Brangus cross club calves

[RbarJ]

What are your thought on using cross breeding to Brangus heifers in a club calf breeding operation? What would be your suggestions as for what to breed to the Brangus?
Thanks,
Robby

 

[Bigfoot]

That wouldn't work around here. The commercial hiefer classes are usually Maine, black limi, a little chi influenced etc. Always black. Where you are at, there may not be any stigma attached to the ear in the show ring. If I were to pursue a brangus cross commercial show hiefer, I would probably go with a Maine cross. The limi may not take off any ear, and the chi might give it a hatchet butt. Btw I run a lot of brangus cows. It's not that I don't like them. It's just not well recieved at the local shows.

 

[DLD]

If you have some sort of American cross class, and/or a Brangus class where they don't have to be purebred, go for it. As Bigfoot suggested, if you want to use something purebred, Maine would prob'ly be the way to go, or possibly Simmi. But if you're serious about raising club calves, there are a lot of composite bulls that will work, including several with some American influence themselves.

Bovine Elite in College Station, TX probably has the best selection of American type club calf sires.

http://www.bovine-elite.com/home.asp

 

[RbarJ]

Thanks. Around here it's not a huge deal to see some ear if you're at a smaller show. At the larger shows, though, it is frowned upon a little bit, simply because it's not "showy". I like the idea of using Brangus, though because of their heat tolerance, ect. You see a lot of Brangus in commercial herds, usually your show herds are Sim, Maine, Angus, and sometimes Chi or Shorthorn.

 

[shortybreeder]

Thanks. Around here it's not a huge deal to see some ear if you're at a smaller show. At the larger shows, though, it is frowned upon a little bit, simply because it's not "showy". I like the idea of using Brangus, though because of their heat tolerance, ect. You see a lot of Brangus in commercial herds, usually your show herds are Sim, Maine, Angus, and sometimes Chi or Shorthorn.

I live up in the North, so we don't have any brahman influenced cattle around here, but I think club calves and heat tolerance are pretty much polar opposites... I have never seen a brahman with much hair, so if you're going to be in the commercial ring I wouldn't suggest brahman influence because you could lose all your hair (both on the animal and on yourself if you're fighting the calf to grow hair for a show over summer). My first time showing a beef steer I had a holstein X angus steer, and he looked absolutely awesome, he had lots of muscle, the right amount of frame, and just plain looked like the kind of steer you wanted to put on the grill for the 4th of July... Unfortunately I didn't do any work on his hair (I was accustomed to showing holstein heifers/steers) so he was pretty slick. Got beat up pretty badly by all the clubby guys with 2 inch long hair all the way around their legs and fluffed up bodies. That being said, I have seen other people (branguscowgirl) who say that brangus are shown slick-sheared, so if that's the type of show you're going into, go for it! I've never been good at judging american classes, but I think Maine sounds like a good mix with brangus. I-80 seems to be really popular right now, and I've seen a lot of really nice calves out of him in the past year, plus he's calving ease so you can breed to him without worrying about calving difficulties.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

The limousin will clean up the ear and under line.