Learn about Red Poll Cattle
Red Poll History
Red Poll Cattle originated in 1808 from the hybridization of Norfolk and Suffolk cattle, in an area of England known as East Anglia. By 1846 these red cattle gained popularity as improved cattle and were recognized as a separate breed.
Red Polls first appeared in Canada in the 1880’s when they were imported by the New Brunswick provincial government. In 1903 H. C. Clendening, of Harding, Manitoba, introduced Red Polls to the west with the Canadian Red Poll Cattle Association being incorporated in 1906. The Red Poll breed spread around the world with Australia having some of the first overseas Red Poll imports in the first decade of the 1800’s with the first breeding stud in the 1870’s.
Red Poll cattle were first imported to the United States in 1873 and New Zealand in 1898. Jamaica, South Africa, Uruguay all have substantial herds.
Understand Our cattle
outstanding mothering ability and ease of calving,
“Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them”.
Thomas de Quincey
Red Poll Bull
The bull is predominantly a quiet and placid animal, an important factor in any cow herd. He is very prepotent, able to transmit his deep red color and polled qualities to his offspring and increasing the milk ability of his daughters when used for crossbreeding on breeds with less milk.
The Red Poll Cow
What kind of cow do we want in our cow herd today? First of all a cow who can convert feed economically throughout her system to her offspring and who has easy calving ability, plenty of milk, is docile and whose carcass and that of her progeny are of top quality and not wasteful.
Considerations a Commercial Cattleman may value in using a Red Poll Bull.
The Red Poll Calf
Cattle breeders maintain a calf must be small enough to cause minimal calving problems and large enough to consistently reach a mature weight quickly. The Red Poll cow drops on average a 70 – 90 pound calf. The Red Poll Cow will have a slightly tilted, very large, pelvis with the angle of the hip bone to pin bone of approximately 18 degrees. This allows for an excellent presentation angle and allows the smooth movement of the calf during calving.
Red Poll Reliability
While it has been noted that there are producing Red Poll cows that reach 20 years after producing a calf every year, in our herd the oldest females we have had were seventeen to nineteen years of age. We kept those bloodlines!!
Higher Milk Production
The 4 – 5.25 gallons per day that the Red Poll cow produces, while short of main dairy breeds of 8 – 10 gallons per day, is far superior to the production as found by Oklahoma State University research report of 1 – 1.8 gallons per day for Herford and 1.3 – 2.6 gallons per day for Angus cows under pasture conditions (Animal Science Research Report – Rollin H. Thayer, editor). For the first three months of a calf’s life its weight gain comes primarily from the dam’s milk, for every 6 to 8 pounds of milk consumed produces 1 pound of gain (Animal Science Research Report – Rollin H. Thayer, editor). With Red Poll genetics in the cow herd, the milk production directly corresponds with the quality of feed available, resulting in faster gaining calves.
Docile Bulls and Females
Red Poll cattle are noted for being docile. A preferred animal for 4H projects because of their ease of handling. Our cattle are generally able to be hand milked from their first calving with no concerns of being around the cow and calf. Quiet cows are easy keepers with excellent feed conversion rates and carcass quality. Our AI sire Eurimbla Leopold’s steers have taken the top carcass, yield, quality and eye muscle area against all breeds in the 2012 National Steer Competition (Australia).
FAQ
We Are Here To Help You With Any Questions You May Have
The best way is to visit our farm and we will show you the bulls grouped in pens and sorted as to sires. This way you can compare the different animals and see each sire’s traits that would be important to your needs.
We can also send pictures and a short video of animals that you may be interested in, but the limitations to this method is it is difficult to compare.
Since we know the bloodlines of each of our dams and sires, we can give you our choice based on your needs and criteria.
What is the right way to start this process?
Either a phone call to Marsha at 250-262-5638 or an email to marshascows@hotmail.com will get the process rolling.
It is very important to us that each and every customer is satisfied. We make sure that the young bull is developed so when we approach spring he keeps a condition score of 3. This assures you he is not over fat and able to perform. All bulls have a bull evaluation test done to confirm scrotal size and semen quality.
And finally if a bull does not perform just return him to the farm and we will either replace him with a similar animal or refund your money.
What kind of delivery options are there
Most animals are picked up at the farm. The bulls are ready after their bull tests in April. We can deliver animals to your location at times, costs are dependant to load size and distance. Please contact Marsha for further info.
Do we sell older bulls? YES, we keep a few yearlings over in case we need one for a replacement guarantee. We also have herd sires that we let go because we kept their daughters in the breeding herd. These animals are usually the best from a selection that we kept back to see how they develop.
Do we sell mature cows? As we try and keep our cattle numbers within a range that we are able to handle without outside help and the limits of our pasture capacity, we always have animals for sale. If you want a milk cow, we have proven animals that are good milk producers due to the dual-purpose aspect of the breed.
We are always bringing in new bloodlines, by either AI sires or bulls purchased from the US. We keep those daughters until we can determine how they perform and what attributes they add to the herd. Some we keep and some we will sell. Bottom line is we do not sell anything that we would not use ourselves.
Do you supply breeding packages? YES. One of the farm’s goals is to promote the breed and introduce new breeders into the industry. Since the farm cannot meet the demand for Red Poll cattle it is important that other breeders become established. Marsha will put together a package up to a reasonably size(herd limitations) of cows, heifers and a bull. We will work with the buyer to get a good cross section of bloodlines and performance qualities.
What should I expect from a Red Poll animal? Now this is a very good question. Red Poll animals are very docile, likely due to the fact that they were used as a dairy animal for many generations. The bulls, while not overly friendly, are gentle and we move them with a flag while walking behind them. Bulls will be bulls and they do fight amongst themselves to establish a pecking order.
The cows will generally allow you to work all around them when they have a new calf. We weight the newborn calf, give it shots and vaccine, tattoo their ears and tag them, all while in the pen with the cow. That is what we mean by docile. That said we do have two older cows that will not allow this to happen and we have to separate the calf. Out of 85 cows that is not a bad ratio and they are concerned for only a couple of day then everything is fine.
How big is the farm?
We have 275 cleared acres on three quarters of land.
How do you keep the breeding animals separate?
Our land is separated into five main pastures each with its own water source. Marsha divides up each pasture and rotational grazes throughout the season. This allows us to have up to four breeding herds and one pasture for the bulls.