Feeder futures

[Travlr]

Not sure of what the purpose would be. Holstein standards means they have to have a white switch on tail and a certain amount of other white... the blacks are beef crosses and grade accordingly... solid black holstein crosses... usually with brown swiss giving them a dark choc or grayish black, take longer to mature since the swiss are slower growing... I see no benefit to a solid black holstein as the type would not feed out as well as a beef cross... and they pass the "black hided" tests many times... why screw up a breed with trying to make it something it is not. The market for the holstein beef is different than the beef animals, and there is a good market for them. I personally don't like the "turning everything black" mentality... if you cross it, the calf is a crossbred... regardless if it is all black or not... and then you get into having these "blacks" into the milking herds and you go backwards with milk production. It is hard enough to get some to recognize the good in the red and white holsteins which is a naturally occurring color... who the he// needs another "black breed" ???

I couldn't have said it better myself...

Just speculating on people and the current trend to chase a "premium"...

 

[Rmc]

If the want to chase a premium. Many dairies are mating to a beef bull.or even wagyu . With the ability to sex semen and the reduced cost and increasing availability of embryo transplants. Only a small percentage of the top genetics are being used for replacements . Then some are used as recip cows. But that leaves about 50 percent or more of the available herd that can be used to generate a profit with their calves because they aren't needed to produce replacements.

 

[farmerjan]

If the want to chase a premium. Many dairies are mating to a beef bull.or even wagyu . With the ability to sex semen and the reduced cost and increasing availability of embryo transplants. Only a small percentage of the top genetics are being used for replacements . Then some are used as recip cows. But that leaves about 50 percent or more of the available herd that can be used to generate a profit with their calves because they aren't needed to produce replacements.

The holstein dairies in this area have been doing that for several years. Breeding the top 1/3 or so of the herd to sexed holstein heifer semen, using straight holstein semen and beef bulls on the lower 1/2 or so of the herd so they get a calf... and as you said, using some for recips especially the registered herds I test that buy embryo's , or that have their own harvested. It is just in the last year that these beef cross BLACK calves here have hit these high prices. There was a big push in the Jersey herds to use beef semen, and I think it was Limousin, and there were actual buyers that were paying to have the jersey's bred this way and guaranteeing to buy the calves. A year ago I could still buy some pretty decent holstein bull calves to graft on cows for $100....now I can't find a twin bull calf at 75 lbs for less than $150-200

 

[Dave]

Calving season is pretty much done here. The twins which were held for graft calves aren't needed and people don't like having to bottle feed them. There was about 8 black Angus calves at the sale on Thursday. For about a $150 average or less you could have had all of them.