Breeding with a double muscle bull

[Randall]

I was curious what everybody thought of using a Blonde d'Aquitaine bull with my Angus and Hereford cows. Will it improve on my calves sizes?

 

[double v]

I used this cross Blondes x Hereford produced some get calves. Quick growers the blondes crossed better on reds then the black angus why i dont know but that cross worked.

 

[bcarty]

I thought about doing this same thing a few years ago as a terminal cross and just sell everything. To be honest I couldnt stomach not keeping some of my own heifers back as replacements and so I chickened out. I am interested to see what some people have to say about it though because the thought still crosses my mind every now and then.

BC

 

[Randall]

Should I expect any calving issues?

 

[glacierridge]

Sounds like it could be a nice cross. At least to me.

 

[dun]

As I see it it is a multi-edged sword. If you are planning on marketing at the salebarn you may take a pretty good hit for the double muscle. To raise a heivier calf regardless of the bull you need cows that will milk heivier, for them to milk heaivier you need really good forage. Without those 2 you would need to supplement the calves to get them to row to your expectations. You really need to start at the foundation to build higher weaning weights. That foundation is forage.

 

[cow pollinater]

You could probably out grow that cross with any good growth limo, char, sim bull and the calves would likely sell quite a bit better because buyers would know what they're looking at.

 

[cross_7]

As I see it it is a multi-edged sword. If you are planning on marketing at the salebarn you may take a pretty good hit for the double muscle. To raise a heivier calf regardless of the bull you need cows that will milk heivier, for them to milk heaivier you need really good forage. Without those 2 you would need to supplement the calves to get them to row to your expectations. You really need to start at the foundation to build higher weaning weights. That foundation is forage.

Some wise words right there

 

[glacierridge]

As I see it it is a multi-edged sword. If you are planning on marketing at the salebarn you may take a pretty good hit for the double muscle. To raise a heivier calf regardless of the bull you need cows that will milk heivier, for them to milk heaivier you need really good forage. Without those 2 you would need to supplement the calves to get them to row to your expectations. You really need to start at the foundation to build higher weaning weights. That foundation is forage.

Some wise words right there

The sale barn, I can see being an issue, but our DM calves are very feed efficient compared to others... I'm always happy watching their performance and progress alongside the calves that aren't DM.
If you are raising them, not going in the sale barn, they might be a pleasing experiment.
We don't sell feeders tho.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Define double muscled. I don't think a Blonde is double muscled.

 

[R V]

Double muscled usually means homozygous myostatin gene deletions and you are correct that the Blondes do not fall in this group. I did look up the American Blonde d Aquitaine site to make sure.

 

[glacierridge]

DM sired heifer.
Just a week over 3 months, dam isn't a strong milker

 

[double v]

no calving problems for me with that cross. hereford or shorthorn X blondes

 

[dun]

DM sired heifer.
Just a week over 3 months, dam isn't a strong milker

The double muscle isn;t the issue with getting larger weaning calves, doesn;t matter if you use charolais or anything that will wean a heavier calf. A cow that weans a heavy calf doesn;t depend on any trick of nature, she would wean a heavy calf no matter what she's bred to. Within reason of course.

 

[glacierridge]

Dun, even if she doesn't produce much milk?

 

[dun]

Dun, even if she doesn't produce much milk?

If she doesn;t produce enough milk it doesn;t matter what she's bred to unless the calf is supplemented. I'm sure you've seen big framed pot bellied calves, that's from poor nutrition, i.e. not adequate milk. It starts with the forage, then a cow that is structurally capable of covering the terrain to utilize the forage, then she must be able to produce adequate milk to feed the size of calf that she will raise. Then you get to the bull genetics to sire calves that are capable of being born unassited, get up and start looking for milk within minutes and utilize the milk and later forage that is available.

 

[chippie]

We raised Belgian Blue crosses for a while when our kids were showing commercial heifers. They did so so in the show but did well with the buyers for commercial replacements.

The steers were butchered for home use and we usually sold half. The people who bought the beef were very pleased with it. I think that it was some of the best tasting meat that we ever raised.

One thing though, even though you are breeding to a heavily muscled breed, it doesn't guarantee that your calves will have the same muscling as the sire. The type of cow that you use has a lot to do with it.

 

[Jovid]

As I see it it is a multi-edged sword. If you are planning on marketing at the salebarn you may take a pretty good hit for the double muscle. To raise a heivier calf regardless of the bull you need cows that will milk heivier, for them to milk heaivier you need really good forage. Without those 2 you would need to supplement the calves to get them to row to your expectations. You really need to start at the foundation to build higher weaning weights. That foundation is forage.

Some wise words right there

The sale barn, I can see being an issue, but our DM calves are very feed efficient compared to others... I'm always happy watching their performance and progress alongside the calves that aren't DM.
If you are raising them, not going in the sale barn, they might be a pleasing experiment.
We don't sell feeders tho.

A true doubled muscled bull (one that carries two copies of the myostatin gene) will only produce 100% double muscled off spring when crossed with a double muscled cow (one that carries two copies of the myostatin gene). If the cow does NOT have any copies of the mysotatin gene them the offspring will NOT be double muscled. The offspring would have one copy of the gene which will result in a leaner higher yielding carcass.

No one is going to know this when you are selling your cattle through the sale barn. In fact it may increase the price as they should be heavier cattle to the muscle.