Beef Cattle

I have learned more about beef cattle than I ever imagined I would. The best part about it is that I'm loving it. Right now, we are having to discern between beef cattle breeds visually. It's harder than I thought. A black cow looks like a black cow and a red cow looks like a red cow. The only breeds that I really can immediately identify are the brahman, and the holstein.

Now I am required to identify the Limousin, Corriente, Gelbvieh, Angus, Red Angus, Santa Gertrudis, Beefmaster, Brahman, Hereford, Charolais, Shorthorn and Simmental.

In addition to breeds, we are learning all about beef production. There is more involved than just breeding cows and slaughtering them for steak.

The whole process starts with grass, corn, cow-calf, stocker, feedlots, sale barn, cuts of beef, conditioning scores, carcass weight, and packers.  Phew.