The Hays Converter is a breed of cattle native specifically to Alberta, Canada. Named for Harry Hays, the agriculturalist and politician who developed the breed, it was the first pure breed of cattle created in Canada. [1] Work on breeding the Hays Converter began in 1959, and it was officially recognized by the Canadian beef industry under the Canada Livestock Pedigree Act in December 1975. [2] [3] Senator Hays wished to create a cattle breed that would be based solely on production, and as such would mature to market weight as fast as possible. [3]
The Hays Converter is a hardy beef cattle breed, meant to stand up to the harsh conditions in Alberta. They are equipped with strong legs and good feet, giving this breed increased hardiness. [4] By appearance, they are generally black with some white markings on the face, legs and underbelly. They can also be red and white in colour, but this is a more rare occurrence. Cows typically weigh 1250 to 1500 pounds while bulls can reach a weight of 2300 to 2800 pounds. [5]
Hays Converters are an early maturing breed, this feature allows them to breed and produce offspring sooner than other breeds of cattle. [4]
Hays chose three particular breeds of cattle in order to achieve the optimal breed of cattle. He achieved this by combination crosses of Holstein cattle on Hereford cattle and Brown Swiss cattle. [3] These three existing breeds were chosen specifically for certain traits they carried. The Holstein cattle were chosen due to their good strong feet and ability to produce milk with a high butter-fat content, allowing calves to grow faster. The Hereford cattle were chosen due to their high fleshing rate, meaning that their ability to mature quickly would also be passed onto their offspring. Lastly, the Brown Swiss cattle were chosen due to their perfectly shaped udder and ability to produce milk up until the end of lactation. [6]
Once the crosses began, Hays selected for the traits he wanted, and any offspring that did not make the cut in one way or another would have their tails docked and were shipped off to a processing plant. Once all desired traits were achieved in the offspring, the breed was closed off to mating with any outside breeds. By the time the breed achieved pedigree status in 1975, it had achieved all of the traits Hays had hoped it would. These traits included, high growth rate, sturdy build, good carcass quality, easy calving and excellent milk production. [3]
The Jersey is a British breed of small dairy cattle from Jersey, in the British Channel Islands. It is one of three Channel Island cattle breeds, the others being the Alderney – now extinct – and the Guernsey. It is highly productive – cows may give over 10 times their own weight in milk per lactation; the milk is high in butterfat and has a characteristic yellowish tinge.
Holstein Friesians are a breed of dairy cattle that originated in the Dutch provinces of North Holland and Friesland, and Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. They are known as the world's highest-producing dairy animals.
The Simmental or Swiss Fleckvieh is a Swiss breed of dual-purpose cattle. It is named after the Simmental – the valley of the Simme river – in the Bernese Oberland, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is reddish in colour with white markings, and is raised for both milk and meat.
Dairy cattle are cattle bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species Bos taurus.
Beefmaster is a breed of beef cattle that was developed in the early 1930s by Tom Lasater, from a systematic crossing of Hereford cows and Shorthorn cows with Brahman bulls. The exact mixture of the foundation cattle is unknown, but is thought to be about 25% Hereford, 25% Milking Shorthorn and 50% Brahman. It was first recognized by the USDA as a new breed in 1954. The original intention was to produce cattle that could produce economically in the difficult environment of South Texas. The cattle were selected by using the Six Essentials – weight, conformation, milking ability, fertility, hardiness and disposition. While brownish-red is the most common color, the breed has no color standards. Over the past decade, the Beefmaster breed has become very popular among herd managers using the breed in their heterosis programs for hybrid vigor. These cattle are a versatile breed and adapt to many climates.
The Dexter is an Irish breed of small cattle. It originated in the eighteenth century in County Kerry, in south-western Ireland, and appears to be named after a man named Dexter, who was factor of the estates of Lord Hawarden on Valentia Island. Until the second half of the nineteenth century it was considered a type within the Kerry breed.
The Murray Grey is an Australian breed of polled beef cattle. It originated between 1905 and 1917 in the upper Murray River valley, on the border between New South Wales and Victoria. It is similar in appearance to the Aberdeen Angus, from which it largely derives, but is grey, silver or dun in colour.
A bovid hybrid is the offspring hybrid of members of two different species of the bovid family. There are 143 extant species of bovid, and the widespread domestication of several species has led to an interest in hybridisation for the purpose of encouraging traits useful to humans, and to preserve declining populations. Bovid hybrids may occur naturally through undirected interbreeding, traditional pastoral practices, or may be the result of modern interventions, sometimes bringing together species from different parts of the world.
The Limousin, French: Limousine, is a French breed of beef cattle from the Limousin and Marche regions of France. It was formerly used mainly as a draught animal, but in modern times is reared for beef. A herd-book was established in France in 1886. With the mechanisation of agriculture in the twentieth century, numbers declined. In the 1960s there were still more than 250 000 head, but the future of the breed was not clear; it was proposed that it be merged with the other blonde draught breeds of south-western France – the Blonde des Pyrénées, the Blonde de Quercy and the Garonnaise – to form the new Blonde d'Aquitaine. Instead, a breeders' association was formed; new importance was given to extensive management, to performance recording and to exports. In the twenty-first century the Limousin is the second-most numerous beef breed in France after the Charolais. It is a world breed, raised in about eighty countries round the world, many of which have breed associations.
