Red Angus or Black Angus.
Allowed topics.

Alfalfa vs Grass.
Favorite John Deere tractors.
How to name your favorite cow.
Excessive mooing.
Favorite 3.2 beer
How to get your wife do the feeding if your too drunk to drive the feed wagon.

How to Name your Cow

Did you know that in Quebec it is illegal to give your cow (or any other animal) a "human" name?

I'd be serving life!

ummm...the medium rare ones!! :D Sorry!

For eating or for milk production, Chip? I'll go hopme and ask the baker/farmer (well, his family operated a dairy for years).

p.s. even the chipmunks in my backyard, that destroy my roses, have names!! The leader of the pack is "Houdini"...Niko caught him, and had played with him a while before I realized that the object I thought to be inanimate was a live critter...so, after chasing Niko and the poor creature around the yard, I caught Niko and spent the next half an hour wrestling the poor chipmunk from his mouth. He was limp and soaking wet...I assumed (with good reason) that he was dead, so I put him in my garbage can and replaced the lid. Three days later, in the very hot summer sun, I heard scratching from inside the garbage can, so I took the lid off, and out popped the very bedragled head of that resillient chipmunk...he was dubbed immediately "Houdini"...I can tell which one he is, because he has no tail...I think Niko had a paw in that!! :D

Is there a law against naming chipmunks too?? :)

Okay, Chip, did I stray too far from the original subject???? ;) :angel2: <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

Well, what about the relative merits of Holsteins vs Guernseys? How come we're limited to Angus?
:app:

Sheri,
don't know what the law is on chipmunks, it may just apply to domesticated animals. The provencial government of Quebec can also change the name given to a baby if it doesn't fit into some unknown criteria.
Just found out today that the state of Utah repealed a law that prohibited a person from owning a cat and a dog at the same time.

Opps, sorry Chip, straying from the cows.

There Milk cows. But we are allowed to switch topics since this my tread. Guernseys are a lot quieter breed and some say the milk is richer. We use to use Holstein steers as, how should I put it, heat detectors. They were mean.

Has anyone seen the movie "City Slickers"?

Ok, I'm just a city girl, but one cow pretty much looks like another. Some are black, some are black & white, some are red, and some are sorta brown. Altho, ifn I was agonna pick one, I'd hafta say for pur pretty, that there Red Angus is tops.


Guernsey
Data from herds enrolled in the American Guernsey Association's Dairy Herd Improvement Register program during 1992 shows the breed average to be 14,667 pounds of milk, 659 pounds of butterfat and 510 pounds of protein on a mature-equivalent basis.


Holstein
Average production for all Holsteins enrolled in official U.S. production-testing programs in 1987 was 17,408 pounds of milk, 632 pounds of butterfat and 550 pounds of protein per year.



Black Angus


Red Angus
Angus -Red or Black
Early in the development of the Aberdeen Angus, Hugh Watson of Keillor, Scotland arbitrarily decided that black was the proper color for the breed, and thereby started a fashion. He might well have chosen red instead. Leon J. Cole and Sara V. H. Jones of the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station published a pamphlet in 1920 on "The Occurrence of Red Calves in Black Breeds of Cattle" which contained this pertinent paragraph:

"One more point should be emphasized, namely that the red individuals appearing in such stock (Aberdeen Angus)...are just as truly 'purebred' as their black relatives, and there is no reason why, in all respects save color, they should not be fully as valuable. The fact that they are discarded while the blacks are retained is simply due to the turn of fortune that black rather than red became established fashion for the Aberdeen Angus breed. Had red been the chosen color, there would never have been any trouble with the appearance of blacks as off-color individuals, since red-to-red breeds true."


:lct:

Chip, I did a real ROTFL at this post. Okay:

1. Have not a clue as to difference between alfalfa and grass. All I know is I've got 5 acres of something green out there that needs to be mowed, and I am not about going to weed and feed and seed the stuff, so long as it is green and serving my purposes.

