Does CAB have to come from Angus beef?

Answer 1

No. Certified Angus Beef can come from any cattle that are black. They don't have to be pure Angus to have the premium for black hide nor to be deemed "CAB" in the supermarket. Here are some breeds that will get the CAB black-hide premium because they have infused black into their genetics to make them "purebred" which is quite false if you study the breeds and their origins long enough:

Simmental

Gelbvieh

Maine-Anjou

Charolais (surprisingly)

Limousin

Salers

Certified Angus Beef can also give premiums to crossbred calves that are all black. For instance, if a pure Red Simmental bull was bred to Angus cows, the calves would all come out black, but be deemed Angus-Simmental crosses. The same thing if a Black Simmental was mated to Angus cows or Red Angus cows: all the calves will come out black, and thus the calves from the two examples will bring a premium to the rancher/farmer. Black calves will also come if you cross any of the above breeds with Angus or amongst themselves, provided you are breeding all-black to all-black or all-red and not to traditional-type cattle of the above breeds (with exceptions to Gelbvieh, Salers, Limousin and Maine Anjou). Breeding a pure traditional-coloured Charolais to Angus will produce grey calves which will be docked. You won't get much of a premium with black-white-face calves either, but since they are black you still got a pretty good chance anyway. Simmental-Angus and Hereford-Angus calves that are black baldies are the most common black baldies you'll see.

The thing about CAB is that this marketing scheme takes advantage of the consumer. The consumer can only assume that the steaks they are buying are pure Angus beef, but in honest real-world reality, they really don't. And they really don't care either. All they care about is if it tastes good. They don't care whether the steaks they've just bought is actually from a Black Simmental or Black Gelbvieh or a black-baldy steer; they don't have the time to do the research! The mentality of it is, if they really want to know where their beef comes from and what kind of cattle it came from, they can go buy local. There they will have a better understanding of what cattle had been slaughtered, how they were fed, how they were raised, who raised them etc. This pure Angus beef campaign in America is and has been successfully brainwashing its consumers into thinking that only Angus beef is the best. Little do they know that there are other breeds out there that have as-good-as or even better beef than Angus.

CAB itself has been taken advantage of by other breeders in America; they have been infusing Angus genetics into their breeds and after a few matings, can call a Black Simmental a purebred Simmental, even if it as 15/16 Angus blood in it, for example. On the other hand, CAB has not only taken advantage of the consumer, but of the cattle producers as well, and has successfully lured in those many producers who are eager to take the Certified Angus Beef premium bait to get more money off their calves by having an Angus herd or, having an Angus bull in their cowherds. As a result, you see far more black cattle in America than any other colouration or breed, except for Holsteins.

The thing of it is is that they all look the same once the hide is taken off. That's where I mean that a black baldy can still be marked as CAB "mistakenly" even though it is not pure Angus. The same goes for those steers that are produced from three crosses: Angus, Hereford and Simmental, for example. They still get the CAB tag when they are slaughtered, gutted, skinned, dismembered and hung. But does the consumer know? Nah. They don't need to: they don't have the time or money to find out if they had just been suckered into CAB's "false" advertising or not. Like I implied above, "Black is Best" is only a fad, just like bell-bottoms where in the fashion industry, and will soon peter out only to be replaced by a better type of beef cow that will have producers running for their money. Maybe Herefords will make a come-back; maybe Grass-Fed Beef will become the new fad for American (and Canadian) consumers. Who knows?