Hereford Holstein cross, why?

[Peace]

When I was a kid in the early 70's we had a neighbor that milked about 30 cows with his 2 kids. He almost always had about 15 heifer calves that he was raising as replacements and then had about 15 head of Holstein/Hereford cross cattle, which I'm not 100% sure but am guessing that he bred Hereford to his heifers. Can somebody explain to me why? The rest of them that did a beef/Holstein cross used Angus for calving ease and I'm not sure that Hereford would be any more calving ease than Holstein, so can somebody tell me why he bred this way, other than the obvious that he had a buyer for them, which he did.

 

[farmerjan]

Disposition? Many hereford crosses were quieter and calmer than angus crosses. Had a dairy farmer that I milked for years ago, and he used a hereford bull as a cleanup... herefords were more readily available near him back then also.
Plus a hereford cross ALMOST ALWAYS has the typical white faced black coloring.. many angus crosses can have enough white to mistake as a "blacker marked" holstein....
And if he has a buyer for them, why NOT breed them that way?

 

[Travlr]

When I was a kid in the early 70's we had a neighbor that milked about 30 cows with his 2 kids. He almost always had about 15 heifer calves that he was raising as replacements and then had about 15 head of Holstein/Hereford cross cattle, which I'm not 100% sure but am guessing that he bred Hereford to his heifers. Can somebody explain to me why? The rest of them that did a beef/Holstein cross used Angus for calving ease and I'm not sure that Hereford would be any more calving ease than Holstein, so can somebody tell me why he bred this way, other than the obvious that he had a buyer for them, which he did.

Black whiteface...

Very good, growthy, replacement heifers that will grow a calf and can be bred to bulls for growth instead of birth weights.

 

[Peace]

Disposition? Many hereford crosses were quieter and calmer than angus crosses. Had a dairy farmer that I milked for years ago, and he used a hereford bull as a cleanup... herefords were more readily available near him back then also.
Plus a hereford cross ALMOST ALWAYS has the typical white faced black coloring.. many angus crosses can have enough white to mistake as a "blacker marked" holstein....
And if he has a buyer for them, why NOT breed them that way?

Yes, he did have a buyer for all of them at the end of summer every year. I was or am more interested in the buyer of them and why he bought them year after year. I get it that Hereford aren't the most "milky" breed and they may have been looking to increase that ability to raise the calf to a larger size faster, but there must have been other benefits.

Honestly, I don't recall any of them, in the time I lived there, being red, they were always black with a white face and some other white coloring, but usually in Hereford type coloring as opposed to spotting.

Black whiteface...

Very good, growthy, replacement heifers that will grow a calf and can be bred to bulls for growth instead of birth weights.

Right, but his son told me they bought them all, heifers and steers. They raised them on their "swamp pasture", which is the lower land they couldn't till, but could run those calves on. They, the breeder, would put them on the pasture in April and take them off in October and load them up on the buyers truck.

It was in the early 70's and they didn't breed their heifers until they were about 24 months or so, probably 20 months at the earliest, so I'm not really sure calving ease played into it.

Is it possible that the Hereford influence gave them better or thicker muscling than Angus? I find it interesting now as I don't think I've seen that cross since then...and that's a long time ago...50 years...damn I'm getting old

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

My first cow was from a local dairy and I paid 4 little neighbor boys that raised her up from day old to 4 months $300 for her, she was Holstein and out of my buddies first Hereford bull. I had her for 16 years and she had 13 calves and raised 10 that weren't hers. R.I.P. LUCY! she didn't care if my 3 yo son climbed up on her while she was chewing cud and swinging his hat around thinking he was riding a bull she was special. I squirted more neighbor kids in the face with warm sticky milk than you could imagine.

 

[Ky hills]

When I raised dairy calves, we occasionally got beef crossed ones, a few were Hereford cross. They make good cows. Then when I started using nurse cows, Mostly Jersey or Holstein, I ran Angus bulls, at first then switched to a Hereford as the Angus tended to be lighter muscled. The Hereford bull added thickness to the calves and I kept several heifers from those crosses. I bred those half bloods to Angus bull and their 3/4 beef calves were very nice.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

Lucy raised an exceptional Angus cross calf.

 

[Peace]

When I raised dairy calves, we occasionally got beef crossed ones, a few were Hereford cross. They make good cows. Then when I started using nurse cows, Mostly Jersey or Holstein, I ran Angus bulls, at first then switched to a Hereford as the Angus tended to be lighter muscled. The Hereford bull added thickness to the calves and I kept several heifers from those crosses. I bred those half bloods to Angus bull and their 3/4 beef calves were very nice.

This is good, but raises the question, why don't I see them any more?

 

[Travlr]

This is good, but raises the question, why don't I see them any more?

Probably because of the stupid Certified Angus Beef crap. Solid black cattle sell for more regardless of quality or real world utility.

 

[Son of Butch]

Herefords are good at knocking the milk out of a Holstien for dairyman who wants a few beef cows without shelling money out of his pocket to buy a real beef cow.
Plus a nice white face makes them look the part for her and her calves.

 

[Buck Randall]

This is good, but raises the question, why don't I see them any more?