2. My favorite John Deer Tractor is the one that I own! 750 model, looks like a real "tractor". Had it since the mid 80's and it is still running strong. Have the groomer and the bush hog attachments to clear what you call "the brush" out there in Arizona.

2. No cows here, so no comments. My dog was named by the breeder as he was in a litter of many males named after the Marx brothers. Zeppo is mine. What, should I call him? Pets are like people to all of us.

3. Excessive mooing. No cows here

4. 3.2 beer I only remember in the 70's when I would buy beer in the supermarkets on vacation in Fla. or Colorado years ago. What is regular beer...6%?

5. No good answer if she won't just quit and take up your slack!

I can tell from the responses since I started composing my last answer that I really need to get another life!

On our favorite trip of all time (it was what we called our Honeymoon - it was our first trip together) to Northern California. There are many Cow Ranches right off of Hwy 101.

Somewhere up that way, I was joking with Frank telling him that he really was taking me on a tour of "F*#$%king Cows". As I said that a Bull mounted a Cow in plain view of the highway. You can use your imagination. It was a moment that had us in stitches, since I rarely use the "F" word and there they were demonstrating that in fact, Cows really do fornicate.

Ya, and City Slickers 2. What was the name of that baby cow he took home?

Vicky, well I'm impressed. The Red and Black was a big issue for the American Angus Assoc. All other contries consider red and black all the same breed. In The USA Red Angus could not be registered in the Black Assocation. The were considered inferior. Red carrier bulls were shunned so to speak. In the forties some breeders got together and bought red carrier bulls. They started the Red Angus Assoc of America and in the last sixty years have surpassed the Black Angus in quality and become a totally seperate breed.

The red parents can never produce a black. Red cattle are much more desirable when crossed with Herfords because they are more tolerent of the sun. Black Baldies have been replaced by Red Baldies in the west as comercal cattle.

That picture of the Red Angus cow and calf that you posted is a famous one. She was a Choctaw Chief 373 daughter, one of the first red bulls. We used that bull in our herd AI and had many sisters to her.

My family sold there comercial black herd in 68 and bought a regesitered herd. We wanted to get started in a small new breed rather than compeat with all the blacks. We had serveral Grand Champion Bulls and Females over the years. We sold cattle into Canada and Argentina. Loved going there.

Old cowboys can't type very fast on laptops

Is talking to cows allowed? My first house bordered a farm and being a city girl, I had a great time MOO-OOing back to the cows. In Tucson, the neighbor behind us has a goat and pig (4H projects). I talk to them too. The goat talks back!

Google, Chip, Google

Saw all that about the color wars on the Oklahoma State University web site (or was it the University of Oklahoma web site - about as controversial as red v black angus) where I got the stuff I posted.

Why Donna, I never realized you were fluent in "goat" or "cow" Such talented people we have here on LCT.
:pass: <img border="0" alt="[drinker]" title="" src="graemlins/all_coholic.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[beer]" title="" src="graemlins/beer.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[rofl]" title="" src="graemlins/rofl.gif" />

See above post for answers as I edit.

No Chip,
I meant that I Googled. You don't think I knew that off the top of my head, do you? I told ya, I'm a city girl. (ok, I will admit that I knew Holsteins and Guernseys were both dairy breeds and heaven knows I saw lots of Black Angus around Montana when I was growing up but I didn't even know there was such a thing as Red Angus) The choice of the picture of the Red Angus was just pure chance, it had the best composition of those on the web site, IMHO, and looked nice against the blue sky.

I'm sorry this thread is going pretty fast and typing is not my forte. As Olivia says I go over her head and know she is kidding. I don't mean to be a know it all. But I spent my life doing this and I'm proud of it. Two generations died off and the tax laws forced us out because the land became to0 valuable. I miss it.

We should of hired Olivia. She remembers 3.2 beer for 18 year olds. We lived in a dry county except for the 3.2 which is all one really needs at that age.

