Connie Brooks of Fair Grove, Mo., admits that her highly-muscled cattle get a few looks, but what else do you expect when you breed the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the cattle world?
Connie raises American Blue cattle at her MNP Farm, which she shares with her husband Richard Brooks, in rural Greene County, Mo., where they also raise Quarter horses.
American Blue cattle are the American version of the Belgian Blue, which are known for their extremely lean, hyper-sculpted, ultra-muscular physique and double-muscled appearance. Connie explained that the myostatin gene tells muscle development to slow down, but in Blue cattle that gene does not send out the same signal.
The myostatin gene typically limits the muscle development, but the inactive form allows for a change from hypertrophy to hyperplastic muscle growth. Instead of developing longer, thicker, courser muscle fibers, an animal with this trait can have twice the number of muscle fibers per muscle bundle, but the fibers will be finer and shorter. The cattle do not have any extra muscle bundles; each bundle is larger and the amount of connective tissue is less.
“Give the calves three to four weeks and the hind quarters start growing,” Connie said.
Connie began with Belgian Blue cattle more than 25 years ago, however a recent push among American producers to change a few things about the breed, including issues with calving, promoted the development of the American Blue.
“In the last two years, the association changed the name to the American Blue Cattle Association because the Belgian Blues in Belgium are excessively muscled,” Connie said. “In this country, we have modified it and worked on structure, calving ease and we have adapted them for the American market.”
American breeders have incorporated characteristics of British Blue cattle, which were developed in the 1980s in Great Britain from Belgian Blue cattle, for easier calving, improved mobility and structure.
“We look at things like the pelvis and overall structure, where in Belgium a Belgium Blue calf brings a premium, so a C-section is just a small price to pay for that calf,” she explained. “That just doesn’t work here. Breeders here, for the most part, have eliminated that problem, but there are always exceptions.”
Connie has few birthing issues in her herd, and has not performed a C-section in 15 years, which was only needed because the calf was breach. As a precaution against calving issues, she breeds first-calf heifers to something other than a Blue. Since her husband, Richard, and his son breed registered Gelbvieh, she typically will go that route.
“It makes a beautiful cross,” she added. “There are Blue bulls out there that can be used for a first-calf heifer, but for our purposes we go with something else. It’s all part of your management program.”
Despite the changes, American Blue breeders say their cattle still have a higher dressing percentage (about 68 to 72 percent) and a lower fat content than many other breeds.
While Connie’s Blue operation started with purebred Belgian Blues, upon the advice of a longtime breeder, Harold Hamilton, she has not ruled out the use of other genetics in her herd.
“He said, when the breed was new, to start a purebred operation and I did,” she recalled. “I have gotten up to 63/64ths on my breeding, but I have some now that have a little Angus in them, a little Gelbvieh in them. I actually started out with a Simmental base.”
Connie recommends that producers who are considering Blues start with a crossbred operation.
“They still carry that lean muscle over into the other breeds,” she said. “The USDA did a study several years ago of half-bloods, and the beef was lower in fat and cholesterol that skinless poultry, so it fit into that health niche. Even in the half-bloods, depending on what you cross them with, the marbling is minimal.”
She added that incorporating a Blue into a non-Blue herd would help increase the weight of calves at market time.
“I think we are seeing a lot more people who are more nutrition focused and I think since we are importing so much meat, people are looking for local sources,” Connie explained. “When the Blues first came around, they were really before their time.”
The feed conversion ratios, according to Connie, are also higher with Blues.
“The more protein you feed a Blue, the more muscle you get. The Blues are just like any other breed and you have to learn how to manage them,” she said. “That’s just part of raising cattle and the Blues are manageable.”
The main objective MNP Farm is to produce seedstock.
“I’m not a big producer,” she said. “I run about 30 head and I will have about 23 calves this year; I have always tried to go with quality instead of quantity.”
And Connie is producing that high-quality animal. At the 2015 National American Blue Show, she took three head to the competition and came home with two grand champions and a reserve champion.
Connie primarily utilizes A.I., as well as some embryo transfers, in order to get the genetics she prefers.
“This year, I have that bull that was reserve champion and just to see what he could do, I put him out as a clean up bull,” she said. “He’s bred some cows and I’ve got some calves coming out of him. I’d like to market and collect him, but I want to see what he can do before I do that.”
Connie has a waiting list for her heifers and has sold cattle to other producers across the country.
“It makes you feel like you are doing something right,” she said. “I have told cattle to people in Maine, Vermont, all the way to the coast of California.”
Why Blues over other breeds of cattle?
“I just toughly enjoy their personalities and their attributes,” she said. “It has been a fun ride. It’s been fun to be on the ground floor of the breed. Raising cattle isn’t like raising rabbits, so it takes some time to do it and it is fun to shoot for quality.”
