We run commercial purebred Angus bulls on Angus and Angus cross cows to produce calves. We selected Angus cattle for a variety of reasons. Some of which will matter to you and others that won't.
Why Angus
Angus cows are known for their mothering abilities. They have good utter soundness and milking capabilities. Obviously a good thing for a young calf. They are a medium sized cow with a have a high incidence of fertility and so are able to be return to an acceptable breeding condition quickly.
Angus cattle are known for their calving ease. We consider that an important trait for cows out on the range.
Angus calves have a good growth rate and we believe great carcass merit. Since we do not know how our customers prefer to finish their beeves, we wanted a calf that would do well on either an all grass or feedlot diet. Because their meat is more finely marbled than other breeds, we think the meat will be more tender and tasty.
Angus are naturally polled. We do not have to worry about injuries to our cattle, horses, or ourselves from horns. Less medical treatment is always a good thing.
Angus are fairly docile. While they are not necessarily the most docile cow around they certainly are not considered by cattlemen to be the wildest rankest beeves they've ever seen.
A Word of Advice
For those of you that have not raised a backyard beeve before; there are many factors that may influence you to chooses one animal or breed over another. For example: steers are larger than heifers, heifers can grow up and give birth, heifers are cheaper than steers, one animal is cuter than another, one animal larger, one animal smaller, etc, etc. These should be considered secondary considerations.
Your primary consideration in selecting a beeve to raise at home is TEMPERAMENT. It's one thing to be sittin a horse out in the open with a wild steer and quite another to be afoot in a pen with him. No one should want a wild fresh off the range beeve in their backyard. They are a danger to themselves, your family, neighbors and property. A normally weaned calf is going to outweigh you by three or four times and if you can get within 50 feet of him he is going to start looking for a place to go. Even cowboys appreciate nice gentle cattle. After all no one really enjoys getting stomped, kicked, seriously hurt and then hauled off to the hospital. 'Nuff said.
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