British/Continental breeds

[Anonymous]

I would like to know if a gelbvieh is considered continental. Which continent is refered to? I've a registered gelbvieh bull bred to black baldies, brangus, and charlais crossbreds. I want to keep my heifers and produce a high yield grade but don't know which breeds will produce the desired British/Continental cross. Which cows do I sell? Which if any are British and which cows are continental?



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[Anonymous]

> I would like to know if a gelbvieh
> is considered continental. Which
> continent is refered to? I've a
> registered gelbvieh bull bred to
> black baldies, brangus, and
> charlais crossbreds. I want to
> keep my heifers and produce a high
> yield grade but don't know which
> breeds will produce the desired
> British/Continental cross. Which
> cows do I sell? Which if any are
> British and which cows are
> continental? The Gelbvieh and Charolais are continentals (European). Angus, Hereford and Shorthorn would be some examples of British or English.

 

[Anonymous]

Gelbvieh is German for Yellow (Gelb) Cattle (Vieh, pronounced FEE). Gelbvieh and Charolais are largely descended from old Euro-shorthorn breeds. The British breeds that are most distantly related to them, and would provide the most heterosis, are White Park, Welsh Black, Irish Kerry, and Scotish Highland. The White Parks gain weight 5% faster than Limousins, but are a horned breed.

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[Anonymous]

British are: Angus,Shorthorn, Hereford

Continental: Charolais, Keyanina (SP), Main Anjus (SP),Limousin, etc.

The best cross is a true F1 of any breed cross between a British and Continental, you get the marbling, moderate frame milk from the British for the most part, and the muscle and growth from the Continental.

Gelbvieh are considered a dual purpose breed, much like the Shorthorn, in their country of origin they are used both for meat and milk, they are a complete animal, but if you breed them to Angus, or Hereford, you will see a great deal of hybrid vigor in the growth department and muscle produced, much better than either of the parents.

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[Anonymous]

Interesting, had never even heard of White Parks, Highland cattle are small and hairy, and do well in Northern climates, not too well anywhere in the south, Most Limousin or at least the Fullblood (100%) are horned, there are some polled and the purebred of course come in Red and Black and are both horned and polled, I have seen no research data to prove that White Parks perform better than Limousin, mostly because there are so few in this country, I would love to see a full pen of them on feed next to a pen full of Limousin and get real data to back up the comment, because as of right now Limousin rank #1 in muscle growth efficiency in this counrty and Canada, against all other breeds, tested at University feed tests and feed trials in the commercial feed yards. And that data is available, at Cal Poly, Texas Teck, Oklahoma State, Cactus Feeders, Laura's Lean, etc.

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[Anonymous]

Limos may be the top muscling breeds on the continent but most people don't want to put up with their tedency to be high-strung. We tried them for about two years after a few "accidents" we got rid of the bulls and their offspring. On top of the attitudes the limo crosses were often our smallest calves.

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[Anonymous]

I am sorry you had the misfortune to purchase some sorry bulls from a producer that obviously had no standards in the quality of animals they allow to be put into the gene pool. There are many producers out there who raise quality Limousin and cut the nuts off the ones that are goofy, I am one of them, and I also have in the past sent heifers to the feed yards that were bad natured. In a very short time you eliminate the problem if you keep culling , or removing them from the breeding population. Don't make comments on a breed, from an experience that was very limited! Your limmited experience does not qualify you to condem a whole breed, yes you had a bad experience, and I would say you had a responsibility to go back to the breeder and get your money back. Did the bulls you purchased have performance data collected, and were they registered with EPD's, and how long had the producer been in business. These are very critical tit bits of info you should get when buying a bull from anyone of any breed, if they can't provide that info you should not buy an animal from them anyway. Unfortunatly there are lots of people out there selling bulls from all breeds that have no business selling breeding stock, they would be doing us all a favor if they just sold everything they have to sell at the local sale barn. And the guys who buy their breeding stock from the sale barn get just what they deserve and pay for!



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[Anonymous]

I agree with Michelle 100%. Breeding stock should always be purchased from established reputable breeders who also supply all of the desired data on their animals. To purchase breeding stock at a sale barn is like buying dogs at a backyard puppy mill. You get what you pay for: essentially nothing of value. Reputable breeders cull, cull, cull, and more cull. Any male animal will service any female of any species--think it's called hormones...it's up to the "good guys and gals" to assist with desirable, selective breeding to produce desired traits and quality in the offspring; and, in the case of purebred stock, to ensure no outside visitor gets in the bedroom.

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[Anonymous]

Dear Michelle, Your comment on not judging a whole breed by a few bad experiences--usually due to incompitent, or unscrupulous, breeders not culling their herds properly--warmed my heart. I have been trying to explain that point to people who automatically ridicule Texas Longhorns for many years now. Ever since 1970 the big money and big media among Longhorn breeders have been focused on show ring looks (bright colors and absurdly-long horns) to the exclusion of all practical attributes. A minority of breeders still maintain the old-type, environmentally-adapted, low-overhead, lean-beef, range-type Longhorns, but due to the bad preformance record of the show ring cattle no one takes the range-type seriously. At present the pureblood Texas Longhorn is closer to extinction than it was in 1920. Even though there are some 250,000 cattle with papers claiming they are Texas Longhorns, less than 4% can pass a bloodtest for breed purity. These days nobody stops to ask themselves if what they've heard about a breed is really true, and we're losing a lot of future genetic options because of that.

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[Anonymous]

I didn't mean to bash the breed on just my experience just don't suggest them as many people from my area won't. We did try the breed a couple of times from different breeders and different bloodlines. And I'm way too stubborn to try 3 times. If you could lead me to a site that shows they can outgain my charlois and/or and crosses I'd probably give it another go around. Sorry for the mishap Jake

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[Anonymous]

Here is a site you can go to, to see an unbiased account of tested bulls

<A HREF="http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/exten/obi" TARGET="_blank">www.ansi.okstate.edu/exten/obi</A>

They have tested over 1000 Limousin Bulls, repeatedly found them to outperform other breeds. I use the information to see how well some AI sires out perform others, as a selection criteria for who I will use in the future. I don't use the website though, I am on the mailing list so I get the hard copies and keep a file for later comparison. Hope it provides some useful information.

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