Holsteins

[rnh2]

Has anyone tried using cull Holsteins for brood cows? The beef/dairy cross is gaining popularity. Would they have problems just grazing pasture or would they produce too much milk?

 

[redcowsrule33]

If they are healthy, too much milk. Most dairy culls are there for fertility, health, or production reasons and not super brood cow candidates.

 

[Dave]

Not much for several reasons.
A. They are culls from a dairy for a reason. Most of the time you wont want to deal with that reason.
B. Holstein cows just on pasture with no supplement feed are very likely to go down hill. Maybe quickly down hill.
C. Cull cows are sold by the pound. In general terms Holsteins are bigger cows. Thus it is cheaper to buy a one and done beef cow than a one and done Holstein. And a cull dairy cow who is thin enough to be a similar weight to a beef cow will likely have issues you do not want.
D. The beef/dairy cross is just a sideline business for the dairies. Those beef/dairy cross calves will sell for less than a beef and cost just as much to raise.
E. Too much milk can cause issues. Unless you have to right cows, skills, and facilities adding an extra calf may not work.

All that said a dairy cow used used as a brood cow can work and be profitable. But doing that on any type of large scale might be too labor intensive.

 

[Ky hills]

@Dave explained it really well.
It would be hard to get cows that worked for that plan.
I used to keep 10-12 dairy cows for nurse cows. Most were Jersey, or Holstein. I bought calves from dairies and one dairy would sometimes ask if I needed another cow if they had one to cull that didn’t quite make it for the dairy but they thought it would be good for what I was doing. Sometimes the cow would be a lighter milker, sometimes a with only 3 open quarters.
Lots of issues with dairy cattle and most that are getting culled are pretty much done for as far as usefulness.
Occasionally you can find a young cow with a small udder. Generally most of them will give a lot more milk than a young calf can take and the udders may be big and low making it hard for newborn calf to nurse. They need intervention quite often to make sure the calf gets colostrum and can nurse and that it doesn’t get the scours.
if the calf doesn’t take enough milk then udders can ruin in some quarters
They also have higher nutritional needs because of their milk production.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

The dairy breeds are definitly high maintanence.
Beef on Dairy this is why dairy repancement heifers have become scarce. I was told at the dairly my heifers came from, beef on Jersey are smaller framed steers. Beef on Holstein have a large frame and bred for Angus sires have a lot of meat. Of course dairys do not have the cow raise the calf because of too much milk the calf scours and the cow gets mastitis.

 

[Warren Allison]

Met a man about 25 years ago, that had 6 Holstein cows and 6 Chianina cows. He bred the Chianinas to Holstein, and vice versa, to get steers to raise for draft competitions. He just had his Holsteins on pasture with the Chianina, and they did not look like what you'd see in the dairies at all. No bones sticking out....he kept them fat as a beef cow. Udders were about as big as an old time Simmental cow had, or milking short horn , etc. He would sell me the heifer calves for next to nothing, or give them to me sometimes, and let me tell you those Holstein x Chianina cows were the best brood cows I have ever owned. They were kinda blue and white, like that animated cow on the Experien commercials. I would breed them to Brangus bulls, and you could dang near see the calves grow if you watched them all day.!

I had a Holstein heifer bottle calf when I was young, that we bought off a diary. When we weaned it we turned it out with my grandaddy's Angus. She never got much taller that the Angus, and she just had her calf every year, and never made too much milk. Again, she never had all that big of an udder either. But, in both cases, these were not dairy cull cows, and had never been milked in a dairy, etc. I agree with the rest of them on here: I'd stay away from Holstein dairy culls.

 

[AinisR28]

We are still transitioning from dairy cattle to beef. We kept most of the dairy cows that we had, Holsteins and few of Latvian red breed (basically Danish red), and honestly I think that was a mistake. We should've sold them and bought cows of heifers of beef breeds instead.
So, Problems we've encountered:
1) Winters - Winter temperatures here can drop quite low, cows of dairy breeds just don't gain enough of fat before winter (compared to beef breeds), and although they haven't had any health problems because of that, I don't like to see cows being like that in winter.
2) Udder problems - Huge thing, lost two cows because of that. It seems that Holsteins are at higher risk of mastitis, and the calves only make it worse.
3) Too much milk - this is one of the causes for udder problems. We had few cows that produced milk so much that first few weeks we had to use a milking machine, to prevent udder problems. Once the calf gets bigger, it's not a problem anymore, but at the beginning there's a huge risk.

At the same time I have to admit that some of our Holsteins crossed with bulls of beef breeds gave us very, very good weanlings, since they got that big frame from mother and qualities from beef breed bulls. Also after the first month that milk production helps calf to grow faster.
In general I think it's too much of a risk to use Holsteins this way, and right now we have only few left, most likely we'll keep only one or two that accept orphaned calves.
At the same time we're still going to keep cows that are Holstein and beef breed crosses (Charolais, Angus, Simmental). They are much more balanced animals than pure Holsteins, they produce more milk than average cow of beef breed, but not so much that it causes problems. No udder issues so far. Their calves also have shown good growth.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

The Holstein beef crosses can make nice cows. But you will still have some that are going to produce more milk than one calf can utilize. They will still need to be milked until the calf can keep up with the milk supply, or there will still be the risk of a damaged udder.