Gelbieh heifers?

[Anonymous]

Located in Western Kentucky. His mature cows looked to be about 1100-1200 range. The 2 are running with a group of others all about the same size that he is keeping and he said if I did not buy these he would just keep them himself. He knew i had been interested for the last couple years in trying a couple Gelbviehs and thought I might be interested in these since there was no papers on them.

Sold 4 head (2 steers, 2 heifers) at Bowling Green yesterday they avg. 488# and I cleared a little over $500 a head after paying all the sales fees. All of these were cross calves. So it seems this guy's price is a little under market. I was thnking these 2 looked in the 700# range but then again I am wrong a lot of times, guessed the ones I sold real close on 2 of them and missed the others good. If I got these 2 was wanting to try to breed them for a calve about this time next year. Thanks everyone for the thoughts.

 

[dun]

Located in Western Kentucky. His mature cows looked to be about 1100-1200 range. The 2 are running with a group of others all about the same size that he is keeping and he said if I did not buy these he would just keep them himself. He knew i had been interested for the last couple years in trying a couple Gelbviehs and thought I might be interested in these since there was no papers on them.

Sold 4 head (2 steers, 2 heifers) at Bowling Green yesterday they avg. 488# and I cleared a little over $500 a head after paying all the sales fees. All of these were cross calves. So it seems this guy's price is a little under market. I was thnking these 2 looked in the 700# range but then again I am wrong a lot of times, guessed the ones I sold real close on 2 of them and missed the others good. If I got these 2 was wanting to try to breed them for a calve about this time next year. Thanks everyone for the thoughts.

How are the udders on the older cows? What about disposition, what color, how many does he have that he's willing to sell that low. For reference, what town are you near? The reason we quit using Gelbviehs were because of the difficulties in finding moderate (for Gelbvieh) sized cows to use. Sound like these are in the size bracket we're looking for.
You can e-mail me at [email protected] if you would like to cut down on the traffic for the boards.

dun

 

[Anonymous]

the biggest risk would have to be if they were "freemartins" (twins from a bull/heifer drop) 1 in 4 such heifers are sterile, but the chance of two like that would seem to be low.
Ask the vendor why are you selling, and have an experienced friend listen to the reply.
If they are testing their heifers for pelvic size they could also be a poor buy. the cheapest way to buy quality in Australia or N.Zealand is to buy cull for age registered stud cows- Cattle studs have their reputation to consider. If you are prepared to give an old cow a bit of additional grain to make up for her worn teeth you could breed some magnificent heifers yourself. Can you buy Salers semen in USA which has genestar marbling gene ? A gelbvieh x Salers would make a magnificent beef mother - you would want to test each generation for marbling gene!
What is your intended market?
Will you be around for calving? In Western Australia we are spoilt we eat 8-9 month heavy baby beef.
Those crazy french( who stopped Al Quada from hijacking a paris jet and flying it into the Eiffel Tower 1998?- so maybe not quite so crazy)
produce perhaps 50% of their beef from Charolais Bulls over mature Salers cows. With the first two matings to Salers for replacements- they make a lot of money and still produce a top quality product- Salers are intelligent cattle so you have to bribe them to do what you want though- Lindsay(male)