Calling a Spade, a Spade

The phrase to call a spade, a spade is an idiom that has its roots from ancient Greece. It refers to speaking openly and bluntly about the truth. There is a lot of name calling in the world. People are quick to classify people, animals, and even situations into categories. The livestock industry has gotten really creative about “re-branding” animals. Percentage this, half blood that, it all sounds great. It makes for more classes and ways for people to win. Does it really help the cause and animal production? Is it time we call a spade a spade? 

One of my favorite arguments is Black Herefords. Now genetically and historically, Hereford cattle are not black. There is not a genetic mutation that a Hereford will sometimes be born black. It has to be crossed with another animal, typically an Angus, and most people call this cross a black baldy. That has been the term for decades and taught in many animal science courses. 

The next is all these percentage animals. It is to the point where you can register some animals 2 or 3 different ways. Registration of livestock is a way to track lineages and data. We have people who have low Chi cattle that can show as Main Anjou, or some other breed. 

Please do not get me wrong, I have no problem with creating more avenues for people to get involved with livestock, and especially cattle production. The problem I have is the distance we get from the truth and facts about cattle. Many have stopped calling a spade a spade.

I have had arguments about how many Herefords today are not pure and have been crossed in the past. I always say, then change the association and force their hand in cleaning up the genetics.

For your information, the American Hereford Association does not have any intentions of doing that any time soon. The bottom line is, we do not have black Herefords from a genetic mutation. We have black herefords from crossbreeding. It is time we call a spade a spade.

The Angus association has problems of their own with trait breeding and confirmation. There are a lot of breeders that use phenotypical attributes to select cattle. That is the way it should be and it is time we call a spade a spade with this and many other associations.

People are taking crossbred cattle, applying a label on them, and expecting everyone to be okay with it. It’s not. Hybrid vigor stops having an exponential effect after so many crosses. You have people breeding bulls with 3 different breeds crossed in their blood, to cows with 3 totally different breeds. This is where genetic mutation has a much higher chance of causing difficulty. These are crossbred cattle. It is time to call a spade a spade.

Steer shows are getting wise. They have stopped labeling certain breeds and went into light cross, dark cross, etc. Yet breeders are still taking all these crossbreed cattle and keep breeding them to crossbred cattle. Put some purebred genetics back into your herds. Stop using bulls with 3 or 4 breeds in their lineage. Stop breeding cattle that produce 120 pound calves that you have to pull or do c-sections on all the time. 

The large cattle producers, feedlots, and purebred breeders don’t care about your 87.5% black herefords, percentage chi, or percentage shorthorn. They care about sound functional cattle that can produce. They like bloodlines from proven bulls and cow herds. They want easy calving and quick growing cattle that don’t require assistance. They want cattle that will perform in the pasture and hang on a rail. That is the ultimate point of raising beef cattle - creating the best by product we possibly can. Forget your fad and suped up breeds. Call a spade and a spade and raise good beef cattle. 

"Crossbred and commercial cattle make up a majority of the cattle in this country. It is beyond time we call a spade a spade and get back to basics in cattle production." - Jeremy Workman