Gelbveih cross jersey cows

Help Support CattleToday:

bmoore87

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
268
Reaction score
4
Was looking at buying some bred heifers this year and happened to find a large group of gelbvieh crosses that I called on. Talked to the guy and turns out they were half jersey. Said they had been doing some research and this came up as a very good maternal mix and had been selling large groups for some years now with a lot of uniformity due to the ai they use on the jersey and gelbvieh side. They have high fertility and good grading with cows weighing in th11-1200 pound range. The preferred crossback was charolais and that you couldn't tell that the calves had jersey in them. Just curious if anyone had experience with them as mommas and how they did especially how they would handle being housed outside in winter drylot.
 
bmoore87":21l9oxpv said:
Was looking at buying some bred heifers this year and happened to find a large group of gelbvieh crosses that I called on. Talked to the guy and turns out they were half jersey. Said they had been doing some research and this came up as a very good maternal mix and had been selling large groups for some years now with a lot of uniformity due to the ai they use on the jersey and gelbvieh side. They have high fertility and good grading with cows weighing in th11-1200 pound range. The preferred crossback was charolais and that you couldn't tell that the calves had jersey in them. Just curious if anyone had experience with them as mommas and how they did especially how they would handle being housed outside in winter drylot.

You probably want find many that have experience with that particular cross. I have quit a bit of experience with half jersey cows. they make an excellent cow. I've had several charlois/jersey cows, and nobody would have guessed what they were. I have no idea about dry letting one.
 
Depending on the amount of milk from the GV side, I'd be concerned with them being overly heavy milkers. IE, hard doers.
 
cfpinz":1mzsw2zs said:
Depending on the amount of milk from the GV side, I'd be concerned with them being overly heavy milkers. IE, hard doers.
I agree
 
I have one, but only one. She is 2 1/2 years old now. Raising a decent calf. I am pretty sure she settled the first service with AI. At least she hasn't come back in heat in 60 days. I have not pregnancy checked her. Those Jersey's are pretty fertile in my experience and I hope she maintains that trait. She gets grass/hay and mineral like the other cows. She looks a little rough right now. My intention when breeding her was to make a replacement milk cow. However, her first lactation she never milked more than a gallon a day, so I put her calf back on her and kicked her out with the other cows. She is out of a registered Jersey cow bred to the Gelbvieh bull from ABS Top Brass. Top Brass has high milk (very high) so I thought this particular cross would produce an abundance of milk, but so far it has not. She may milk heavier her next lactation. Obviously one young unproven cow is not enough to make any reasonable judgement on the cross. Having said that, I agree with dun and cfpinz, I would expect the cross to produce heavy milkers and hard doers. If you have an abundance of feed, I bet they could raise some big calves crossed to Charolais.
 
bmoore87":klk38xd2 said:
Was looking at buying some bred heifers this year and happened to find a large group of gelbvieh crosses that I called on. Talked to the guy and turns out they were half jersey.
The preferred crossback was charolais and that you couldn't tell that the calves had jersey in them.
... and how they did especially how they would handle being housed outside in winter drylot.
gelbvieh x jersey heifers ..... bred black angus for 1st calf?

Compared to holsteins, Jerseys do have extra hard black hooves that should help in winter and cement dry lots.
 
I don't have any experience with that particular cross, but have had some Hereford x Jersey cows, from some of my Jersey nurse cows. Those cross cows were mostly heavy milking, but not too excessive for my liking. They took after their sire, and were larger frame than their Jersey mothers. Years ago I also had a Jersey x Limousin cow, she was small and showed Jersey features, she had a small udder, and didn't appear to have much milk, yet would raise a really good calf. At the time I had her, I had Charolais bulls, she calved unassisted and usually had light tannish calves that held their own pretty well in comparison to the other straight bred Charolais calves.
 
Jerseys are prized by butter and cheese producers because Jersey milk has the highest butterfat and protein content.
Jersey milk yields 20-30% more cheese and butter per lb than holstein milk and I think the nutrient density of Jersey
milk would translate well to rearing calves.
 
