Fullblood Limousins and Simmentals

[UG]

Over the years the popularity of fullbloods of most of the Continental breeds has declined. There are only a handful of breeders still actively raising fullblood Maines, Chi's, South Devons, and Gelbviehs.

However there still seems to be a fair amount of fullblood Limmy's being produced and several breeders of Fleckvieh (one of the strains of Fullblood Simmentals) are having some success merchandising their cattle.

Any thoughts out there on why the fullblood Limmy's and Simmy's continue to have quite a bit of commercial success? Any thoughts on why the other Continental fullbloods are not having much success?

 

[dun]

Marketing. The other breeds just never seemed to get into marketing their product as well.

dun

 

[polledbull]

I think the survival of the full blood limosin was because of few things. 1. It was excepted commercially for being more heavy muscled and worked good on black commmercial cows.2 Some of the breeders bring fullblood back into thier black polled herd to bring some muscle back into them . 3 It is a thing for some breeders to have fullblood just as it is for a breeder to have angus or simmis . they just like the fullbloods.

 

[mtnman]

Foolbloods is more like it, eh?

mtnman

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

The two breeds are the third largest breeds in US. (they go back & forth as to which is 3rd - don't know where they stand this year). So it makes sense that their fullblood programs would still be hanging on.

I personnally think we have made a better Simmental here in America. I do not like the heavy shouldered, heavy fronted fullblood lines. Although, there are getting to be some decent fullbloods.

Also, a note on fullbloods. Have you noticed here in America we miraculously developed the "polled" fullblood? HMMM, seems like the polled trait is a trait that the Europeans would have strived for in all the years since 1806 and never managed to get a polled line. Here in America ( we're genius), we developed them in less than 50 years through genetic freaks - yeah right! We're good!

 

[UG]

The two breeds are the third largest breeds in US. (they go back & forth as to which is 3rd - don't know where they stand this year). So it makes sense that their fullblood programs would still be hanging on.

I personnally think we have made a better Simmental here in America. I do not like the heavy shouldered, heavy fronted fullblood lines. Although, there are getting to be some decent fullbloods.

Also, a note on fullbloods. Have you noticed here in America we miraculously developed the "polled" fullblood? HMMM, seems like the polled trait is a trait that the Europeans would have strived for in all the years since 1806 and never managed to get a polled line. Here in America ( we're genius), we developed them in less than 50 years through genetic freaks - yeah right! We're good!

Very good point Jeanne. Not only were the North American breeders so skilled that they were able to produce polled Fullbloods in less than 30 years, but the genius Angus breeders here in the US & Canada were able to go from breeding belt buckle tall calves to "purebred" Angus calves as tall as my shoulders (I'm 6' 1") in less than 20 years. Boy, too bad cattle producers in other countries aren't as smart as the breeders in N.America ;-)

 

[jt]

Any thoughts out there on why the fullblood Limmy's and Simmy's continue to have quite a bit of commercial success? Any thoughts on why the other Continental fullbloods are not having much success?

around here some are wanting the fullblood limos to put on charlois cross cattle.

jt

 

[TheBullLady]

I think another reason Simmentals maintain their popularity is there are different types that work for different breeding programs. The Fleck influenced cattle are good for brahman cross cattle, or adding thickness to a herd, while the black and solid reds are compatible with just about anything.

I really think Simmental breeders are good at promoting their bulls as well. There are a lot of breeders in my area that consign bulls to commercial bull sales, which give them an opportunity to tap the commerical market.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Jt, bet they sure have a lively branding day with the calves out of that cross.

Man, bet any heifers kept back out of that F1 would sure keep you on your toes - from weaning to calving time. Better workout than a gym membership.

Honey's dad had a dandy bunch of thick, deep CharX cows (with a bit of Hereford in their background). Big and quiet. When the Limos first appeared in this area, he was so impressed with the double muscling on the Limo bulls that he saw that he bought a yearling bull to cross with his cows. He called it "Two Bulls In One", as it was his first and last Limo bull. As a three year old the bull broke his pecker, and was never replaced by another of his breed.

The tale of those two Limo sired calf crops on that ranch are still spoken of in hushed tones of awe mingled with a hint of pain. Apparantly on branding day, when the dust settled and the bruises were counted, the general consensus was that they had never seen calves that athletic or determined, as the calves had gone over, under and through everything and everybody in apparant disregard for gravity and facilities.

The fall calf check was a good one, so 'Dad' decided to keep back about 30 head of his best heifers to see if they would settle down and make good cows.

Wild and wooly about best describes their first calving season. It didn't take too many years before the last one had been sent to town.

Take care.

 

[Wewild]

Jt, bet they sure have a lively branding day with the calves out of that cross.

Man, bet any heifers kept back out of that F1 would sure keep you on your toes - from weaning to calving time. Better workout than a gym membership.

Honey's dad had a dandy bunch of thick, deep CharX cows (with a bit of Hereford in their background). Big and quiet. When the Limos first appeared in this area, he was so impressed with the double muscling on the Limo bulls that he saw that he bought a yearling bull to cross with his cows. He called it "Two Bulls In One", as it was his first and last Limo bull. As a three year old the bull broke his pecker, and was never replaced by another of his breed.

The tale of those two Limo sired calf crops on that ranch are still spoken of in hushed tones of awe mingled with a hint of pain. Apparantly on branding day, when the dust settled and the bruises were counted, the general consensus was that they had never seen calves that athletic or determined, as the calves had gone over, under and through everything and everybody in apparant disregard for gravity and facilities.

The fall calf check was a good one, so 'Dad' decided to keep back about 30 head of his best heifers to see if they would settle down and make good cows.

Wild and wooly about best describes their first calving season. It didn't take too many years before the last one had been sent to town.

