You are bringing fair points about the horns ... For us in Northern Ontario the Highland cattle are getting really popular since they withstand our harsh winter with ease...
You might try Belted Galloways; no horns, bred next door to the Scottish long horns, and marble very well on grass feed due to their double coat.
Interesting thread. My eventual goal is to have a few steers so we can raise our own beef. I have a few friends that do this that we've bought some of their meat from, so doing it ourselves seems to make sense once our fencing is done.
Something that I've read, but don't have any experience with, is that it takes 2 years for the steer to be at the ideal age for butchering. I forget the details, but it has something to do with marbling and quality of the meat when butchered. Is there any truth to this?
We where thinking that we would be 2 or three calves every year, and butcher the two year old's, every year.
Personally, I think that slaughtering by age is an accounting method. Breed, weaning times and methods, feeding methods, castration timing and methods, all influence the point which the bovine has sufficient marbling for the desired purpose. That purpose can vary whether you are trying for
USDA prime, choice, or select, or lower. We do two years-ish due to our desire to have the cattle on green grass at slaughter, and we have a short "green grass" season here. The "ish" has to do with when the calves were born. For our cows, they bulk up considerably in that second year, so waiting puts more meat on the carcass.
For those considering small scale grass raising cattle, I strongly encourage you to consider Belted Galloways. They have a double coat that protects them from the elements better, and which means that they deposit much less fat under the skin. So, they marble up sooner on just grass. They do well on coarse forage, rather hardy, have no trouble in snow and rain, and are quite docile and easy to handle. Repeated taste tests put beef from belted galloways at the top of the lists, I suspect because of the better marbling. (Yes, I was skeptic at first, but I have now drunk the Koo-aid, and am a believer. We have been raising them for close to fifteen years, and have a waiting list of folks wanting to buy our beef. We have lost just one customer, who had to give up beef for health reasons.) We raise "low-line" Belted Galloways, which are shorter, 36-42" high at the shoulder, and our steers yield in range of 350-550lbs of closely trimmed beef after two to three weeks of hanging.
Just a suggestion...and quite possibly not the best choice in areas that get really hot for sustained periods of time. We max out at 100F, rarely. I know that the breed does well in the Midwest, but I don't know about say Texas, or Florida.
All the best,
Peter
