Where are we going?

[grassfarmer]

I think it was actually the Saler breed that claims to be painted on the walls. Breed sales pitch " cavemen prefer salers"
I don't think the Limo's came over on the ark emrald - I heard they all jumped ship - or were they the cow that jumped over the moon? ;o)

[cswilson]

If it was Salers they'd be walking upright in an alert posture lol.

[cowman]

Some of those old Salers cows were dynamite but they could also raise one hell of a calf! You sure never had to do much with them...which was a good thing!
Now I'm no expert on various cattle breeds but I saw a purebred South Devon cow once at a fair that was one of the biggest cows I ever saw! She looked just like a big char except she was a tawny red color. Looked like she had quite a bit of milk and a big calf. A little too slick haired maybe. Now I guess she could be called a "british cow" but she looked like a Continental.

[cowman]

OH, so it was a saler that was on the wall of the cave ! I have been in the limo business for many many years and have never heard about any of our cattle being on cave walls so I am glad that is cleared up.
As for them jumping ship etc. the worst jumper ever on this place was an old hereford cow that was nuts. I have had some limos with a bad attitude but once the bad ones and the high headed ones were weeded out my herd is quiet and easy to handle.
Mind you the calves are lively at birth and have to be tagged pretty fast or they are tough to catch and hang onto.
I always say that there are no worries with the coyotes getting a limo baby, the calves are up and going when they are born and the momma cow will kill any coyote within miles !!!

I think that cattle breeds like vehicle preferences are always an interesting topic. I drive a Dodge, my kids drive Chevs and we seem to spend a lot of time entrenching our positions on vehicles but no matter what we drive we always end up getting where we want to go with our 'wheels', and the same holds true for cattle.

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, my Dad experimented with South Devons in the early 1970s - they were regularily topping all the performance tests then for growth even beating the Charolais plus they didn't have the calving problems of the early charolais. We found them to be very docile, huge milkers (they were still dual purpose at that time) but a bit thin skinned. We used them on Galloway cows but the resulting heifers never bred as well as they looked. They never really caught on partly because the calves were discounted at auction for lacking rear end but mainly because of bad timing - everyone wanted these new, shiny white creatures and fashion prevailed.
Unfortunately the breed sank in popularity until the mid 80s or early 90s when they started breeding limo into them to improve back ends. The last herd I looked at appalled me - they seemed to combine the worst of the two breeds being big, plain, wild and with no milk. I've never seen many South Devons in N America but know that Leachman were using them laterly in their operation after finding some in NZ. Of course the first thing they did was make them polled, and black......

[cswilson]

We use South Devon alot here mainly two bulls the red bull we A"i to cows as mainly a terminal cross he has a bit of BW never pulled a calf off him but they are bigger than I like. The other bull is a Black- at one time he was the only one up here-he is the soundest bull of any breed i've ever owned-very easy calving too-I've never had a calf not AAA off him. Our South Devon cattle winter better than our Angus cows-like little red and black seals. In regards to hair-if any of you know much about sheep-oxfords have a long open fleece so aren't that tough-south devons have shorter hair but very thick-it's really evidant when we clip yearlings in spring at branding. I've got semen on both those bulls if anybody wants to try them.