Take care.

Thanks for the testimonial. I didn't know we were that good of cattle handlers. We've been raising Lim's and commercial crosses since the 70's. If one tares out just rope him or her and drag her on the trailer.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Hats off to you, Wewild! Keep in mind that ol' "Two Bulls" was back in the mid-Eighties, and they were a significantly different beast to handle than the Britishers that folks were used to.

There are all sorts of eyebrow raising stories from local cattlemen when the Continental breeds were starting to appear in this area - Simmies, Limos, Char, Salers, etc. The Simmental cattle of that era that the local Hutterite colonies raised are still legendary in their ability to turn weathered old cattlemen pale when reminincing over coffee at the bull sales.

The modern lines certainly have better temperment (generally, as there is always one nutbar in mix it seems), as one of my neighbours is sure fond of his Limos. Personally, I wasn't that impressed by one of his bulls (not only was he laying in the shade chewing his cud whilst the Sims and Chars were busying courting the cows, but of all things his scrotum was sideways - yep - about the size of softball and attached sideways). Sure are vigorous calves when you're working them, but he seems to do okay in the sale ring with them.

Anyways, to each his own. In all fairness, we've got a few Limo crossed cows out there that aren't totally nuts. One is even kind of quiet. ;-)


Take care.

 

[Wewild]

CattleAnnie

I was agreeing with you. It's been tough at times and others have been smooth as silk but we've done good with them. Can't get them too riled up.

Dad liked Char's before he went Lim's so we had a fair amount of Char crosses when we went to Lim bulls.

We have had to catch a handful of calves in the years and this year most notably because our facilities are in such disrepair.

I saw a "cowboy" , since we don't catch them ourselves, run a calf 1/2 mile and miss before his partner swooped in and got him. Can't see that on T.V. They agree with you that they have never seen calves that could move that fast.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Wewild, agree that the limo cross calves here always seem to grow well. Was chuckling at your description of those boys trying to rope one of them!

Because we run our cattle in a community pasture, we always get a few Limo sired calves every year from that neighbour's bulls. We've learned that you want to band and tag the little guys in the first day, as they sure as quick as stink! And born with a well - developed bellar, too.

I'd always thought that the Angus sired calves were full of pee and vinegar till I processed some of those Limmie sired babies! Sure does get the attention of every cow on the place when you have to handle them...generally draws quite a crowd of concerned mothers.

Good thing about that is the wolves seem to have a harder time catching and eating them in the summer on the range - come to think of it, might be a pretty good reason to switch herdsires, as the government doesn't seem too interested in helping thin down the local wolf population (too scared some PETA twit will get a twist in their gonch if the Conservation Officers shot one, I guess).

So do you run straight bred Limos or are you crossing them with another breed? Always nice to hear how other folks run their cattle operations.

Time to check cows. Take care.

 

[Wewild]

CattleAnnie

We use to be mostly commercial cows with Lim bulls in the late late 70's ( before that it was Chars and before that angus with some short period of Brahman) but Dad down sized in 1993 He keep his homegrown unregistered red and black Lim's. These were developed out of registered stock but he quit sending in the paper work and paying the fees. I always thought he wanted to be a registered breeder but couldn't get there for some reason.

So..... we run mostly red and black unregistered Lim cows with registered bulls that we buy. I have a small herd of red polls that run with his blacks. Had a red poll bull in there till last summer when he broke his leg. Seems like the black Lim crossed with red polls throw black calves. Haven't figured that out. Maybe someone else has an answer.

Take care. I enjoy your posts.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

He Wewild
The black gene is a dominant gene. A black bull carrying 1 black gene (heterozygous black) will usually give you 50% black calves, but a black bull carrying 2 black genes, (homozygous black) will always give you a black factored calf.

 

[jt]

Jt, bet they sure have a lively branding day with the calves out of that cross.

Man, bet any heifers kept back out of that F1 would sure keep you on your toes - from weaning to calving time. Better workout than a gym membership.

Honey's dad had a dandy bunch of thick, deep CharX cows (with a bit of Hereford in their background). Big and quiet. When the Limos first appeared in this area, he was so impressed with the double muscling on the Limo bulls that he saw that he bought a yearling bull to cross with his cows. He called it "Two Bulls In One", as it was his first and last Limo bull. As a three year old the bull broke his pecker, and was never replaced by another of his breed.

The tale of those two Limo sired calf crops on that ranch are still spoken of in hushed tones of awe mingled with a hint of pain. Apparantly on branding day, when the dust settled and the bruises were counted, the general consensus was that they had never seen calves that athletic or determined, as the calves had gone over, under and through everything and everybody in apparant disregard for gravity and facilities.

The fall calf check was a good one, so 'Dad' decided to keep back about 30 head of his best heifers to see if they would settle down and make good cows.

Wild and wooly about best describes their first calving season. It didn't take too many years before the last one had been sent to town.

Take care.

cattleannie,

i think alot of the horror of the limo wildness has been bred out of them.. to where they are really not any worse than anything else..

i have a small herd of reg limos that are the gentlest cattle i have ever owned. honestly, they are more relaxed around me than i like. i have to steadily keep my eye out that one of them doesnt step on my foot. i have a herd of about 30 cows/bull/calves and i can pen the whole herd with a bucket and not a single one of them gets riled by the gate closing behind them.

the worse has been the tigerstripes as a group and one particular charlois cow. but not to pick on the char.. because there are bad ones in every breed.

the worse calves that i have ever had were off the tigerstipes and a char bull. they acted like your description of what you figured the char/limo cross would be.... very roudy!! was glad when the last of them (calves) left the place. i still have some of the cows. hereford/brahma f1 cows are hard to beat.


jt