I used to see a fair number of them because dairy farmers would tell the AI technician to use "beef" and they'd just use a cheap straw of anything they had lying around. Now that there's a bigger market for the crossbred calves, marketability and uniformity matter. The AI companies now have beef bulls, mostly Simangus composites, specifically bred to be good complements to dairy cows. They guarantee a black and polled calf, which is what the market wants.

 

[Ky hills]

This is good, but raises the question, why don't I see them any more?

@Travlr nailed it. I liked the Hereford x dairy calves much better than the Angus.x. Both will make good cows, but on average Hereford cross will be thicker made than the Angus x

 

[Rafter S]

Disposition? Many hereford crosses were quieter and calmer than angus crosses. Had a dairy farmer that I milked for years ago, and he used a hereford bull as a cleanup... herefords were more readily available near him back then also.
Plus a hereford cross ALMOST ALWAYS has the typical white faced black coloring.. many angus crosses can have enough white to mistake as a "blacker marked" holstein....
And if he has a buyer for them, why NOT breed them that way?

Black whiteface...

Very good, growthy, replacement heifers that will grow a calf and can be bred to bulls for growth instead of birth weights.

I knew a guy back in the day who worked in a dairy that used a Hereford bull on some of their cows. Of course the vast majority of the calves were black white-faced, but they had one that was red and white, and marked like a Holtstein. This was about the time Simmentals were becoming popular, so he was convinced that Simmentals were just Holtstein x Herefords, and was happy to share that conviction with anyone who would listen.

I liked the guy, but he was never let a lack of knowledge about a subject keep him from having a strong opinion about it.

 

[simme]

I knew a guy back in the day who worked in a dairy that used a Hereford bull on some of their cows. Of course the vast majority of the calves were black white-faced, but they had one that was red and white, and marked like a Holtstein. This was about the time Simmentals were becoming popular, so he was convinced that Simmentals were just Holtstein x Herefords, and was happy to share that conviction with anyone who would listen.

I liked the guy, but he never let a lack of knowledge about a subject keep him from having a strong opinion about it.

That guy must have at least 10 accounts here now. But he has changed his tune on the simmentals. Now he is certain that they are angus and will be along shortly to remind us of that.

 

[farmerjan]

I worked on a dairy in Conn. and he bred some of them to hereford. He had a RED white faced heifer calf born... and I bought it and gave it to my dad for his birthday as he really liked herefords. After I moved out he had the small barn and couple acre lot there empty so I got him the calf to raise up. When I moved to Va, she came south as they were splitting time between NH and Conn until they retired to NH and she was tying them down too much. She had several calves and it satisfied his want of having herefords. He named her Krystal after Krystal Gayle....
My boss at the dairy had several red and white calves born over the years... but then red was a recessive in the holstein world and many holstein breeders would kill the red calves... now the reds are much sought after... they make a showier animal, and one dairy I test actually has the reds out milking the black and whites.

 

[RockinRB]

From what I've seen, in addition to the hereford crosses being a bit thicker, they are also more consistent.

I have four holstein x angus cows that I raised on a bottle to use as nurse cows. They all came from the same dairy and they were all sired by the same bull, yet they are all over the place in terms of both muscling and frame size. This dairy used to use hereford bulls, and those calves were much nicer in my opinion. Also those, hereford x holstein cows were really nice too

 

[andybob]

Hereford over Holstein or Friesian are the most popular dairy cross, either from "flying herds" or bred from the lower producing cows. These are usually called "Black Herefords" and bred to terminal Aberdeen Angus or Limousin.

 

[Warren Allison]

When I was a kid in the early 70's we had a neighbor that milked about 30 cows with his 2 kids. He almost always had about 15 heifer calves that he was raising as replacements and then had about 15 head of Holstein/Hereford cross cattle, which I'm not 100% sure but am guessing that he bred Hereford to his heifers. Can somebody explain to me why? The rest of them that did a beef/Holstein cross used Angus for calving ease and I'm not sure that Hereford would be any more calving ease than Holstein, so can somebody tell me why he bred this way, other than the obvious that he had a buyer for them, which he did.

Where was this, Peace? Down here until the mid-70's, the only beef cattle around were Angus and Herefords, so that were the bulls the dairies had to breed their Holstein heifers to. Either those or Jeresy bulls.

 

[Travlr]

I worked on a dairy in Conn. and he bred some of them to hereford. He had a RED white faced heifer calf born... and I bought it and gave it to my dad for his birthday as he really liked herefords. After I moved out he had the small barn and couple acre lot there empty so I got him the calf to raise up. When I moved to Va, she came south as they were splitting time between NH and Conn until they retired to NH and she was tying them down too much. She had several calves and it satisfied his want of having herefords. He named her Krystal after Krystal Gayle....
My boss at the dairy had several red and white calves born over the years... but then red was a recessive in the holstein world and many holstein breeders would kill the red calves... now the reds are much sought after... they make a showier animal, and one dairy I test actually has the reds out milking the black and whites.

A lot of red Holsteins have been sold to the Middle East because they do a lot better in the heat. At least, that's what I've heard.

 

[Peace]

Where was this, Peace? Down here until the mid-70's, the only beef cattle around were Angus and Herefords, so that were the bulls the dairies had to breed their Holstein heifers to. Either those or Jeresy bulls.

Southeast Wisconsin, about 1 hour north of Milwaukee just off HWY 41....Allenton if you want to google it