Anyone Crossing Brangus and Braford?

[BeefEater123]

Hey everyone. I'm thinking about crossing some braford f1 females with a brangus or simangus (3/8 & 5/8) bull. I'm running a cow calf operation and will be selling at the sale barn and retaining my best heifers. Just wondering if anyone has done this before, and what the cross looks like.

I'm in Northwest Florida and Southwest Alabama, and I'm talking about

 

[5S Cattle]

We call em super baldies. Good mommas, but you're not going to bring as much on your steers.

 

[Son of Butch]

Crossing f1 females with a purebred bull for terminal market is the proven gold standard.
If you want to reinvent the wheel, have at it. But I'd stick with the tried and true 3 way cross.

Super Baldies is a really cool name... great for marketing for sure.
But for performance I'd take a true f1 over a 4 way crossbred female with a cool name.

 

[callmefence]

They can make some fine cattle. I've got a group where we are doing it Chinese. F1 Bradford bull on brangus, beefmaster and herford cows
The first pic is a similar group with a charlois bull. I'm starting to think instead of spending a couple years trying to reinvent the wheel. Just run char bulls on everything.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yqyh5GUUjcJSUEgUA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JZkkeYbtqppmRqrX6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QKLvuAGPu3aTyv3N6

 

[cbcr]

We have heard of more breeders interested in crossing Braford and Brangus. One reason is that many like the 5/8 x 3/8 combination. So by crossing these 2 breeds 5/8 English will be retained and the 3/8 Brahman. Should get a little boost in heterosis because of the Hereford part and Angus part, but not quite as much by using a 3rd breed.

 

[Son of Butch]

The first pic is a similar group with a charlois bull.
I'm starting to think instead of spending a couple years trying to reinvent the wheel.
Just run char bulls on everything.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yqyh5GUUjcJSUEgUA

Nice calves... as long as you can get past color objections.

 

[CentralFLAngus]

The first pic is a similar group with a charlois bull.
I'm starting to think instead of spending a couple years trying to reinvent the wheel.
Just run char bulls on everything.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yqyh5GUUjcJSUEgUA

Nice calves... as long as you can get past color objections.

I agree. Stuff like that would get discounted down here in Central Florida. Personally I like the terminal breeding of Charolais and I bought myself a couple this year to cross with my angus bull.

 

[BeefEater123]

Thanks for the responses. Why do you think the steers and bulls calves will be discounted? I know color doesn't mean much in production, but anything that isn't black seems to get knocked at the sale. That's why I was considering the brangus or simangus to get the black color and maybe add a little size with the simangus in particular. I was just thinking the four way cross might give a better heterosis.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Thanks for the responses. Why do you think the steers and bulls calves will be discounted? I know color doesn't mean much in production, but anything that isn't black seems to get knocked at the sale. That's why I was considering the brangus or simangus to get the black color and maybe add a little size with the simangus in particular. I was just thinking the four way cross might give a better heterosis.

you won't get a better, heterosis stacking on more breeds..don't work that way..like the Braford F1..two separate breeds that work well together"" complement each other""... the females are the ones that makes the commercial man the money..cover those with a different terminal type bull...to get the bang of the heterosis..it's hard to beat the F1. Momma..but she's built for one purpose..the tried and true, 3 breed rotation..after that, you start producing inconsistent mongrels. Are go into a breed regression mode..which will lose you all the benefits..

 

[Brute 23]

Are you running more than one bull on the herd?

I would not cross Brangus over Braford for replacements or terminal calves. Your kind of in purgatory between terminal calves and F1 replacements IMO. I'm a fan of a good Black Angus bull over F1 Braford cows. The black mott bulls and heifers sell good. Not sure if those 1/4 ear replacements will work for you but if not sell them and buy back F1s. You can also go Char. They will raise some big calves with the F1s and should sell good.

You might think about throwing a few pure blood Brahman cows in with your herd so you can get a few F1s every year out of a pure blood bull?

 

[f1tiger]

I always assumed the super baldies were brangus x hereford or vice versa: that being said my neighbor buys all my Bradford f1 that I do not take to special sales and breeds them to angus : he runs around 650 fi cows so it must be a good cross

 

[Brute 23]

When people talk about Super Baldies here it's usually an F1 Brangus bred to a straight Hereford or F1 Braford bred to a straight Angus Bull. They are only 1/4 Brahman.

I think the term gets thrown around a lot though for marketing.

 

[BeefEater123]

Right now I'm running a pure blood low birthweight Angus bull over Brangus heifers for their first calves, and another Angus bull and a Brangus bull over two separate Brangus mommas for ultra black bulls, feeders, and replacements. Had a lot of people asking about f1 Braford mommas and I'm looking to buy a few Brahman mommas and breed to a Hereford bull to sell as replacements. I was just curious about how the Brangus and Braford cross might turn out.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

just assuming that the momas were purebred Braford on these heifers and not F1s. ""Wording means a lot"" .they are pretty much what you'd be looking at...I could live with some like these myself..https://www.cattlerange.com/listings/wheelerd444/62-f1-brafordbrangus-cross-bred-heifers-east-tx/

 

[BeefEater123]

Thanks ALACOWMAN,

Those look mighty nice to me. In your last post are you saying those from the cattle range are or are not F1, and which would you prefer/recommend.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Thanks ALACOWMAN,

Those look mighty nice to me. In your last post are you saying those from the cattle range are or are not F1, and which would you prefer/recommend.

depending on the quality of the parents ..I'd prefer either one they'd still make fantastic momas ..but the ones shown are Braford/Brangus F1s and I'm assuming they are out of purebred Braford 3/8 5/8 ...but sometimes the term braford gets attached too the F1 ""Tiger stripe""none the less ,that's the color pattern and phenotype , you'd be getting with the cross. ...have seen a slight brindle pattern in some.. I started out with 8 reg.Brahman heifers and a horned herf bull,years ago..love the cross, but it got expensive..most of my herd now,are decendants of those gals..

 

[Brute 23]

You could buy true F1s for $2K a head.

 

[BeefEater123]

You could buy true F1s for $2K a head.

Brute you're right and I'd like to have some. But I'd rather grow them myself keep the best ones and sell them at $2K a head. I've got access to a Hereford bull just need to fork out the dough for some Brahman mommas.

 

[insurman]

My Uncle has raised Brangus for years and is sending us some of his females...I put them with a purebred Simbrah and have kept the heifers and they look great. I have them bred back to another Simbrah and a Simmental. Looking forward to the first calves.