Luing cattle are a beef breed developed on the island of Luing in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland by the Cadzow brothers in 1947. It was formed by first crossbreeding Beef Shorthorn with Highland cattle and then breeding the resulting progeny with Beef Shorthorns to produce an animal three quarters Beef Shorthorn, one quarter Highland. The breed of red-brown cattle are moderately sized and extremely hardy. The intent was to produce a good beef cow with the ability to raise a calf under adverse weather conditions. It was officially recognised as a breed by the British government in 1965. The breed is still farmed today, mainly in Scotland but also in other areas of the world.
Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production. The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef. In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf operations, backgrounding, and feedlot operations. The production cycle of the animals starts at cow-calf operations; this operation is designed specifically to breed cows for their offspring. From here the calves are backgrounded for a feedlot. Animals grown specifically for the feedlot are known as feeder cattle, the goal of these animals is fattening. Animals not grown for a feedlot are typically female and are commonly known as replacement heifers. While the principal use of beef cattle is meat production, other uses include leather, and beef by-products used in candy, shampoo, cosmetics, and insulin.
The Montbéliarde is a breed of red pied dairy cattle from the area of Montbéliard, in the département of Doubs, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France. It is used mainly for dairying and particularly for cheesemaking.
Canadienne cattle, also known as Black Canadienne, French Canadienne, and Black Jersey, are the only breed of dairy cattle developed in Canada. They originated in the 16th century, when French settlers brought cattle over for foundation stock to settle Canada. The Canadienne were the most common breed of domestic cattle in Canada until the late 19th century, when other breeds began to displace them. Today, the Hereford and Holstein have become the most common types of cattle in Canada. The Canadienne, though still found on farms and ranches across the nation, is now comparatively rare except in certain areas of the province of Quebec. Efforts by an active breed society and the Quebec government have been made in recent years to preserve the breed from extinction.
The Black Hereford is a crossbreed of beef cattle produced in Britain and Ireland with Hereford beef bulls with Angus. Black Herefords are not usually maintained from generation to generation, but are constantly produced as a byproduct of
a terminal cross. They are one of the most common types of beef cattle in Britain and Ireland, outnumbering many pure beef breeds.
Feeder cattle, in some countries or regions called store cattle, are young cattle mature enough either to undergo backgrounding or to be fattened in preparation for slaughter. They may be steers or heifers. The term often implicitly reflects an intent to sell to other owners for fattening (finishing). Backgrounding occurs at backgrounding operations, and fattening occurs at a feedlot. Feeder calves are less than 1 year old; feeder yearlings are between 1 and 2 years old. Both types are often produced in a cow-calf operation. After attaining a desirable weight, feeder cattle become finished cattle that are sold to a packer. Packers slaughter the cattle and sell the meat in carcass boxed form.
Norwegian Red is a breed of dairy cattle developed in Norway since 1935. Since the 1970s, breeders strongly emphasized functional and production traits resulting in excellent production combined with world-leading performance in health and fertility traits. Norwegian Red cows can have either a red and white or black coat and have a high proportion of genetically polled animals.
The Rideau Arcott is a breed of domestic sheep native to Canada, one of only a few livestock breeds native to the country.
The Artificial Insemination Centre of Quebec (CIAQ) is a limited partnership society founded in 1948 located in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada with the mission of improving through artificial insemination bovine herds used in milk and meat production throughout the province. The CIAQ is currently the sole bovine sperm production facility in Quebec and is the propriety of the Milk Producers of Quebec (PLQ), the Quebec Council of Milk Producing Breeds (CQRL) and the Provincial Council of Cattle Amelioration Clubs (CPCAB).
North American Piedmontese cattle are a breed of domestic beef cattle originating from an imported herd of select Italian purebred Piedmontese cattle. The foundation line of breeding stock was first imported from Italy into Canada in 1979, and into the United States in the early 1980s. Piedmontese cattle are distinguished by a unique, naturally occurring gene identified as the myostatin allele mutation, or inactive myostatin gene. Myostatin prohibits muscle growth whereas an inactive gene has the opposite effect. Purebred Piedmontese are homozygous,, which means they have two identical alleles present for this unique gene. Research indicates the presence of the myostatin allele mutation produces morphological characteristics unique to the breed, such as double-muscling, beef tenderness, reduced fat content and high yield. According to the North American Piedmontese Association (NAPA), they are the first breed registry to base animal registration requirements on the presence of this specific gene which can be easily verified by DNA testing.
Dairy cattle evaluation is the process of placing a group of dairy cows in order from most to least desirable based on milk production and longevity, where each animal is compared against the "ideal" animal. Dairy cattle are evaluated based on physical traits that equate to high milk production, with slight variations between different breeds. Dairy cattle evaluation is primarily used by producers to select the best cows to keep in the herd.
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