Building up my Longhorn herd

[DakotaCowboy]

I plan on buying 10 Longhorn cows this Spring for breeding stock. My plan is to use Longhorn Cows for my breeding stock and breed them to Angus or Charolais bulls, so the calves are more built. But if I do this the heifers I keep back, to grow the herd, will be crossed. If I keep those cross heifers back to use as breeding stock in the future and breed them with an Angus of Charolais, will there be any Longhorn Left in the Clalves? I guess what I'm asking is I want to have all Longhorn Mothers in my stock and raise cross claves off of them, so how do I go about raising Longhorn replacement hiefers? Do I keep half the cows and breed them to a pure Longhorn bull, and the other half of cows to an Angus and Charolais? I'm open up to any suggestions.

 

[MillIronQH]

Looks like you pretty much answered your own question. The second cross heifers will only be 25%. I can't figure out what your plan is but you're either have to breed part of the cows straight Longhorn or sell everything and buy back straight Longhorn. With 5 cows you stand a chance of 3 or four bulls.Z

 

[Beefy]

you could either buy more longhorns along and along or you could figure out who your best cows are and run them with a longhorn bull or ai them.

 

[Rustler9]

Why don't you breed your half breed Longhorn heifers to a Longhorn bull when they are breeding age? Then you'll wind up with some 3/4 Longhorn heifers that you could use as well. You can generally pick up a Longhorn bull as a yearling at a reasonable price to use on them and then either sell him or eat him after you're done with him. You'll like the Longhorn blood in your mama cows.

Pick the half breed heifers that you want to keep and breed them to the Longhorn bull once or whenever you want to retain some Longhorn blood in the herd. You could probably borrow a young bull from someone to use from time to time. We loan young ones out as well as lease them to folks who want to use on first calf heifers or who only have a few LH cows to breed and don't need a bull full time.

 

[auctionboy]

If you are buying longhorns cheap then you should continue buying cows and selling all of your calves. If you want heifers buy a straight longhorn heifer. Don't bother with two bulls and trying to get heifers out of a longhorn bull.

 

[BC]

Your herd is too small to try and save heifers. Just use the longhorn cows and breed to a Charolais. Sell around 300 to 350 before they get the longhorn look. Buy all replacement females. There are people out their that take straight bred longhorns to the sale and they get sold at a discount. Take advantage of that.

 

[boone]

It seems contradictory for a guy to take advantage of the fact that they sell at a discount, and for him to expect anything but the same when he goes to sell calves.Even if they were 1/2 char. Boone

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Assuming you are wanting Longhorns to breed, for possible/potential sale at a Sale Barn as beef animals, I would do the "opposite" of what you are proposing.

I would get my 10 or so quality cross-bred commercial cows and then breed them to a Longhorn Bull! Sell the calves before they reach 400# to get best price (usually the serious cut-off at sale barn is when heifer or bull calves reach 500#--after that, the price drops significantly).

Using a LH Bull on commercial cows or 1st calf heifers will give you a low birthweight, no pulling of calves, and the LH genetics will benefit you when cross-breeding.

 

[auctionboy]

It seems contradictory for a guy to take advantage of the fact that they sell at a discount, and for him to expect anything but the same when he goes to sell calves.Even if they were 1/2 char. Boone

Why? Calves out of older cheap cows should not be worth as much. Calves breed to be better then there mothers should not be worth more? It is not contradictory, it is a good plan and it is business. The cross breeding is added value.

 

[somn]

I plan on buying 10 Longhorn cows this Spring for breeding stock. My plan is to use Longhorn Cows for my breeding stock and breed them to Angus or Charolais bulls, so the calves are more built. But if I do this the heifers I keep back, to grow the herd, will be crossed. If I keep those cross heifers back to use as breeding stock in the future and breed them with an Angus of Charolais, will there be any Longhorn Left in the Clalves? I guess what I'm asking is I want to have all Longhorn Mothers in my stock and raise cross claves off of them, so how do I go about raising Longhorn replacement hiefers? Do I keep half the cows and breed them to a pure Longhorn bull, and the other half of cows to an Angus and Charolais? I'm open up to any suggestions.

