Every day on the way to the barn I pass a farm that has a sign out front.....Composite Beef Cattle. What is a composite cow? Just curious-never saw that before.
Generally speaking it is a recognized crossbreed - black baldies are a cross between angus cattle and herfords. Sometimes it is a reconized 3 or 4 way cross that produces predicitable results. A somewhat famous one is now called Beefmaster. Another is Chiangus - a cross between angus and Chianina cattle.
There used to be a breed being developed in our general area called the "American" breed. It was a composit of longhorn, bison and something else - I think it was either hereford or angus or brangus. There was probably some Brahma in the mix as well. The cows were large and produced quite a bit of milk (not as much as a dairy cow) that was really rich. They had small babies (thus few calving problems) that grew huge fast on the rich milk. The meat was very lean and tender. They supposedly did all this on poor pasture and little else - and so-so hay in the winter.
We looked into getting a few, but the price was horrendous - no way were we paying that for a cow! At those prices, you'd have to have three or four times the market price for the steers over the next several years just to break even. I think that although the breed was pretty successful, the project eventually died out from lack of interest. No wonder at the prices they wanted!
Pretty interesting. That breed does sound perfect! Too bad it waas so expensive. I have a friend who raises bison for meat, and it is delicious! Can only imagine what a cross would be like! Thanks for the info Posted via Mobile Device