Will Holstein x Angus cross cows work well for recips or do they still have way too much milk ? I`m sure these can be bought pretty reasonable as bucket calves right now. I`m thinking buy the calves raise them and breed them Angus for a first calf then use as recips for 2nd calf and hope the market is better by the time you get the ET calves.
Holstein X Angus cows for recips ?
- Thread starter jd720
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They will still have a lot of milk. Won;t do as well in a strictly grazing management as the next cross back to a beef breed will. They usually raise a whale of a calf but can be hard to breed back if not supplemented.
farmerjan
Well-known member
Yes they will have alot of milk. What I do is get a second calf and put on them so they don't get mastitis and lose any quarters, and then supplement them so that both calves do good. The second calf will more than pay for the extra feed even in this market. I'll pull the second calf at 4 or 5 months,and then let her own calf stay on to finish out to later weaning and stop supplementing.Takes a little effort to get the calf grafted on but then they are good to go. If you are supplementing them, and they have good grass, they should breed back. If you only have one calf on them, and don't supplement them, they will milk all the fat off their back and as dun said, might not breed back , plus they will have too much milk for the calf in the beginning and might get mastitis.
Till-Hill
Well-known member
We are running about 20 of them at work right now. Suffer about 10% more opens than rest of the "pure" stock cows. Put eggs in them for years. No mastitis trouble that calves get sick on but do lose quarters on some. They kind of adapt after 3rd,4th calf. Need some calves let us know! I run beef bull on our low group dairy cows. Probably have 20 heifer calves born a year.