Don't believe that jerseys will get pushed around. There are several dairies that run them with holsteins and in 99% of the cases the jerseys are the bosses. My jersey crosses are just as aggressive as any of the beef cows. The will get ragged around the edges on just a hay diet if they are milking pretty good. I wouldn't worry about them making too much milk if not getting fed grain but their condition will suffer. They will put everything into the calf through the milk. I have 4 running with the beef herd now, jer/angus cross and the raise nice calves. But sometimes the calf will look dairy so it is important to watch what you use on them. I have never had any trouble calving after their first calf, bred to the plus weight angus bulls. We use easy calving sires on all the first calf heifers and then they go to bulls according to their build. I do prefer to not have them calve in the fall as it does wear them down. Spring calving, good grass, will get them doing pretty good. Have had one or two that were char x and no complaints. Are they cheap/reasonable? The way prices are right now they ought to be VERY REASONABLE....They are normally very fertile, but if really roughing it in cold conditions might not breed right back... Mine do fine....11 mo calving interval most every year.

bmore where are you located as to what "winter drylotting" conditions would be? Jerseys have a higher metabolism and will need a little better feed if they are in very cold conditions. That said, they were the preferred dairy animal for alot of smaller farms in the cold climates since their total feed consumption was less than the bigger animal. Straight jerseys avg 4-5.5% butterfat so the calf will be getting rich milk; but most beef cows will avg in the 5% or more of butterfat normally, too.
 
Son of Butch":v0if5jh8 said:
bmoore87":v0if5jh8 said:
Was looking at buying some bred heifers this year and happened to find a large group of gelbvieh crosses that I called on. Talked to the guy and turns out they were half jersey.
The preferred crossback was charolais and that you couldn't tell that the calves had jersey in them.
... and how they did especially how they would handle being housed outside in winter drylot.
gelbvieh x jersey heifers ..... bred black angus for 1st calf?

Compared to holsteins, Jerseys do have extra hard black hooves that should help in winter and cement dry lots.


Yes ai'd to abs calving ease angus bulls the cleaned up with the same. Said after the first calf charolais is a good way to go.
 
farmerjan":3o37xe8i said:
Don't believe that jerseys will get pushed around. There are several dairies that run them with holsteins and in 99% of the cases the jerseys are the bosses. My jersey crosses are just as aggressive as any of the beef cows. The will get ragged around the edges on just a hay diet if they are milking pretty good. I wouldn't worry about them making too much milk if not getting fed grain but their condition will suffer. They will put everything into the calf through the milk. I have 4 running with the beef herd now, jer/angus cross and the raise nice calves. But sometimes the calf will look dairy so it is important to watch what you use on them. I have never had any trouble calving after their first calf, bred to the plus weight angus bulls. We use easy calving sires on all the first calf heifers and then they go to bulls according to their build. I do prefer to not have them calve in the fall as it does wear them down. Spring calving, good grass, will get them doing pretty good. Have had one or two that were char x and no complaints. Are they cheap/reasonable? The way prices are right now they ought to be VERY REASONABLE....They are normally very fertile, but if really roughing it in cold conditions might not breed right back... Mine do fine....11 mo calving interval most every year.

bmore where are you located as to what "winter drylotting" conditions would be? Jerseys have a higher metabolism and will need a little better feed if they are in very cold conditions. That said, they were the preferred dairy animal for alot of smaller farms in the cold climates since their total feed consumption was less than the bigger animal. Straight jerseys avg 4-5.5% butterfat so the calf will be getting rich milk; but most beef cows will avg in the 5% or more of butterfat normally, too.

Our Temp is normally between 5-25 during with winter with a fair amount of days in lower side of negative. Would be out in open drylot without bedding.

Thery are all half sisters or more I believe and look very beefy. I didn't know they had jersey in them until he told me (usually can pick out angusxjerseys ive seen) and I have shown the pictures to several people and they can't see it until I tell them.


They arent much cheaper than avg. heifers around here maybe $100-200 or so less. My greatest worries were how they keep (i run cows an corstalks for awhile) and if the udders will hold up for 10 years or more.

Only thing that has me intrigued is the uniformity in breeding. He said the calves really grow to a good terminal cross and they see 93-97% breed back on the first calf heifers.
 
Beef Hoop Systems is pushing this cross. I seen some in a building last fall. Producer likes them but is using them as recips until he gets his PB herd built up enough to get rid of them. They did have some cows that were sucking other cows but put rings in their noses and helped. We run Angus/Simmental x Holstein cross cows and have darn good luck. Fall cows eating TMR all winter last 2 years have weaned Simmental sired calves both steers and heifers that have been right around 4#/day of age.

Here is a set of them Gelb x Jersey heifers for sale. http://cattle-exchange.com/listing/sale ... ed-heifers
 
If you can't see the jersey in them then there is a good possibility that the beef side is very prepotent and you may not see much problem. Yes they inherit genes from both, but there is also that dominate recessive thing and some just don't show the recessive side. If they are that beefy, then they might do all right. I cannot say much about how other people raise their animals, but I also cannot conceive of a drylot, with temps that cold and no bedding. Just isn't what we do around here. Maybe you don't get alot of wind. We do get a fair amount in the winter and I go ballistic if we have cows in the 2 calving lots where there is no shelter or cedars for the cows and no wind breaks. The cornstalks don't bother me so much; the "beef side" will compensate for that. I have found that the beef crossed jerseys we have do hold up their udders pretty well, but the hol x jerseys that I have had as nurse cows do not. Also the jer x hol seem to have attitude problems, but the beef x ones are just as easy going as they come.
Would the guy give you the name of some of the previous buyers so that you could talk to them??? That would be the way I would go. If they do as good as he says, then he should be glad to give you "references" if he wants to make a sale.
 
