Gelbvieh ?'s

[cfpinz]

Hello,
I am new to this message board and would like to ask a few questions about gelbvieh cattle. I run an angus-based commercial herd with simm, char, herf, and pinz influence, along with a few others. Am currently using all angus bulls on these cattle, but thinking of getting a gelbvieh to put with a group to try and raise some replacement females. Was wondering what experiences others have had with gelbviehs and their opinions on disposition, performance, calving ease, etc. Was considering getting a red bull as I like red cattle, then breeding the heifers back to a black Angus to appease the markets around here. Any better genetics available in red/black animals?
Thank You

 

[dun]

I like Gelbviehs a lot, but anything that a Gelbvieh will do for you a Simmenthal will do and you'll have a larger genetic base to select from.
The only real difficency I've seen in Gelbvieh is the marbeling. They'll raise a super calf and a half gelbvieh bred back to a high marbeling angus will take care of the problem.

dun

 

[BRG]

From my experience, you will get good females by doing this, they make very good cows, but I am not sure if they will be any better than the angus base you already have, since they are already crossed with several different breeds. You need to look down the road and see how uniform your cattle will be when you sell. The more uniform ussually the better price you will get. By adding one more breed to the mix they may not be as uniform as the buyers would like.

 

[cfpinz]

Thank you for your insight. We have used Simmentals before and I really liked the results. BRG-As far as this go round I would be using the Gelbvieh on a group of cattle each year with a VERY high percentage of angus so as not to come up with too many breeds in the pot, I would not just turn him in with a random group of mixed breed cattle. One of my main concerns is milk production, I would like to add some more milk to my mothers and I've heard that gelbviehs are good for that. There are very few of these cattle close to me and I have not yet had the time to go see many yet, maybe this fall.

 

[Lngvew]

I am not a fan of the gelbveigh (?) for a couple of reasons. First, they are not good freezer beef based on my experience. We went thru a couple that did not make the cut at a local bull test station. Meat was very lean and tough. Second and most important to me, I bought 10 red/black angus cows. 4 of them were AI'ed to a Gelbveigh bull out of a well know herd and advertised as an easy calver with super growth numbers. Well my son pulled all 4 calves (the little one was 94lbs. and a heifer) He did good and saved all the calves. We weaned on 9/3 and those 4 avg. 302 lbs. (born late march/weaned early sept.) Other 6 (out of a Red x Blk Angus Bull that were the same age) avg. 395lbs. The 20 purebred Char.(mid april to early May) avg. 428 lbs. All in the same pasture. May not be typical but my experence.

 

[cfpinz]

Lngvew-
Thank You for the information. Nice to hear an honest opinion, but sorry to hear about your troubles. I have sent you a PM if I did it correctly.

 

[Anonymous]

In my opinion gelbvieh are damned good cattle especially when crossed with angus.

I have 40 GelbviehX Angus cross females and 1 Salers show heifer who is a grand champion female. I have pics of her if anyone would like to see her. At the present time I am using a salers bull on the Gelbvieh X Angus cross balancers. We are seeing weaning weights of 650-750 pounds off bermuda grass and cotton seed and soybean meal. They are really coming on. They are getting their growth from the Salers bull. Our average birth weights are about 65 pounds. The Gelbvieh by angus cross females are very docile as is the salers female and bull we have. All the females in our program have an abundant supply of milk and good beef conformation. The salers female I have weighed in at 1100 at 1 year of age. At the present time she is at 1450 she will be 2 in january and calve in january as well. The gelbvieh also seem to make the females mature quicker and breed back quicker as well. All in all I am very satisified and in fact swear by the balancers and salers. This three way cross seems to work very well. They work well in really hot weather which it gets hoooooooooot here in summer and work well in cold weather. It gets really coooooooooold here in winter. I can tell you this. This summer has been very hard to control flies. I went out 2 weeks ago and the cows had flies all over them. I want you to know that there was not a runny eye in the whole lot. That says alot about the toughness of these cattle. Again I swear by them and would not use anything else. I do plan however on eventually using these balancer females as donor cows and use the eggs and sperm from a salers bull to make me a registered salers herd.

 

[ollie]

I know I am fixing to take a beating here but the right kind of Saler is my favorite exotic. Second I like a Charolais. I am not a Gelbvieh fan. They don't have the foot and leg structure , at least on the ones I have seen that the Simmental cattle do. As Dun said they also don't have as wide of a genetic base. Whatever breed you use, use similiar cattle. If you have 6 frame Angus then get 6 frame Gelbvieh. It will help some with consistancy.