Longhorn Cross

[frieghttrain]

Good looking cattle everybody!

 

[farmguy]

Minnesota here, I have a neighbor Who has a small herd of Longhorns. I raise Herefords and the Longhorns don't take the cold and snow as well it seems to me. We are talking -30F. Last year my cattle grazed 11 months of the year. I don't want to paint with a broad brush but I want to know. I have a son-in-law who is from Oklahoma and wants to get into Longhorns and I would like your observations before I advise him. Thanks Farmguy

 

[Bigfoot]

Minnesota here, I have a neighbor Who has a small herd of Longhorns. I raise Herefords and the Longhorns don't take the cold and snow as well it seems to me. We are talking -30F. Last year my cattle grazed 11 months of the year. I don't want to paint with a broad brush but I want to know. I have a son-in-law who is from Oklahoma and wants to get into Longhorns and I would like your observations before I advise him. Thanks Farmguy

Me personally, I wouldn't raise them, to run through a stock yard some where as feeders. I might would raise them, with some other goal in mind-----seed stock, ropin cattle, etc.

Traditional wisdom is they are dirt cheap, compared to beef breeds. I agree, that is true. The last few I've seen come through a yard around here, brought more than beef calves. Most assuredly, that was a fluke, where 2 or more people needed something to rope. If you hauled a gooseneck load off here, you'd end up almost giving them away.

You also hear, how inefficient they are. No doubt that's probably true in a feedlot. When I buy one, it's usually thin, and will straighten out real quick on just grass.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Minnesota here, I have a neighbor Who has a small herd of Longhorns. I raise Herefords and the Longhorns don't take the cold and snow as well it seems to me. We are talking -30F. Last year my cattle grazed 11 months of the year. I don't want to paint with a broad brush but I want to know. I have a son-in-law who is from Oklahoma and wants to get into Longhorns and I would like your observations before I advise him. Thanks Farmguy

They're cheap. They'll eat anything I throw at them. They're docile. They have low birth weight. But they have miserably low carcass weight and will take a beating at the sale barn. I have to sell mine as freezer beef-which is more lucrative for me anyway. They have horns and will use them. I'm not trying to persuade or dissuade you, but rather give you some info on what I've found in the two+ years I have had them. I wish I had bought something else. What do you do?

 

[Big Cheese]

Been a while since I've been on....I guess my Longhorn crew is long gone from our thread! How's everybody's Longhorns and Longhorn crosses doing?

We are letting our first Charolais Longhorn cross heifers out with a bull in November so the time we have been waiting on since we started with the Longhorns are finally here! We did have one get out on its own and it has been with a bull for the past two months so its going to be ahead of these older ones we are about to let out.

 

[HDRider]

I told my brother he should sell all his longhorns and calves and reset with some quality beef cattle, if not now, soonish.

He wants to stick with his (my idea) experiment. He first put a Limo bull on them, then he got a horned Hereford, and then a horned Beefmaster.

They have all thrown good calves and he has retained quite a few, more than doubling, maybe almost tripling his herd. I am not real sure. The LHs throw color about half the time, regardless of the bull. It is hard to say if one bull was better, I'd say they were equal. As you'd guess, some, maybe most, have horns.

It seems they average about 30% less than convention non-indicus beef cattle at the sale barn. Indicus lose only about 5 to 10%, depending...

He expects to lose a chunk of pasture this winter. If he does he is going to pick the best he has and sell the rest. I think he will still mix up his bulls.

Over all it has worked out OK. He has made money, and learned a lot, and accumulated decent calves, maybe better than decent.

I wish I could say how they taste.

 

[Bigfoot]

I've been weaning these heifers calves a few a long. Got some still out in the field. There not show stoppers, but I'm pleased with their weaning weights. Smallest looks like going to come off the cow, at 425 lbs. None are going to top the market.
That red one will be to give away. Horns, and a big naval:


Might keep a sprinklin for heifers. Thinkin this will be one. Just to see how they do.

 

[crossbredcalves]

Bigfoot, I would be keeping that red calf for freezer camp.

 

[Bigfoot]

Bigfoot, I would be keeping that red calf for freezer camp.

He's an anomaly. When you have a drop, like we've had the past year, calves like that suffer the most. He's the total package: floppy, red, and horned.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Bigfoot, I would be keeping that red calf for freezer camp.

He's an anomaly. When you have a drop, like we've had the past year, calves like that suffer the most. He's the total package: floppy, red, and horned.

Sad but true. I've seen plenty of calves sell for a $1.00 lb here. The buyers are just looking for a reason to dock the calf. No one is buying anything to bring home, that's what's killing the price around here.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Bigfoot, I would be keeping that red calf for freezer camp.

He's an anomaly. When you have a drop, like we've had the past year, calves like that suffer the most. He's the total package: floppy, red, and horned.

Sad but true. I've seen plenty of calves sell for a $1.00 lb here. The buyers are just looking for a reason to dock the calf. No one is buying anything to bring home, that's what's killing the price around here.

Wow! That calf here would go for probably $.60/lb or maybe less. You guys are still doing well. The top of the line stuff isn't even bringing more than $1.40/lb here.

 

[Big Cheese]

Our Longhorn cross calves are staying within the averages of the full beef calves prices. They are bringing just as much as our beef calves if not doing better then our beef calves.

 

[ropinranger]

I am seeing the same here Cheese, my 1/2 red angus, 1/2 lh, red, polled(luckily, well not for roping purposes), steer just brought a few cents more per 100 than the brangus steers my neighbor took last week. He was solid red except for a small white patch on his bottom line. You couldn't tell he wasn't a red brangus, though, except for the small white patch.

 

[Big Cheese]

The ones that are coming out with chrome and are marked up get hit a little but not to bad but the ones that come out solid color....which is most of them...they sell really well. When we first started this project everyone told me that we would take hits because of them being half longhorn and we do occasionally but they are usually right up there if not better then all the other calves. I'm very satisfied with the Longhorn cross for sure.

 

[Bigfoot]

I think if you retrace this thread, many people have said the same thing. When cattle are cheap, you just about have to deliver what the market rewards. If you don't, you slip below break even. The market doesn't dictate when I breed heifers to a LH bull. I was doing it at $2.40, and I'll still be doing it at .80. LH cross calves here will be considerably behind their black/polled contemparies. I've started breeding my second round of heifers to that little black corriente/LH bull I posted a picture of a while back. Hadn't seen any calves out of the first bunch yet. Doesn't matter. I just want a calf.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Big Cheese has a better market for longhorn cross calves than here or there Bigfoot. Here anything with a hint of longhorn in it is getting hammered terrible. Horns and Crome is a big no go here.

 

[Big Cheese]

Horns isn't that big of a problem here but its not something you eant in all of your calves. We actually haven't had that many horns with our Longhorn crosses but chrome hurts a lot but usually if its still a really good thick calf even the chrome doesn't hurt it that much.

 

[Muddy]

Big Cheese has a better market for longhorn cross calves than here or there Bigfoot. Here anything with a hint of longhorn in it is getting hammered terrible. Horns and Crome is a big no go here.

Maybe you're just talking about straight longhorn calves, but I've seen longhorn cross calves do well at the sales. The buyers here didn't like black skunktails that much but they like yellow skunktails. Most longhorn crosses are polled.

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Edited because I misread something.

 

[Bigfoot]

I think I've sold all the LH cross calves I'm not going to keep. I was pleased with weights. Price was decent on this little group.