Pingback: How to Raise Corriente Cattle | Financial - Popular Question & Answer. It may not have been intentional, but he liked the results. If you are planning on raising beef for your own use, Corrientes are an excellent choice: healthy, easy to breed, and less expensive to feed. handles registration of cattle, and they publish their member list on its website. ( Log Out / This is where the time spent gentling the cattle paid off. My family got used to the flavor and texture quickly, and grew to like it, but Corriente beef is not mainstream in America. ( Log Out / Corriente cattle are a breed of cattle descended from Spanish animals brought to the Americas in the late 15th century. A steer is generally ready for rodeo use at 12-15 months of age. (North American Corriente Association) now has over 500 members, and you can find Corrientes all over the United States. Natural selection in the harsh deserts of inland Mexico helped to refine a hardy breed we now know as Corrientes. Were more than just ranchers raising cattle. We found it easier to buy a young bull and fatten him for the freezer after he finished impregnating the cows than to keep them apart after breeding. You’ll also want to pay attention to when you calve. All our Corriente cattle have been raised here on our property, fed grass, and been kept in a “stress free” environment. During the time I raised Corrientes, I didn’t even own a calf puller, and didn’t set my alarm during the night to check on the pregnant cows, as most of the Angus ranchers in my area do. Raising our cattle on grass greatly reduces this "carbon footprint.". As interest built, a breed association was formed, and the food value of Corrientes was rediscovered. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. I just couldn’t keep him in.” Bookmark the permalink. Once the Corriente bull finished his side of the fence, he jumped over and went after all the Angus cows. In Florida, the few remaining small, native cattle - cousins of the Mexican Corriente are called Scrub cattle or Cracker cattle, and similar cattle in Louisiana are called Swamp cattle. Although doctors and nutritionists encourage lower-fat diets, most Americans prefer higher-fat beef. All our Corriente cattle have been raised here on our property, fed grass, and been kept in a stress free environment. As rodeo rose in popularity, people grew interested in Corriente cattle again. samples of … While most beef cattle are injected with steroids, hormones, antibiotics or at least a "solution" of water before you buy it at the store, our stock are subjected to none of this unnatural enhancement. Corriente cattle farming is very common and popular, especially in it’s native area. Corriente cattle, known as Criollo cattle in Central and South America, were all but abandoned. ( Log Out / One for sure. If have any intention of selling your cattle, however, it’s well worth spending a few extra dollars to buy registered Corrientes and transfer the registration. In 2008, 4 ounces of Corriente beef was sent to BodyCote, Inc., a food science lab for analysis. The horns give them some measure of protection. The meat from Corriente is significantly leaner than the meat from most modern beef cattle. If you find the rodeo stock companies hard to sell to, you can do very well selling directly to rodeo cowboys who need practice animals. “The crosses are still a smaller-framed animal, though, which helps with birthing.” The beef is leaner than a purebred Simmental would produce, but without the different flavor of the Corriente beef. In November of 1493, Columbus, on his second voyage to the Americas, brought cattle to Hispaniola, and herds were established there. The large horns have side effects on the cows as well. Corriente cattle are a breed of cattle descended from Spanish animals brought to the Americas in the late 15th century. I check, the notification goes away, and th…, For all of you that are sitting at home thinking, "Gosh, I wish there was a video of some dude reading his children…, The Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary provides forever homes to non-releasable wildlife, animals that would otherwise…. I have watched small groups of them trot across a field and jump a traditional four-strand barbed wire fence without breaking stride. Among those were Spanish cattle. Like any breed association, the N.A.C.A. Posted on 31 August 2011, in Blog and tagged Acres U.S.A., Angus, beef, cattle, Chinampo, Corriente, Criollo, NACA, PRCA, rodeo, roping. Some ranchers are looking for ways to preserve the higher fat content that the American markets look for while gaining some of the advantages of the Corriente breed, such as easy calving and lower feed requirements. Note that both sports use steers, not bulls or cows. is working hard to establish the concept of “pure” Corriente cattle. Corriente cattle were considered beef cattle until well into the 1800s, when modern beef cattle based on other European breeds displaced them. I made a point of handling all of my calves as soon as possible after they were born, and touching the cows whenever possible to keep them used to being handled. When many ranchers get ready to sell their cattle to the big producers, they send them to feed lots where the cows just stand around in pens and get filled up with grain, mostly corn. It has not. Texas Longhorn cattle were developed from the same original stock, but those bloodlines diverged centuries ago. A few of their cousins, descended from those same Spanish cattle, still exist in Florida — where they are known as Scrub cattle or Cracker cattle — and Louisiana, where they are known as Swamp cattle. They will also subsist on scrub and poor-quality hay that might founder other breeds, but if you’re raising them for meat, you’ll get better results with high-quality feeds. The first thing you need to watch out for in buying Corriente cattle is the word “Corriente.” Many Mexicans use the term to refer to any horned small cattle of unknown breeding. Corrientes are known as “easy keepers.” Unlike Angus cattle, which are brought into the barn and carefully watched during calving, Corrientes often wander off in the field and have their calves on their own. All steers must be between 450 and 650 pounds, so don’t fatten them up before selling. ROCKIN' D BEEF, from family-owned and operated ROCKIN' D RANCH, is the. We live in an area with a lot of large predators, including grizzlies, wolves, and mountain lions, all of which can take down a small cow. The author's cat, Lena, pulls some cows & calves together for a picture. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. If you’re planning to sell steers to the rodeo market, keep in mind that the PRCA now has a mandatory weight limit. However, ranchers started to improve their herds with the use of more modern beef cattle, and the Corriente lost ground, except for use in rodeos. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. It is a very popular breed in it’s native area Spain , and some other parts of the world. Bulls, of course, are bulls, which means they can be aggressive. Corrienties are naturally leaner than English bred cows, such as Angus or Herefords, and are a healthy alternative for those looking to cut down on their fat intake. In both cases, they’re looking mostly for animals that haven’t been used in sport before, as experienced steers know what to anticipate and over-roped steers learn to duck. Because of their smaller size and the breed’s origins in the wild, they consume considerably less food and water than today’s big beef cattle, and will wander farther if given the opportunity. A mature Corriente cow is typically around 700 to 800 pounds, yielding 400 to 500 pounds of beef. Gary, I need some advice on our corriente moms who have seemed to abandoned their calves. What we call “Corriente,” they would call “Criollo,” or in Baja California, “Chinampo.” If you’re buying in the U.S., your first contact should be with the N.A.C.A., which can connect you to certified breeders. I sold my ranch ten years ago and it was a pretty small operation. Any suggestions on getting them to suck the nipple. “I got into the crosses by accident,” Morgan told me. My children were also encouraged to handle the calves, and we never had a problem with mamas getting defensive. Both animals were panicked and would have been likely to hurt me had I not been able to calm them down a bit as I worked. Although the original Corriente bloodlines are long-since lost, the N.A.C.A. In the 1500s, Cortes (among others) took these cattle to Mexico, where herds were largely left to roam wild. Unfortunately, some of the same characteristics that make Corrientes easy to raise and feed make them harder to contain. Here is some nutrition information about Corriente cattle that we found interesting and exciting. He was happiest with the Simmental crosses. It can be tough separating your bull(s) from the cows. For those who like their beef on the lean side, however, there is an alternative: a lean, athletic, lower-fat breed called the Corriente. In one case, after a half-hour of wrestling with a heifer to twist her head out, I ended up having to cut a bar out of a metal gate with a hacksaw. Breeders, wishing to cater to the wishes of their audience, continue to produce relatively high-fat beef cattle.