3/4 Angus 1/4 Holstein

[tncattle]

Talked with a guy tonight that was telling he bought some cows that were 3/4 Angus 1/4 Holstein and put a nice registered Angus bull on them. He said he did it to try and improve the milk. What kind of calves should they throw? Will they be leggy or with 3/4 Angus and the pure Angus bull will you be able to tell there is any Holstein at all in these calves?

 

[3waycross]

Oooooooooooo Lord please don't make me respond to this thread the way I want to. :shock: :lol:

 

[showmomof2]

Here's our 3/4 angus, 1/4 holstein the day before having her first calf.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Talked with a guy tonight that was telling he bought some cows that were 3/4 Angus 1/4 Holstein and put a nice registered Angus bull on them. He said he did it to try and improve the milk. What kind of calves should they throw? Will they be leggy or with 3/4 Angus and the pure Angus bull will you be able to tell there is any Holstein at all in these calves?

I have never known angus to have a problem with milk so either he has some junk cows or he isn't feeding them

 

[tncattle]

Oooooooooooo Lord please don't make me respond to this thread the way I want to. :shock: :lol:

Please do respond the way you want to. I was just curious as I have no intentions of going this route just wanted to see what to expect.

 

[Stocker Steve]

My grandpa crossed his Holstein herd with Angus towards the end. Very inconsistent type cattle...
I have some "beefy" Holstein crosses. They are very fertile and raise big calves.
I think if think you really HARD with cross breds you can get some great cows.
The question is why do it?

 

[Flacowman]

I believe it was thew Alabama state fair steer show a few years back a 3/4 angus 1/4 holstein won the show. Very stocky muscular calf. I guess one's goal with such a cross would be more frame and milk??? But I have seen angus cattle that didn't milk enough to keep a kitten alive so that could have been his reasoning

 

[cattleman99]

You'd be better off incorporating some of the Milking Fleckvieh Genetics from Europe. You still have a beef animal but can add a lot of milk. Several of the dairies around here have started crossbreeding their Holsteins with Fleckvieh. They claim it is really improving the bottom line. More money for the new calves, better cull returns, Improved milk quality, and a lot more longevity.

 

[MoGal]

I don't understand him wanting to raise his milk level with her having dairy in her.

I can tell you from experience, a 1/4 holstein will still have plenty of milk. He'll not have hybrid vigor by breeding back to angus..... what other goals does he have, where is he trying to go with his herd?

 

[piedmontese]

we have had some half holstein,half angus cows that have produced some real nice calves when bred to a beef bull.the calves looked beef and sold well.the cows milked plenty but still had a nice bag,that may change after a few calves.we bred them to a saler bull and had solid blacks with just a couple small white spots on the nuderside of a few of them.they are bred back to a piedmontese bull and am anxious to see what these calves will look like.

 

[TexasBred]

You'd be better off incorporating some of the Milking Fleckvieh Genetics from Europe. You still have a beef animal but can add a lot of milk. Several of the dairies around here have started crossbreeding their Holsteins with Fleckvieh. They claim it is really improving the bottom line. More money for the new calves, better cull returns, Improved milk quality, and a lot more longevity.

Are they milking these crosses?? If not what would better cull prices and milk quality help. Do they not raise any full blood holsteins for replacements?

 

[redcowsrule33]

Of course they milk them, and they do very well.

http://www.bigbeargenetics.com/contact.html

Why is crossbreeding so foreign to the mind of the dairyman where it is accepted as a good practice in beef?

 

[dun]

Of course they milk them, and they do very well.

http://www.bigbeargenetics.com/contact.html

Why is crossbreeding so foreign to the mind of the dairyman where it is accepted as a good practice in beef?

For a few years crossbreeding Holsteins and Jerseys was done a good bit. The F1s milked very well with high BF. It was pretty much found that the offspring of those F1s were more like Holsteins in BF and Jersey in quantity. To bee succesfull you still needed a herd of Holsrteins to make the F1s but since thye didn;t reproduce the results everyone I know of that was doing it has quit. One dairy was using an F1 Helstein Jersey bull (AI) on his holsteins and the heifers turned out to be pretty poor producers.

 

[Oldtimer]

Oooooooooooo Lord please don't make me respond to this thread the way I want to. :shock: :lol:

:nod: :lol: :lol:

 

[VanC]

Of course they milk them, and they do very well.

http://www.bigbeargenetics.com/contact.html

Why is crossbreeding so foreign to the mind of the dairyman where it is accepted as a good practice in beef?

For a few years crossbreeding Holsteins and Jerseys was done a good bit. The F1s milked very well with high BF. It was pretty much found that the offspring of those F1s were more like Holsteins in BF and Jersey in quantity. To bee succesfull you still needed a herd of Holsrteins to make the F1s but since thye didn;t reproduce the results everyone I know of that was doing it has quit. One dairy was using an F1 Helstein Jersey bull (AI) on his holsteins and the heifers turned out to be pretty poor producers.

Yes, many producers that have tried crossbreeding in dairy naturally tried the Holstein-Jersey cross, simply because they're the two most popular breeds in the U.S. The problem is the two breeds don't complement each other very well, causing big variations in milk production, BF content, calving ease, and mature size.

Dairy crossbreeding is catching on in California, but they are crossing some of the European breeds like Swedish Red, Red Dane and Montbeliard with Holsteins. By all accounts, it gives an animal with slighly less milk production than straight Holsteins, but one that is better in the areas of solids, fertility, feet and legs, longevity, SC counts and calving ease. Production is down but profits are up, proving once again that higher production doesn't necessarily mean higher profits.

This site is interesting reading on the subject, but keep in mind they are trying to sell a product, so you need to take some of it with a grain of salt.

Edited to include link. Sorry about that.

http://www.creativegeneticsofca.com/

 

[TexasBred]

Environment will always be he demise of most dairy cattle. You can breed for longevity, good feed and legs and fertility was never a problem wth us but just the day in day out wear and tear is a guarantee of a short life. I did milk some brahman/holstein crosses one time and as you mentioned...the production was not as high but the milk components were excellent....and the cull price was double that of a pure dairy breed.But I still preferred the high producing purebred holsteins.