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4-H fanatic

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I have a bunch of holstein hereford crosses and i dont know wheter to milk them, put a calf on them or grow em up and butcher them.......just wondering if anyone has any suggestions thanks in advance
 
A lot of beef cows in the UK are hereford/holstien crosses. They are popular because they are cheap and availiable. I personally do not like them and think the holstein has had an extremely negative impact on our beef herd. I wouldn't think milking them would be the most profitable course of action either, feed them then kill them is my humble opinion.
 
4-H fanatic":3nmpfuug said:
I have a bunch of holstein hereford crosses and i dont know wheter to milk them, put a calf on them or grow em up and butcher them.......just wondering if anyone has any suggestions thanks in advance

If you plan on just pasturing them, none of the above. If your planning on feeding hay you can do any of the 3, but you'll need to su0pplement them with grain either way.
They'll grow out ok on just pasture/hay but it will take a lot longer then most folks are willing to wait.

dun
 
Why not raise them up and breed them back to an Angus (uh oh, I said it) bull? They'll pour the milk and raise a big fat calf that should bring you some money. The calves would only be 1/4 dairy and that's only going to make them a bigger framed animal, they should still flesh out well with the 3/4 beef blood. If you don't want Angus just about any beef breed should do well on this cross. We used to have alot of this type of cows and they always did well breeding back to a beef bull. My dad's herd basically got started with dairy cross heifers-they sure poured the milk to their babies.
 
We had several of this cross and they make great momma cows.
we crossed back to hereford. calves grew good and momma had lots of milk. I wish I had some today. :cboy:
 
i was thinking the samething. put a hereford bull on them. they will raise some fine big calves at weaning time. scott
 
I agree with Rustler...slip them under a nice Angus bull and see the results...my quess is that you will have nice fat calves for years to come just don't breed back to the Holstein, the dairy influence will remain in the line and you will get the growth and muscle from the Hereford and Angus crosses. Just my opinion.
Dave Mc
 
Rustler9":1v1b0nka said:
Why not raise them up and breed them back to an Angus (uh oh, I said it) bull? They'll pour the milk and raise a big fat calf that should bring you some money. The calves would only be 1/4 dairy and that's only going to make them a bigger framed animal, they should still flesh out well with the 3/4 beef blood. If you don't want Angus just about any beef breed should do well on this cross. We used to have alot of this type of cows and they always did well breeding back to a beef bull. My dad's herd basically got started with dairy cross heifers-they sure poured the milk to their babies.
Rustler, or anyone else I have a chance to pick up some Holstein heifers cheap and was thinking about trying this. would it be about the same Holstein/Angus cross instead of 1/4 dairy have 1/2 and 1/2.
 
any kind of dait cross beef . will make make heck of momma cows . cept brimmers. they put bottle teats on an calves cant suck. scott
 
bigbull338":1ch0qqm0 said:
any kind of dait cross beef . will make make heck of momma cows . cept brimmers. they put bottle teats on an calves cant suck. scott

Yep you are correct, just take a look at this 9 years old Brahman cow's bag. Pitiful.


4-11-2005i99bag.jpg
 
hey if some one is getting any holstein heifers cheap, let me know, I will take the ride..........I am currently getting anywhere from 300-700 bucks for newborns to 800-1400 bucks for 500-800 lb heifers at the Lancaster Pa. sales. And this for for standard grade animals...... the supremes bring much higher yet. And iffin ya don't believe me the market info is of course posted on the net.

So.... yup, I have a number of crossbred cattle that have either or both holstein or jersey in them, they are bred to an angus bull, and look almost purebred, but the milk just pours out of the cows..................love em. I always shoot for 1/4 or 1/8th milk breed when ever I can. :cboy:
 
medic here at our dairy sale hol heifer calves are $400 to $700. weaned heifers $900 to $1200. open heifers to $1600. bred heifers to $1400. fresh cows $1900. higher than catsback. an they jump on the jersey cross cattle fast. scott
 
tg,
Get em if you can, breed them to Angus or Hereford. The heifers from that cross will make fine brood cows if you want to keep them but I bet you could sell all of those half blood heifers to someone else for brood cows if you don't want to keep them. If you breed them to Angus you'll get a mostly black calf, may have some white underline. May or may not have scurs. Breed them to a Hereford and get a big framed black baldy. The bull calves from either cross will make some fine steers. Win win situation. Let us know if you get them. :)
 

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