A Crossbreeding ??

[JBR11]

ok, my first question is this..... if i cross a longhorn cow with a belgium blue bull will she be able to have the calf ok?

my second question is what is a good cross with a longhorn, other than angus.

we have an angus bull that we are breeding with at the moment, this spring will be his first crop of crossed calves. i am planning on keeping a few of the heifers so for question 3 what is a good bull to cross them with?

 

[Bigfoot]

I only have an answer for number 2. Sorry. A Charolais will do a pretty good job of knocking the spots off.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Red Limousin seen to throw more solid colored calves on longhorn cows than about any thing else i have seen. Charolais would be my second choice.

 

[chippie]

If you get a BB bull with low birth weight EPDs she should do fine.
You will probably get a loud colored calf and unless she is a beefy cow, it will have average muscling and may still have the Longhorn hatchet rear end. It will probably have horns too.

We have bred our Jerseys to BB and the calves were a little beefier but you could still see the dairy in them.

 

[glacierridge]

If you get a BB bull with low birth weight EPDs she should do fine.
You will probably get a loud colored calf and unless she is a beefy cow, it will have average muscling and may still have the Longhorn hatchet rear end. It will probably have horns too.

We have bred our Jerseys to BB and the calves were a little beefier but you could still see the dairy in them.

I was just going to say that a good friend of mine bred jerseys to BB, no problems at all!!

I don't think it should be a problem for a longhorn to have a Belgian Blue calf. Usually calving problems come from higher percentage or fullbloods.
Please post pics of those babies, should be pretty, depending on the bull.

 

[ANAZAZI]

If you get a BB bull with low birth weight EPDs she should do fine.
You will probably get a loud colored calf and unless she is a beefy cow, it will have average muscling and may still have the Longhorn hatchet rear end. It will probably have horns too.

We have bred our Jerseys to BB and the calves were a little beefier but you could still see the dairy in them.

Calving should be fine, not worse than any other breed. Belgian blue cross calves are always beefy; trust me no skinny ass on any of them. I know of a man who breeds a Belgian blue bull to all kinds of cheap, small cows. Jerseys, Highlands, and some heritage breeds also with no meat on them. All calves, and I mean all calves, are great muscled.

 

[chippie]

Yes, they do have meat, but it is not overwhelming like a pure BB. If they are crossed on a beef breed you really get a good carcass animal.

When I said that the offspring retains the characteristics of the mother, I meant that the Jersey cross still had a noticible dairy influenced conformation - lighter boned and the calves had a Dairy looking hip. We have eaten a lot of pure Jersey steers and BB crossed Jersey steers and all of the meat was good. The BB crossed naturally had larger round steaks and t-bones.

Being in Sweden, I imagine that most all BB's are full blood. Here in the U.S. they have been crossed with other breeds (like Angus) and are called pure bred (whereas the animal is actually a percentage.) We had some percentage cows.

I do like the BB breed a lot. They have great dispositions and are easy to work with. Very sensible cattle.

 

[JBR11]

thanks for the info, I think I'm going to go with the Charolais on half the cows and Red Limousin on the others half after they calve this spring. This will give me a chance to see side by side calves from both. Any heifers I keep from this cross or the Angus cross im thinking of breeding to Salers. As for the BB, I have 2 big bodied cows picked out that have each had 4 cavles that I would like to cross with a pire bred BB. I think this cross comes from my Curiosity more than anything but finding one that is truely a pure bred bull and in the US is a little difficult, but I have time.

 

[glacierridge]

thanks for the info, I think I'm going to go with the Charolais on half the cows and Red Limousin on the others half after they calve this spring. This will give me a chance to see side by side calves from both. Any heifers I keep from this cross or the Angus cross im thinking of breeding to Salers. As for the BB, I have 2 big bodied cows picked out that have each had 4 cavles that I would like to cross with a pire bred BB. I think this cross comes from my Curiosity more than anything but finding one that is truely a pure bred bull and in the US is a little difficult, but I have time.

You might be pleased.
What is your location and who do you use for an AI rep?
Genex/CRI has one, https://webapps.crinet.com/softslate/do/product/Belgian Blue/1BB00101
And I know there should be a few more out there, but yes, not always the easiest to find.
Universal Semen Sales out of Montana has some too, but with the shipping it could be a little more spendy than Genex.
Sometimes you can be lucky and find someone that's near you that can give you a good connection.