Cross breeding question

[RCP]

From the beginning( about 20 + years ago )I have tried to raise black baldy calves. I had mostly black cows and I bought a reg. poll hereford with them.1st calf crop mostly blk baldies. Same cows, same bull, next year, mostly red/white calves. I sold the bull. I tried reg. red angus and got all kinds of colors,some blk,some red, some blk/white spotted, some red /white spotted. I had some holstein. influence in the cows , but have sold off most of them) I sold the bulls.(2) Have a blk saler on the black cows now, several brangus in the bunch,good calves no problem but not the black baldies I want !

I have found a herd of black baldies and wonder about buying a black baldy bullcalf and raising him and trying that. What are the odds of finally getting mostly black baldy calves??? ( I saw a reg. black hereford advertised in the paper for $ 2,850. I bet he was good, ) but out of my normal price range. Give me your thoughts please, I sure would appreciate it. rcp

 

[bigbull338]

you best bet is to go back to the reg polled hereford bull.with holstein influnced cows you can some colored up an spotted calves.im betting your black cows wasnt full angus either.because an angus cow hereford bull will give you true blacl baldies.

 

[randiliana]

The only way to reliably get black baldy calves (of the type you are talking about) is to breed Hereford cows to a Black Angus bull or to breed Black Angus cows to a Hereford bull. I know others will say that black Simmies, Limis, Gelbveihs etc will do the same when bred to Hereford cows, but ALL of those started out as RED breeds and the chances of any specific bull carrying the RED gene is fairly high, and Simmies and Gelbveihs may also carry the spotting gene.

As for breeding a Black Baldy bull to Black Baldy cows, here is what you are most likely to get.

First off, color wise
25% homo Black
50% hetero Black (carry the red gene)
25% Red

Now the white faces, of course this depends on the bull, if he is a typical baldy,
25% Hereford type markings
50% Baldy markings
25% no white markings

If he is a hereford marked
50% hereford markings
50% baldy markings

 

[novatech]

First off, being blunt, your priorities are up side down. The goal is not to color coordinate your pasture.
Cross breed 2 animals of choice for the meat you want to produce then worry about color.
Historically black baldies were hereford/angus cross. The calves may come out solid black. Some may have just a little white on their face or even a multitude of other places. They are still considered black baldies.
Having said that, there are a lot of buyers that want a set of heifers that match as close as possible. You can match up the F1 heifers in groups and sell them to those people. I raised tiger stripes and there were buyers that would only buy those that striped out. Funny part was that often times the red baldies were the better bunch.

 

[novaman]

The goal is not to color coordinate your pasture.

I don't know where you sell your cattle or how things are done in your area but around here the color is a huge factor in how well they sell. Yes, the priority should be quality of meat but buyers go by looks on the outside.

 

[Northern Rancher]

There was an outfit I think in Montana that sold bulls like that-I think they were called Hughes Newfords. This was years ago mind you.

 

[cypressfarms]

I have found a herd of black baldies and wonder about buying a black baldy bullcalf and raising him and trying that. What are the odds of finally getting mostly black baldy calves??? ( I saw a reg. black hereford advertised in the paper for $ 2,850. I bet he was good, ) but out of my normal price range. Give me your thoughts please, I sure would appreciate it. rcp

I wouldn't recommend this route as buying a black baldy bull calf - you really don't have some of the available tools to help pick a registered bull, namely epd's. Even with a good group of black (read angus) cows, any hereford bull will still throw some red baldies, as Randi pointed out, unless you know for sure that none carry the red recessive gene. $2850 for a black hereford; what is the world coming to. :shock: