Half Angus Half jersey?

[TexasJerseyMilker]

The half Angus half Jersey heifer I sold across the road has a good big fleshy calf. It was sired by a yellow sim bull. She was sold to the rancher's 2 year old son. Now the kid's herd has doubled in size

 

[Hereford2]

Thank you all for the replies. You have definitely given me more to think about.

 

[Lucky_P]

35 years ago, back in the hollers of middle TN, we had a client who had a 'closed' herd (read: inbred. I don't think he'd introduced any new genetics in decades) of the prettiest little black, polled, dish-faced cattle with tight little Jersey-like udders... a BIG cow in his herd might go 700-800 lbs; most in the 400-600 lb range. Saw one 200 lb 'cow' give birth to a calf. Even saw a couple with rectovaginal constriction, a genetic condition in Jersey cattle.
I doubt that his calves brought a lot at the salebarn, but he didn't have much invested in them, and sure didn't spend much on feed.

 

[simme]

The question is about using Beef/Dairy cross cows and breeding them to an angus bull to produce calves. I guess I will ask - why? I assume the plan would be that each of those dairy/beef cross cows will raise just her natural calf in a typical beef cow management system. Cow and calf on pasture with grass and/or hay with little or no supplemental feed.

Dairy breed cows are generally bred to convert a lot of feed into a lot of milk. Beef breed cows are generally bred to convert grass to a moderate amount of milk to feed a calf that is also grazing.
Longevity in those milking dairy cows is not very long. Main goal is to produce a lot of milk and get around well enough to make it to the milking machine to pay their feed bill.

I suspect that people want that dairy blood to produce more milk for those calves in a beef cow setting. The danger is getting too much milk in those dairy cross cows. Why not put the effort into adding milk ability to your beef cows instead of looking for dairy crosses. Is there any other benefit of dairy/beef cross cows other than milk? How are dairy/beef cross cows superior to beef cows or more efficient or more trouble free than beef cows? In the end, which one will be more profitable?

 

[alacowman1]

35 years ago, back in the hollers of middle TN, we had a client who had a 'closed' herd (read: inbred. I don't think he'd introduced any new genetics in decades) of the prettiest little black, polled, dish-faced cattle with tight little Jersey-like udders... a BIG cow in his herd might go 700-800 lbs; most in the 400-600 lb range. Saw one 200 lb 'cow' give birth to a calf. Even saw a couple with rectovaginal constriction, a genetic condition in Jersey cattle.
I doubt that his calves brought a lot at the salebarn, but he didn't have much invested in them, and sure didn't spend much on feed.

seen an inbred herd of redpoll like that years ago,each one was a carbon copy of the other ..skeletons laying around here and there..sad part about that, the stockyard at that time was in sight of his place..

 

[Nutcracker]

I came across this line of posting looking to see if Jersey/Angus was a good cross (basically to prove to hubby its a good cross), but I've seen a couple forums that seemed to be more anti-jersey/angus cross & it seems to be more Angus bull to Jersey cow. Well, I'm raising Aberdeen Angus cows (also known as lowline), some are crossed with a Jersey bull. In my situation, I have a Mini Jersey Bull early on (down the tree somewhere the parents have Aberdeen Angus in their tree) & all of his calves, except 1, was black like their moms. The mini Jersey Bull bred my only standard Jersey cow & the Jersey calf, which was a bull, was bigger than his mom & almost as big as his 1/2 brother who was 1/2 jersey & 1/2 Red Angus who was HUGE (he was 3-4 years old when he went to freezer camp) & had some big steaks. The last "calf" out of the mini Jersey & standard Jersey, he was about 3 yrs old & he had big bones, which outweighed the meat (which we just turned him into hamburger, but his meat is really sweet. They are 100% on grass, hay in the winter.
We have calves that some are offspring of the last Jersey/mini Jersey bull & we have 1 steer calf that took on the reddish color of his dad & he was taking on the look of the Jersey, now he's starting to get a bit more filled (beefy) out like his mom. I've got an older 1st calf heifer like looks (color) like her mom, is a bit taller, but while nursing a calf looks like a jersey (puts all her energy into providing milk) but doesn't have a big bad like her Jersey "grandma". Now her calf, can't decide what color she's going to be. At birth Elizabeth was, blonde, now at almost a yr old, she's blackish, mixed with red/brown/black. She's got markings of Jersey, similar to his "grandpa". Now another heifer calf, she's taking after her mom. 100% black & also short. My steers, are a mix. 2 of the older steers (3 yrs old) both are black angus in appearance. 1 was a micro mini at birth, he has a son (Joel) that takes after him in that department & also black. Some of the younger calves that are a yearling like Joel, are also black like their mom's, some are long legged after the jersey, but some are beefy, some are thin (like a jersey).
So, the cross, I think ... Is a great cross. Mine is Angus cows & Jersey bull's & I've had Standard Jersey & Standard Red Angus (Redemption is the bull) that was also a great combo.

