Crossing longhorn cows to commercial bulls ?

[mpassmore85]

Couple questions if anyone with experience can help me. Have solid coloured longhorns that have been bred for roping so pretty small about 8-900 pounds. Have sold the longhorn bull and was thinking on mixing the longhorn cows with the commercial herd. They'd be in a herd of 200 or so and breeding time there would be mixture of bulls. From pure bred angus/ Angus X Hereford / angus X Limo, so can't exactly pick and choose what bull does the breeding.

Questions being:
Any calfing difficulties ?
Any issues having to pull calves ?

Picture attached to show size

 

[gaurus]

Couple questions if anyone with experience can help me. Have solid coloured longhorns that have been bred for roping so pretty small about 8-900 pounds. Have sold the longhorn bull and was thinking on mixing the longhorn cows with the commercial herd. They'd be in a herd of 200 or so and breeding time there would be mixture of bulls. From pure bred angus/ Angus X Hereford / angus X Limo, so can't exactly pick and choose what bull does the breeding.

Questions being:
Any calfing difficulties ?
Any issues having to pull calves ?

Picture attached to show size

Long Horns are the breed with the highest percentage of unassisted calving(98% of so), and that comes at not surprise, Nature culled the ones that needed assistance, check the pictures of the Longhorn cross thread, you will see Charolais x longhorn cross.

 

[mpassmore85]

I read all of that post. But my longhorns seem to be a bit smaller and was mainly worrying about pulling them.

 

[mpassmore85]

Also one kinda dumb question. Have one family line that has twins say 1 out of every 3 years always raised normally no issues. Just wondering if this is going to make breeding them to beef bull problematic?

 

[gaurus]

Corriente cattle are smaller type of crillo cattle(same type as Longhorns) due to the same environmental pressures they are also easy calving and have not issues calving a Charolais cross calf, so no issues with smaller framed Longhorns.

 

[younggun]

Do corriente cattle get horns as big as longhorns or are they shorter? I ask because I have a heifer that should be calving any day now (bred to an angus) that I always called a longhorn but she's solid brown and pretty small, I even named her "Tiny". She's a 3 year old, nearly 4 but as you can see she's pretty small. That's a 5' fence she's standing behind in the second pic but the pic is taken at a slight downward angle so she looks a little smaller there than she is.

Hope I didn't hijack your thread, my plan is to breed her back to a charolais so I'm going down a similar road you're looking into

 

[Brute 23]

People do cross Corriente and Longhorn cattle... not sure if its accidently or on purpose.

I have also seen Longhorn X cattle that still put on pretty good horns for only being 50% Longhorn.

 

[RanchMan90]

A lot of people put Charolais bulls on solid color longhorn cows here with good results. They have a bit higher stocking rate and high percentage calf crop. I'm not pro-longhorn but it does look good on paper.

 

[Bigfoot]

A lot of people put Charolais bulls on solid color longhorn cows here with good results. They have a bit higher stocking rate and high percentage calf crop. I'm not pro-longhorn but it does look good on paper.

I get accused of being pro longhorn, but I'm actually not. I am surprised how many roping calves I can crowd on a little spot of grass though. Watched a couple of longhorn steers sell for 50 cents a pound last week. That's enough to turn you off. I bought a 300 pound longhorn heifer for .90 as well.

 

[Muddy]

Charolais is number #1 popular bull on Longhorn and Corriente cows here and their calves do decent at the sale barns tho they won't bring premium. The feedlot buyers didn't like Angus X Longhorn crosses much but will pay a little more for CharX longhorn calves.

 

[gaurus]

Charolais is number #1 popular bull on Longhorn and Corriente cows here and their calves do decent at the sale barns tho they won't bring premium. The feedlot buyers didn't like Angus X Longhorn crosses much but will pay a little more for CharX longhorn calves.

That is true, Charolais is the bull to use on them(Longhorn and Corriente) some will say that Limousin are as good, but not really, maybe a good second place as breed of bull on these criollo breeds, but #1 is Charolais

 

[Muddy]

Charolais is number #1 popular bull on Longhorn and Corriente cows here and their calves do decent at the sale barns tho they won't bring premium. The feedlot buyers didn't like Angus X Longhorn crosses much but will pay a little more for CharX longhorn calves.

That is true, Charolais is the bull to use on them(Longhorn and Corriente) some will say that Limousin are as good, but not really, maybe a good second place as breed of bull on these criollo breeds, but #1 is Charolais

You're better off with using full blooded limousin bulls on these cows than using black limousin bulls if you want better uniformity in the calves. Black bulls of any breeds won't knock off the LH chrome and you'll get more colorful calves.

 

[SIMMGAL]

I probably shouldn't even comment because Longhorns aren't my forte, but I will anyway...

I have a very limited sample size, but one of my favorite cross cows is a Longhorn X Angus cross. When I got her as a heifer, I was certain she would be bony and rangy as she aged. She raises one of the biggest and fattest calves in the spring group every year, breeds back right away and stays fat as a hog. Her dam was a pure longhorn that my uncle owned and ran with his Angus herd and he gave me the resulting calf as a gift. All of her Sim calves have more muscle shape than she does, but that's to be expected. I'll keep using Simmi on her because its what we run anyway and I haven't had any issues with her or her 1/2 Sim daughters calving. Only thing I can fault her on is color, which always bites me at the sale barn. She's one of the easiest keepers, so I can't complain. Plus she's a head turner since her horns grew in upside down and inward. One had to be trimmed and the other removed so I just call her my half-horn half-longhorn. :lol2:

 

[mpassmore85]

Sorry dumb question. The term "chrome" means what exactly?

And all my longhorns are cross breed 1/2 longhorn 3/8 corriente and 1/8 Watusi. We bred them to be small for team roping initially.

Just a pain having them separated from the 500 or so head of commercials.

 

[Muddy]

Chrome means white. However since you have solid colored Longhorns only, just breed them to a homo black bull and you should get full black calves. They should be fine with your bulls.

 

[MtnCows93]

Ive got a question, do corriente/longhorn cows eat less grass that your typical angus cow because they just dont need as much nutrition or is it because they weigh quite a bit less? because where im at the corriente or mostly corriente cows ive seen wont even weigh half of what a angus cow weighs

 

[kenny thomas]

Yes they eat less and eat rougher forage.
The eat less because they weigh less.

 

[Muddy]

Most Corrientes and Longhorn cows I seen are pretty leggy and gutless, so they just don't eat very much. Even if the Longhorn cow has same height as an angus cow, she's just not wide as the beef cow.

 

[Nesikep]

Here's a longhorn/coriente/angus cow with a Gelbvieh/Shorthorn sired calf

 

[Muddy]

Here's a longhorn/coriente/angus cow with a Gelbvieh/Shorthorn sired calf

Looks like the calf got the Longhorn/Corriente legs...