Good plan it is almost as smart as putting stain glass windows on a porta potty. What part of SD are you from I will try to stay away from salebarns in that area.

 

[Rustler9]

You naysayers have more than likely seen Longhorn x Char cross calves run through sales before and never knew the difference. This cross works and works well.

 

[somn]

You naysayers have more than likely seen Longhorn x Char cross calves run through sales before and never knew the difference. This cross works and works well.

Not only have I seen them I've bought them and put them in a feedyard. There is a reason they get docked as calves. Stain glass windows on a porta potty.

 

[Rustler9]

You've personally lost on LHxChar calves? Did you know that they were this cross? How did you know? Why did you buy them?

 

[auctionboy]

You naysayers have more than likely seen Longhorn x Char cross calves run through sales before and never knew the difference. This cross works and works well.

Not only have I seen them I've bought them and put them in a feedyard. There is a reason they get docked as calves. Stain glass windows on a porta potty.

Of course he is going to get docked at the sale barn. No body said he was going to have the best, top selling calves, but the longhorn people say it is a good cross. Why is everybody obsessed with the top dollar calf? Those longhorn mothers should keep feed costs down, plus he would have a chance to sell freezer beef with a small herd and make a premium.

 

[backhoeboogie]

the longhorn people say it is a good cross.

There are a whole bunch of folks who feel LH is a good cross, who aren't "longhorn people".

 

[dun]

I've only seen angus lh crosses and they didn;t have the muscle when finished that the calves that didn;t have lh or dairy in them did. The feed lot sells muscle

dun

 

[somn]

You've personally lost on LHxChar calves? Did you know that they were this cross? How did you know? Why did you buy them?

Yes I've personally lost money on longhorn cross calves.

How did I know they where longhorn cross calves first off it doesn't take a genius to spot them and secondly the extremely overly proud owner sat right next to me talking them up like they are the best thing since sliced bread.

Why did I buy them because I like to discover things first hand. If they work so good I will find out for myself if they don't work the next time someone runs at the mouth about how good they are I will already know the end result and there will be no need to listen to the BS and wonder is this guy serious.

 

[auctionboy]

the longhorn people say it is a good cross.

There are a whole bunch of folks who feel LH is a good cross, who aren't "longhorn people".

By Longhorn people I ment people that raise longhorns and know more then me about them. People are talking about how they finish, the poster said he wanted to sell calves, from what I have read on here these cross calves sell well. It doesn't matter to this guy how they finish, just that he has a market, which be has.

 

[backhoeboogie]

the longhorn people say it is a good cross.

There are a whole bunch of folks who feel LH is a good cross, who aren't "longhorn people".

By Longhorn people I ment people that raise longhorns and know more then me about them. People are talking about how they finish, the poster said he wanted to sell calves, from what I have read on here these cross calves sell well. It doesn't matter to this guy how they finish, just that he has a market, which be has.

The folks I know buying them/looking for them are buying crosses for commercial cattle. They aren't looking for feeders. They are looking for cows that can forage range and thrive while producing good calves off of a pure bred bull.

 

[auctionboy]

the longhorn people say it is a good cross.

There are a whole bunch of folks who feel LH is a good cross, who aren't "longhorn people".

By Longhorn people I ment people that raise longhorns and know more then me about them. People are talking about how they finish, the poster said he wanted to sell calves, from what I have read on here these cross calves sell well. It doesn't matter to this guy how they finish, just that he has a market, which be has.

The folks I know buying them/looking for them are buying crosses for commercial cattle. They aren't looking for feeders. They are looking for cows that can forage range and thrive while producing
good calves off of a pure bred bull.

That is exactly what he is doing! It must be a good idea because the people you know are doing it also. Why are the people you know doing it? To produce feeders? I don't see why this guy cant produce these cross bred commercial cattle when you just said there are people looking for them.