Bare in mind these are only my ideas/thoughts/opinions and they're free. Sometimes others views aren't worth what you pay for them. That said. I would look for some good Angus X Simmenthal or Angus X Gelbvieh heifers. With a Beefmaster bull you will have a leg-up with your three way cross. If you can't find crosses of that genetic makeup I would look to heifers that are primarily Angus or Shorthorn, Simmenthal or Gelbvieh. Or even straighbred cattle of those breeds. The reason I didn't include Hereford is because you will get some of that from the Beefmaster side. Tiy need to crossbreed without mongrelizing, sometimes easier said then done. I've never worked with Beefmaster but the are touted as having good maternal, that's what you will be looking for in the base cow herd that's why I included those I did. If you start with Baldys you won't get as much heterosis when crossed with Beefmaster, but you will still have a darn good basic cow to start with. If you start with Brangus you wouldn't (remember this is my opinion) want to use Beefmaster. There is nothing to gain with keeping all the Brahman influence. You could start with Beefmaster heifers/cows and cross them with a good Balancer (Angus X Gelbvieh) or Simangus (Angus Simmenthal). The goal isn't to just have a 3 or 4 way cross cow herd. You need to have more specifics, i.e. no more then 1/2 of a specific given breed, no less then 1/4 of a specific given breed, etc. That's where the real challenge of succesfull crossbreeding comes in. You can just use a diffferent breed of bull each year until you've run through the 100 or so different breeds available but then you don;t have anything specific, just a bunch of cows. Stick with beef breeds, a heavily muscled Holstein is still a Holstein, the dairy characteristics will hurt you at sale time in the long run.
dun
> dun
> what breed do you think i should
> start with and you say start with
> quality stock how much should a
> man pay for this stock to just
> sell feeder calfs i do have a
> friend who has been tring to sell
> me a tank full of beefmaster
> semen. i did not think it would be
> a good idea since i was only
> crossbreeding. any more advice i
> love to have it.