Chip,
You have reason to be proud. Ranching is a tough business and despite sometimes being a difficult way to make a living, it can be a good way of life if you're suited to it. Way too many family ranches and farms in this country have been lost for the reasons you stated.
Some of my posts were tongue in cheek but no disrepect was meant to anyone.

(trying to keep up? don't edit previous posts, just post a new reply)

I know. Vicky good idea. Google Sally Forbes Beckton Farms one of the first Red Angus breeders. Husband died at a early age and see took over their 15,000 acre ranch in Wyoming. She's 85 now, quite the story

I like Elsie, the Borden cow!

I thought Elsie was the Elmer's glue cow...?? Too many cows to keep track of!

Our TV ads have California cows speaking to each other saying that California has the happiest cows (thus the best cheese!)

PITA filed a law suit saying false advertising, that the cows never said any such thing! (a bit ridiculous huh?)

We went to visit a milk farm and we got to milk the cows when I was 8. Used to have an Adohr Dairy right in the neighborhood I grew up in - Metropolitan Los Angeles! Sold out to being a mall.

Denise, I like Elsie too.

Marcie,
the Elmer's glue cow was Elsie's "husband" Elmer

from tvacres.com/adanimals

Elsie the Cow - Brown Jersey cow mascot for the Borden Company who appeared on various occasions (as a marionette) during THE BORDEN SHOW/NBC/1947. After the Borden Company began an ad campaign featuring their logo of Elsie the Cow in 1938, they needed a real cow to be their representative and so they recruited a bovine named "You'll Do Lobelia" (born at the Elm Hill Farms in Brookfield, Massachusetts in 1932). In 1940, Elsie got a partner, a husband named Elmer. Both Elsie and Elmer (the mascot for Elmer's Glue) have appeared in print, and media advertisements since the 1930s. Elsie the Cow beat out actor Van Johnson and U.S. Sen. Robert Taft in a 1952 recognition poll surveying America's most familiar faces. In the 1990s, after 15 years in retirement, Elsie was resurrected for an animated TV ad campaign. Actress Hope Emerson provided Elsie's voice in a variety of TV commercial spots in the early years of television.

Vickie,

I do believe you are the DEFINITIVE cow authority! Such a wealth of information! Thanks!

I forgot about good old Elmer!

And, Marcie, I do like those cows on the CA cheese commercials, too!

Experts (and nice experts) in so many different areas - I never would have thought I'd be learning about cows but I am enjoying it - Joanna

Just goes to show, you never know what topic of conversation will come up on the boards!

Cows! Who would have thunk it? Leave it to Chip!

All you cow fans should of came to my house last week. It was manure spreading day and the farmer spread the cow and pig manure in the field across the street from my house. Very aromatic!

Pungent!

Manure spreading time makes you glad to be city folk!

Karen; So sorry we missed it - another date??

Cars are frequently names after animals. Hence, we have the Ford Mustang, The Jaguar, The Chevrolet Impala, The Dodge Ram. How about the Hummer Hefer? - a perfect name for a huge SUV, I think. Or the Chrysler Cow? The Audi Angus? The Buick Gurnsey?

Okay, I know nothing about cows (well at least I didn't before this thread...now I think I could impress a rancher at a cocktail party!) But I can answer ONE question that came up further back in this thread:

NORMAN!

That was the name of Billy Crystal's cow. OH MY, now here we are talking about Crystal in this thread! :ohmy:
:D :D :D

Denise,
no authority by any means. Just learned from Karen to Google.

I'm afraid "Norman" would not have been allowed into Quebec with that name.

Ok, inquiring minds want to know:

why is a person who raises cattle for dairy called a dairy FARMER
and a person who raises cattle for beef
called a cattle RANCHER ?

Once again, I am gaining unexpected knowledge from this board. You just never know, from cameras to sleep aids, or cars to cows!!!! :)

Speaking of "OT posts",,,isn't my lil reindeer cute??? :D

Yes, Sheri. He is adorable!!!

Betty