Braunvieh

[SoILcattle]

Right now our cattle her consist of quality commercial angus, Hereford and black baldy cattle, we also have a few Angus/saler cows I am thinking of possibly adding a few braunvieh catttle to the herd.

I want to hear opinions and thoughts good or bad about the braunvieh cattle in our operation. They would most likely be crossed with Angus and Hereford bulls for replacement heifers, and selling the steers at the sale barn and possibly adding more pure braunvieh to the herd through AI.

Recently we also bought a 3/4 saler x 1/4 Angus bull for terminal calves and possibly retaining some heifers off of the Hereford and Angus cows as well.

What say you ? Stick with the Hereford/Angus/saler cross or add some braunvieh genetics?

Location is southern IL

 

[Muddy]

I see nothing wrong with adding braunvieh cattle.

 

[cow pollinater]

I looked into them for a customer a few months ago. My problem with them is that the buyers don't know what they are. You get some brindle coloring and stuff like that that isn't what people are used to seeing and the price drops fast. If you are thinking about retained ownership or something like that then they might be a really good choice as the carcass traits are great and they bring a lot of heterosis to the table but just for making calves to sell I'd stick with something a little more common to keep your price up.

 

[Muddy]

Paint them black shouldn't be very difficult.

 

[Lucky_P]

I've been wanting some for over 20 years. Finally told the farm manager(wife) I was gonna breed some.
Bought 10 units of semen one each of two older fullblood Braunvieh sires last fall, used it mostly on black cows... and will finish off what's left in a couple of weeks when we breed the spring herd - again, mainly on black cows. But most of those are also red-carriers... so brindles may be in the mix... but I like a brindle cow. Steers... yeah, I may get docked on 'em.

Taking it slow with them at first - will see how they do for me before I buy any more semen.

Local Beefmaster breeders have run Braunvieh bulls over their cows on several occasions - and really liked what they got from them.

 

[RiverHills]

Braunvieh will cross very well for you and make some GREAT momma's. The problem will be the color of the steers that go to the sale barn. Just like what CP said buyers not knowing what they are (or playing dumb) to get them cheap.

From my limited experience the Angus/Braunviehs are the best. They can be dark grey/brown to black. They sell with the rest of angusX calves.

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Personally I don't like mixing too many breeds together. To many unknown variations. I don't like having more than 3 breeds in an individual. I suppose it would do alright.

 

[SoILcattle]

Flying, I don't plan on mixing any more than three breeds. The braunvieh I would make f1 crosses. The most we would have in a animal would be saler/Hereford/Angus cross.

I do agree to much mixing can be counter intuitive.

 

[RiverHills]

SoILcattle if I may ask where have you been looking for braunvieh cattle?

 

[SoILcattle]

Have spoken to several folks so far, black braunvieh from Texas, creeks edge (I think thats right) in illinois, McBee from Fayette mo and a few others I can't remember at the moment. Will try to attend the MO association sale this month

 

[SoILcattle]

Riverhills are there any breeders you would recommend?

 

[Muddy]

Are you talking about black ones, not the real deal?

 

[RiverHills]

I have purchased 30 females from McBee in the last five years. They just had a sale in April

Just had some semen sent to me from R&D farms in Franklin KY very nice guy with good cattle.

W/W cattle in section AL very nice guy good cattle

Mystic hill farms in culpeper VA are have a big female sale this weekend they have very nice cattle but never meet anyone

I was just asking because braunvieh are harder to come by then some other breeds.

 

[RiverHills]

Are you talking about black ones, not the real deal?

Muddy Mcbee's sale is called the real deal so I'm assuming they are

Seriously tho McBee defently has traditional braunvieh no black purebred. Some of the other guys I know have a few black but most are traditional in color.

 

[SoILcattle]

I have considered the black braunvieh. In our area most any cattle that arent black are discounted. It's unfortunate but just the way it is. Our saler is also homo black. Wonder if a black braunvieh Crossed with a Hereford would make a baldy braunvieh cross?

 

[dun]

If the Hereford or any other bull has a diluter gene you will end up with some brindles, brindles really get hammered around here. The only successfull braunvieh breeder in this area retains ownership on their steers through to slaughter. They've started using a Red Angus bull the past couple of years on some cows to get around calving issues.

 

[RiverHills]

I like braunvieh cattle and REALLY like the crosses
BUT i only use my braunvieh cows with my angus bulls for hybrid vigor and replacement heifers i also AI our angus cows to braunvieh and a few of our best hereford cows for replacements to avoid the off colored calves as much as we can

As for calving issues go we have had no more then we do with Angus or Hereford. You might have to watch it a little more but there some really good calving ease bulls

 

[Anonymous]

call me dumb but ive never seen a braunvieh but have done some reading on them .sound like really nice cattle would be intrested in some but ! seem like to me they would be hard to sell unless you did paint them black ! years ago they use to say black would cover up anything you didnt want someone to see ,been looking at red angus but they seem far an few between ,everyone has black cattle these day but they dont call them angus anymore ! their simis chi, and any other breed?herford are are almost gone around or maybe there black now too ?seem to me the braunvieh are close to simis size wise but there all black now too ?had some semis 80s an 90s had some big calves lost few cows due to this too .but there seems like epds must have come around to more even than they were back then ! but did have 1 and 1 only that could drink from water trough an drop a calf at same time .she also clear 4 1/2 ft gate if she wanted on the other side !but the braunvieh do seem to be headed the same way the semis have gone !

 

[OzssieDave19]

I bought an in calf braunveigh herf cross cow at the saleyard for 450 when an angus cow was making 950 and got laughed at by my dad. That cow made 2 good red calves and got sold for 650 as grinding beef and the two calves only 20 dollars less than the angus. She was very profitable quiet and easy calving. Wish i had 100.

 

[RiverHills]

I bought an in calf braunveigh herf cross cow at the saleyard for 450 when an angus cow was making 950 and got laughed at by my dad. That cow made 2 good red calves and got sold for 650 as grinding beef and the two calves only 20 dollars less than the angus. She was very profitable quiet and easy calving. Wish i had 100.

The cow was half Hereford half braunvieh?
What did you breed her back to to get red calves?