Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Super Baldy Cattle

Getting popular down here.

Coincidentally, that what I raise.

The Texas A&M University-Commerce cow herd has seen a new addition as the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources is working to introduce a new focus for the breeding program.

The college expects the “Super Baldy” cow to add great value to an already strong animal science program.

The breeding project began five years ago, when the university made a sizable purchase to boost numbers in the herd. Dr. Douglas Eborn, assistant professor of animal science, says that this was the starting point toward the advent of the Super Baldy.

“Kilgore College was closing down its agriculture college in 2015, and we approached them to buy their herd,” Eborn said. “We were able to reach a deal and purchased about 100 cows and 50 calves.”

The purchase more than doubled the size of the herd at A&M-Commerce, which Eborn said was no more than 70 head of cattle at the time. He added that Kilgore had recently worked with Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center in Overton, Texas, and had begun breeding their Angus cows with Brahman bulls in the years preceding the closure.

“These were what I would call a true F1, 50 percent Brahman and 50 percent Angus,” Eborn said. An “F1” in the biological sense is the first filial generation of offspring of distinctly different parental types.


A&M-Commerce’s animal science program would then create a “Super Baldy,” by breeding their F1 hybrids with Hereford bulls. The term “baldy” comes from the Super Baldy’s mostly solid white face with a dark-colored body. Currently, the university owns more than a dozen Super Baldy females kept as replacements.

Eborn says there are many benefits to the Super Baldy. They are very tolerant to heat and have a fair amount of disease resistance. They also feature a calmer disposition and excellent mothering ability.

Another plus is the heterosis, or “hybrid vigor,” of the animal, meaning that it has a higher chance of improved or increased performance due to a new combination of genes.

“We hope that the strengths of these different breeds that will make up the Super Baldy will complement each other by improving the weaknesses of the other breeds,” Eborn said.

He added that the university plans to market the Super Baldy aggressively and increase the profile of the university’s animal science efforts.

Dr. Randy Harp, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at A&M-Commerce, says that the university’s herd is headed in the right direction.

“I am proud to see the direction that our beef cattle program is heading,” Harp said. “It is a solid base herd that now stands to meet the challenges of heat and humidity in East Texas. This makes a great foundation for teaching and research at A&M-Commerce.”

Harp continued: “As we move forward, Super Baldies give us the ability to teach both the purebred and commercial beef industries to our students. I truly appreciate the faculty and staff that lead the way for our beef cattle as we embrace and become the premier agricultural university of East Texas.

https://frontporchnewstexas.com/202...-university-herd-in-the-right-direction/



I had a client today call me and tell me he wanted to raise Super Baldy cattle too. Wanted help finding the right young cows and right bull.

It's not going to be cheap on him.

2nd calf cows is what he wants, and a good Hereford bull. Cows will cost him $2k a pop. Bull... $3500 up.

good for you RB. hard as you work i hope it pays big for you

Barry, the bull is not that high priced.

I use to have 'Super Baldy's', but we just called them 'black cows with some ear' or 'half brahman half angus'. I bred them to a polled hereford bull. Good calves, but I got better calves from 1/2 angus 1/2 American charolais (not the big headed French) bred to a polled hereford bull.

Never heard them called Super Baldy's.

No super baldys I've heard of either

You can get a decent blooded bull cheaper, but it'll probably have to be a yearling.

Bought my bull as a yearling, and he's turned out to be the best bull I've ever had. I think he's 4 years old now.

I could have spent more to get the raccoon eyes on both eyes, but he's got one dark eye, and his offspring are nearly 100% dark eyes.

(Dark eyes in Hereford cattle mean much less of a chance of getting cancer eye.)

Had some cattle delivered today from a ranch we buy black baldy replacement heifers from. They sell registered Hereford and Angus bulls. One of the owners was talking about the movement to breed more color on the faces of the Herefords. They’re not a fan and see it as single trait breeding that’s not good for the breed overall, but admit goggle eyed bulls bring more money and are going in that direction. They also commented that as a result of this trend, the F1 black baldy females they produce end up with less white on their faces. The heifer that started this conversation had a star face, like more commonly seen in simmentals.

Also, 3500 wouldn’t buy much of a registered bull at any of the half dozen sales I’ve watched in this area this year.

The breeder where I get my bulls produces great beef-bred bulls. After going into the dark eyes thing with him, he says they do bring more money as bulls with the genetics, but he won't compromise quality.

After looking at his yearling bulls for years, I know he's telling me the truth.

After a few years of breeding super baldy calves, I've seen a few motley faced calves, but not many. Most have more white on them, and very few have white eyes, with about 95% having dark eyes. They can be brown or black calves, with the majority being black.



Now, if I could just get the $$ they are worth...

By the sound of the cattle on feed report, don't look a good market soon.