The SuperSteer: Why Ranchers Put a French Bull on an Angus Cow

Walk the alley of any sale barn this fall and look over the rails. Most of the calves are black, but every so often there's one that's smoke grey. Ranchers call them smokies: an Angus mother and a Charolais father. That grey calf is two hundred years of history standing in a pen. The Angus was bred in northeast Scotland for one job: fatten young and marble for the London grill. The French breeds (Charolais, Limousin, Salers and Simmental) were bred to pull the plough, and ended their days in the pot. When the tractor took the ox's job, the size and muscle stayed, and in the 1960s American cattlemen went looking for it. This film is about how the two came together on American ranches: what the Angus mother brings: fertility, milk and marbling; what the French bull brings: frame, growth and muscle; the hybrid vigor that neither parent has alone; and what the cross costs you: calving ease, cow size, heavy carcasses and the discount on a grey hide. It also shows why SimAngus, Lim-Flex and Balancer put the French muscle under a black coat. The breeds came from Scotland and France. The calf was raised in America. Know who raised your beef. Wear it: the Raised in America trucker hat collection is live on Kickstarter. Black Badge, Blaze Orange Camo, Patriot, Pink Angus and Woodland Longhorn. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/... CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:16 1. Two Kitchens 1:48 2. The Grill 4:33 3. The Plough 7:26 4. The Crossing 9:15 5. The Mother 10:26 6. The Father 11:50 7. The Bonus 13:18 8. The Black Coat 15:01 9. The Catch 16:51 10. The SuperSteer SteakTrade is a marketplace where independent American producers sell their meat direct to the households that eat it. More from the SteakTrade Journal: steaktrade.com/journal Subscribe for the next one. Films about American beef, and the people who raise it. #cattle #ranching #beef #Angus #Charolais #crossbreeding #hybridvigor #SimAngus #cattlebreeds #ranchlife