Till-Hill":3hvqnefd said:
Beef Hoop Systems is pushing this cross. I seen some in a building last fall. Producer likes them but is using them as recips until he gets his PB herd built up enough to get rid of them. They did have some cows that were sucking other cows but put rings in their noses and helped. We run Angus/Simmental x Holstein cross cows and have darn good luck. Fall cows eating TMR all winter last 2 years have weaned Simmental sired calves both steers and heifers that have been right around 4#/day of age.

Here is a set of them Gelb x Jersey heifers for sale. http://cattle-exchange.com/listing/sale ... ed-heifers

Pulled the ad up from the reference above, and to me they have jersey heads if I ever saw any on a beef cross. Also, see the reference to them being on a TMR feed. They are being really "fed". If you are going to really feed them then you might do okay, but if you are going to have them roughing it I think they will lose condition. Again, don't know what your particular situation is. I really think you need to talk to someone that has bought his cattle in the past and what they think or even better, go see some. Don't know how many you are thinking about buying, but to me the price is high. We are buying straight angus bred heifers here for $1200 or less regularly. Have a friend who raises and sells about 50 every nov-dec. bred for spring calves to easy calving angus. They averaged under $1200 at the sale he consigns them to. They had nice growth, and were just decent working heifers.
Maybe cattle do differently where you are. We get alot of cold wet rainy sleety snowy type weather here instead of just snow and it is hard on the cattle. We have been having 50's down to 25; now are having snow maybe a couple of inches, temps in the 20's, then turning colder with temps the next couple of days not supposed to hit the mid 20's during the day and single digits at night, with some real strong winds for the next 2 days; then back up to the 40's and low 50's by thurs with rain inbetween. All our animals have cedar thickets to go to for wind breaks and some shelter from the worst of the cold and wet. Some places have some shelters too. They all have round bales of hay and they are put in different places so that they can lay on the loose stuff left after we put new ones down in a different place. It's pretty hilly here so they can find places in swales and such out of the wind too. So I can say I have NO experience with your type of operation. If you think they are good and a decent price for your area then I would get a group and try them. For us, not so much. If you wanted to make a trip east in the fall for straight angus heifers, I would be glad to hook you up with this guy. He's no slouch, has decent cattle and would be glad to sell a trailer load to one person I am sure. We are strictly cow/calf and raise some of our own heifers up and buy and sell a few as we see an opportunity to make a bit; he is also cow/calf but raises heifers up to sell as breds every year...part of his farm plan I guess. We have some rented land close to some of his and had 9 heifers get over on his this past year, ran with his bulls so will have some unplanned calves this spring. He told us specifically when they gathered up their cattle and got ours out that the bulls were all easy calving so we shouldn't have any problems. We have done a few favors back and forth over the years and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from him if we were in the market for heifers.
 
Son of Butch":283la76q said:
Buy some and report back in 9+ years :) I for one would like to know those answers too.
Agreed. It sounds intriguing as long as you're the one that initially tests it out for the rest of us :D
 
farmerjan":1b38sq4l said:
If you can't see the jersey in them then there is a good possibility that the beef side is very prepotent and you may not see much problem. Yes they inherit genes from both, but there is also that dominate recessive thing and some just don't show the recessive side. If they are that beefy, then they might do all right. I cannot say much about how other people raise their animals, but I also cannot conceive of a drylot, with temps that cold and no bedding. Just isn't what we do around here. Maybe you don't get alot of wind. We do get a fair amount in the winter and I go ballistic if we have cows in the 2 calving lots where there is no shelter or cedars for the cows and no wind breaks. The cornstalks don't bother me so much; the "beef side" will compensate for that. I have found that the beef crossed jerseys we have do hold up their udders pretty well, but the hol x jerseys that I have had as nurse cows do not. Also the jer x hol seem to have attitude problems, but the beef x ones are just as easy going as they come.
Would the guy give you the name of some of the previous buyers so that you could talk to them??? That would be the way I would go. If they do as good as he says, then he should be glad to give you "references" if he wants to make a sale.
Agree 100% ours is a brat, 3rd lactation and her udder is still good so far.
 

Latest posts

Top