 

[Travlr]

I came across this line of posting looking to see if Jersey/Angus was a good cross (basically to prove to hubby its a good cross), but I've seen a couple forums that seemed to be more anti-jersey/angus cross & it seems to be more Angus bull to Jersey cow. Well, I'm raising Aberdeen Angus cows (also known as lowline), some are crossed with a Jersey bull. In my situation, I have a Mini Jersey Bull early on (down the tree somewhere the parents have Aberdeen Angus in their tree) & all of his calves, except 1, was black like their moms. The mini Jersey Bull bred my only standard Jersey cow & the Jersey calf, which was a bull, was bigger than his mom & almost as big as his 1/2 brother who was 1/2 jersey & 1/2 Red Angus who was HUGE (he was 3-4 years old when he went to freezer camp) & had some big steaks. The last "calf" out of the mini Jersey & standard Jersey, he was about 3 yrs old & he had big bones, which outweighed the meat (which we just turned him into hamburger, but his meat is really sweet. They are 100% on grass, hay in the winter.
We have calves that some are offspring of the last Jersey/mini Jersey bull & we have 1 steer calf that took on the reddish color of his dad & he was taking on the look of the Jersey, now he's starting to get a bit more filled (beefy) out like his mom. I've got an older 1st calf heifer like looks (color) like her mom, is a bit taller, but while nursing a calf looks like a jersey (puts all her energy into providing milk) but doesn't have a big bad like her Jersey "grandma". Now her calf, can't decide what color she's going to be. At birth Elizabeth was, blonde, now at almost a yr old, she's blackish, mixed with red/brown/black. She's got markings of Jersey, similar to his "grandpa". Now another heifer calf, she's taking after her mom. 100% black & also short. My steers, are a mix. 2 of the older steers (3 yrs old) both are black angus in appearance. 1 was a micro mini at birth, he has a son (Joel) that takes after him in that department & also black. Some of the younger calves that are a yearling like Joel, are also black like their mom's, some are long legged after the jersey, but some are beefy, some are thin (like a jersey).
So, the cross, I think ... Is a great cross. Mine is Angus cows & Jersey bull's & I've had Standard Jersey & Standard Red Angus (Redemption is the bull) that was also a great combo.

You might want to go back to your profile (top right) and click on it, scroll down to Account details, and enter a state or better location. Lots of things (weather, grasses, heat, bugs, water) depend on where you are.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Its hard to figure out what Nutcracker is saying.

I have a lot of experience with JerseyXAngus because those were the bulls we had on the ranch. My Jersey's first calf was bred to a medium frame #1 grade Angus bull. The calf was beefy but medium frame. At that time he brought over $1000. This was in 2014. Subsequent bulls her calves showed more and more dairy character and brought less and less grass fed. However, her heifer calf that lives on the ranch across the road raises a good calf fat bred to a larger frame Sim cross bull.

THe thing about beef on dairy at this time. Due to the national cattle shortage beef calves are sky high.iBeef on dairy crosses are used by US dairys to get a dairy cow in milk and also produce beef cross calves are worth a lot. US dairys use only their best cows to breed for replacement heifers they are selling the rest for beef on dairy. They do quite well in the feedlots and bring a ton of moneyand they use sex selected semen for feeder steers.

The Jersey Angus crosses are smaller frame and bring less that the large frame Holstien crosses because the have more meat on the frame. I raise Jersey heifer calves to sell for family milk cows. Meanwhile, the dairys do not sell any purebred heifers because those are their best stock. They also do not sell the beef on dairy calves either because they can get such a high price.

Eventually this insanity might straighten our maybe not with the number of people getting out of the beef ranch business.

Here is SW Oregon it is beef country that used to be dairy country. Most of the black cows that you see here have the refined dairy heads and lighter build of the Jersey. This country used to have many small Jersey dairies selling milk for the cheese trade. Now the few that are left have gone Organic for the higher price they get for the milk. I don't see any screeby beef cross calves in the pastures either.