep her image from being used for a purpose that I found abhorrent and totally at odds with this breed's history, it's docility -- the joy the breed conveys to it's owners on a regular basis -- yes, they are beef cattle -- but they do feel pain, keenly, they feel the loss of their calves, they sense the injury and distress of their herd mates -- and they do deserve the benefit of modern humane treatment at slaughter, rather than their throats being slit and a painful and unconscionable wait for them to cry and struggle and bleed out and die. We accept the furtherance of technology that benefits humans -- yet some wish to hold the slaughter animal back to Biblical days. Astounding.

Newborn British White Heifer!

Have a look . . . a rather long look, at J.West's Doc's Gal with her newborn heifer sired by J.West's Milo.  The heifer is still wet from birth, and her dam is trying her best to lick her dry in the chilling wind.  My dog, Lucky, is creeping around in the yaupon grove and that puts her on high alert, then you see a nice little bull calf coming to check out what's up, and he happens to be her maternal brother, my J.West's MsRae's latest calf.  Doc's Gal is out of MsRae and Mazarati, both sired by my first herd bull, DFTX 'Doc' Watson, chosen by the late Bob Stanley as the bull to start his herd with. Doc was my first British White to hit the pastures some 14 years back.  J.West's Doc's Gal was flushed for embryos that were exported to Australia for use at Shrublands Estate cattle farm.  I do hope they have heifers from Doc's Gal bred to calve later on this year . . . and even more hope they express the incredibly milky and beautiful udder of Doc's Gal.

British White Cattle are an Excellent Fit for Commercial Production

Four Top Commercial Producers Talk About Beef Production

Burt Rutherford

The following are excerpts from an interesting Beef Cattle Magazine article.  Click the link above for the full text of the article: 

“Our breeding program is really focused around a maternal composite,” says John Maddux with Maddux Cattle Company of Wauneta, NE, this year’s BIF Commercial Producer of the Year Award winner. “We stress maternal traits and making sure we’re focused on fitness and convenience traits as opposed to the traditional production traits that are represented by EPDs.”

“ . . . For most breeds out there, we have more-than-optimum levels of production,” he says. That means having a high-growth calf is relatively unimportant to them, he says, because it’s relatively easy with moderate growth to make a nine-weight steer at 16 or 17 months of age. . . "

" . . . So, while the most efficient cow size will differ depending on the environmental constraints you run in, all four say a moderate cow size is something to shoot for. “It may not be for everybody, but for our program, we want moderate size, a 1,200-lb. cow max,” Maddux says."

J.West's Vincenzia & Heifer Calf

Rare 3/4 British White - 1/4 Nelore Heifer Born in the USA to J.West Cattle Company

My stunning half Nelore and half British White heifer, HBW Daisy, calved yesterday evening a pretty little heifer!!  Daisy has proven to be very easy-keeping.  She grew that magnificent frame while on the same hay and alfalfa as the BW heifer herds she has run with since I brought her home. Daisy has shown clear tolerance, or perhaps lack of desirability to biting flies and lice, excellent heat tolerance.  Basically, this gal never misses a beat.

My goal . . . a gentler version of my beautiful Miss Daisy.  Tomorrow I'll be dashing out to get a birth weight on her new heifer calf, and will cross my fingers I can get a tag in her ear before Daisy pounds the earth to get to me!!!  While she's let me touch her, comes readily to me offering alfalfa, she clearly has extreme protective maternal instincts and does not trust me as my BW girls do.  Her heifer calf was very laid back about me having a look at her, popping up her tail to confirm she was a heifer. She didn't startle at all, I was thankful for that as we were close to the state highway fence.  That said, I wasn't going to pop her up on her feet and take a chest measure so close to the highway; if she dashed thru the old highway fence I've no doubt Miss Daisy would have simply taken down all the barbed wire and headed after her newborn heifer on US Highway 69. . . .

HBW Daisy and her newborn 3/4 British White and 1/4 Nelore Heifer Calf

 

J.West's British White Cattle.

American British White Females in Texas Available for Lease for Embryo Flushing . . . 

The topic of embryo flushing has come in to conversation this past week, and I thought of this fine photo of Colombian BON calves the product of embryo transfer. If you are interested in embryos of the British White breed, or using one of my females for flushing to the BON or another breed, please let me know. I will certainly make available my superior females for flushing and export on a lease basis as I've done in the past. It's an excellent approach to introducing desirable genetics around the world. I think the combination of the beefiness of the American British White and the BON's documented excellent tolerance to heat and biting insects would be a great joining for tropical areas in pursuit of greater beef production in tropical environments.  One day it will happen!!!   

Blanco Orejinegro calves in Colombia

"Nice set of embryo calves of the Blanco Orejinegro breed in Colombia. A road to more rapid improvement and expansion of any small breed is the use of embryo flushing of the superior females."Embriones Agropecuaria Pacaraima -- Pacaraima livestock embryos (Translated by Bing)

Embriones Agropecuaria Pacaraima