They found their opportunity in the unique genetics of the Piedmontese cattle. Piedmontese DNA carries a gene that enhances both muscle development and meat tenderness. Uncastrated crossbred bulls that are at least 50 percent Piedmontese grow unbelievably fast, reaching a market weight of 1,100 pounds at around 11 months after birth. The young bulls have all the natural growth-boosting hormones they need up to age 14 months.

The Big Test

To prove this to himself, Albert artificially bred a Polled Hereford female to an ABS full-blooded Piedmontese bull. The resulting calf was the bull he’d hoped for. He fed the uncastrated bull a growing ration for 13 months to 1,200 pounds and had it slaughtered for evaluation.

Genetic Help

A muscle enhancing gene on the Piedmontese DNA chain is responsible for the cattle’s double muscling and exceptional tenderness. Researchers in Europe and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore made the myostatin genetic discovery about the same time just a few years ago. Scientists at Johns Hopkins worked with mice to study the gene’s influence on muscle development and in the process developed “super” mice. Their work has helped North American cattlemen to better understand their cattle.

Josh Albert manages the family’s hilly 980-acre home farm in Albemarle County, Virginia. His father, Tom Albert, oversees the operation and guides production on the additional five thousand acres of their Oklahoma ranch. Both places are expanding in Piedmontese, working up from their Polled Hereford base. The present-day Alberts are the fourth generation of Virginia cattlemen.

In Virginia, Josh Albert explained that state regulations limit an operation to 300 head on feed at one time. Both bulls and heifers are fed, but they prefer the young bulls. Until recently, the self-fed, no-corn ration has been mainly oats and dry ground alfalfa with minerals and vitamins as well as dry distillers grain for protein balance.

Feeding Time

Because they need a year-round supply of slaughter animals, the practice at Georgetown Farm is to calve cows in groups every other month. After weaning, the calves go to a 120–150-day feed. By then it’s time to process them for Silver brand beef.

Italian Mountain Cattle

Piedmontese originated in the north Italian alpine foothills. There they are multi-purpose cattle kept for meat, milk, and sometimes for work as draft oxen. They were brought to North America through Quebec in the 1970s, and have spread across Canada and the U.S. as market demand has grown for low-fat beef.

Vicki Johnson, spokesperson for the North American Piedmontese Association in Spokane, Washington, explained how the Italian cattle still are taken to the 8,000-foot high pastures on the south slope of the Alps for summer grazing. Cows are milked by hand and the milk is processed into cheese.

If North American Piedmontese are to grade Choice, they must be fed longer and by then will be excessively large for a good fit in the commodity beef market. The lean meat market seems to be their niche. Experienced cattlemen who grew up preferring their beef finished to the high-fat percentages of the old USDA Prime grades may find this meat too lean for their liking.

John Leunk and Wayne Schlabach of Wooster, Ohio, saw the potential and introduced Piedmontese cattle to the Amish community in Wayne and Holmes counties of Ohio more than a decade ago. Leunk says they were won over to the “Pieds” by the five to seven percent higher carcass yield and the discovery that this could be the tenderest beef of all breeds.

$30,000 Mother Cow

“As all experienced cattlemen know,” he said, “the Simmental carry a pretty thick rind of fat just under the skin. With the Piedmontese cross we can remove two-thirds of that fat. And the market is headed in that direction.”

Late Maturing

The Piedmontese are classed as a late-maturing breed because they get very large before they are ready to put on fat. Brewer explained that producing fat the consumer doesn’t want anyway is only a waste. It takes more feed per pound than producing red meat muscle tissue. Holding Piedmontese cattle to heavy weights in the feedlot seems like a misuse of good genetics.

Jerry Hofer at the Lake View Hutterite Colony near Lake Andes, South Dakota, agrees. He is livestock manager for the colony and has been using Piedmontese bulls on Hereford/Angus cross cows for almost 12 years. Last year he calved out 220 head on their own farm and bought back enough additional calves from his Piedmontese bull customers to finish 400 head in the Colony feedyard.

Avoiding The Fat

Unlike some European breeds, Piedmontese cows usually calve easily. Josh Albert says over 90 percent calve without assistance, and it’s only in an occasional breech presentation that assistance is needed. When calves are breech, the practice at Georgetown Farm is to do a C-section.

Vicki Johnson at the Piedmontese Association said statistics show a 98.6 percent calf survival and a 95 for calving ease. While nobody is quite sure why, cows carrying transferred Piedmontese embryos seem to need calving assistance more frequently.