Longhorn Cross

[Bigfoot]

CED had his first calf on the ground, when I came in this afternoon. Odd color, but no markings. I have been thinking to myself, that the heifers sides were awfully big. Didn't seem to add up to me. This calf is almost as big as any beef calf I've had born this year. Has me a little worried. Oughta be some more calves along over the next week or 2. Be interesting to see how big they are.

 

[R V]

Bigfoot,
Any Charolais bulls nearby? The picture looks like a few of my unplanned Charolais cross calves born to heifers.
Ron

 

[Bigfoot]

Bigfoot,
Any Charolais bulls nearby? The picture looks like a few of my unplanned Charolais cross calves born to heifers.
Ron

Naw, it bout has to be out of my little bull. He's like a real dark, line back dun.

 

[Bestoutwest]

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.

You'd be lucky to see $0.50/lb here from anything resembling LH cattle.

 

[Big Cheese]

CED had his first calf on the ground, when I came in this afternoon. Odd color, but no markings. I have been thinking to myself, that the heifers sides were awfully big. Didn't seem to add up to me. This calf is almost as big as any beef calf I've had born this year. Has me a little worried. Oughta be some more calves along over the next week or 2. Be interesting to see how big they are.

Thats a good looking calf. It ought to grow off pretty good even being a Longhorn cross. We are having our about to start having some of our 3/4 breed calves out of our Half Longhorn heifers here pretty soon. We had about 5 last year and they done pretty good at the sell and weighed out pretty good for being out of a heifer. Some of Our Charolais Longhorn cross heifers are about to start calving around August so that will be the true test but its only about 3. We are letting out around 20 in March so next year will be the true test.

 

[Big Cheese]

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.

You'd be lucky to see $0.50/lb here from anything resembling LH cattle.

We are getting a little better per pound then that. We got around $1.38 last time we sold. We havent got $0.50 on anything but one did bring $0.85 and a couple $1.00 but thats about it. We are very happy with what we are getting and for how they are weighing out.

 

[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.

You'd be lucky to see $0.50/lb here from anything resembling LH cattle.

We are getting a little better per pound then that. We got around $1.38 last time we sold. We havent got $0.50 on anything but one did bring $0.85 and a couple $1.00 but thats about it. We are very happy with what we are getting and for how they are weighing out.

I'm always jealous when I see prices from other places. There's probably good reasons for it, but we get hammered here on everything. BTW, glad to see ya back cheese.

 

[Big Cheese]

We get hammered here too. For some reason we never get what our reports say the averages are but as long as I get the money that I expect then its all good.

Good to be back. Been so busy I haven't even thought about checking if anybody had commented on here lol.

 

[True Grit Farms]

All these were trader calves bought in November - December and all gained over 2.5 lbs a day besides the hatched azz one. We trimmed her up and she looked good to us. My son gave $1.07 @ 205 lbs for her, we wormed twice and gave her 2 rounds of shots. But the buyers knew exactly what they were buying. Dang lipstick and haircut didn't work again.
Good cattle bring good money.

 

[Bigfoot]

All these were trader calves bought in November - December and all gained over 2.5 lbs a day besides the hatched azz one. We trimmed her up and she looked good to us. My son gave $1.07 @ 205 lbs for her, we wormed twice and gave her 2 rounds of shots. But the buyers knew exactly what they were buying. Dang lipstick and haircut didn't work again.
Good cattle bring good money.

Your exactly right. I remember as a small child my dad telling me to remember the best cattle bring the best money.

 

[RanchMan90]

All these were trader calves bought in November - December and all gained over 2.5 lbs a day besides the hatched azz one. We trimmed her up and she looked good to us. My son gave $1.07 @ 205 lbs for her, we wormed twice and gave her 2 rounds of shots. But the buyers knew exactly what they were buying. Dang lipstick and haircut didn't work again.
Good cattle bring good money.

Fair enough. Not to pry, but did they make a ROI?

 

[True Grit Farms]

Wish I'd of bought a 100 head in November. It's really easy to make money on feeders when the market rises. I feel the feeder market is going to start retreating in the spring. So I'm buying a few heifers, and going to clean them up and sell them bred in the fall and heavy bred in the spring.

 

[Big Cheese]

What is the market looking like for the future? I'm never good at predicting lol and we are about to have a good few calves to sell over the next month or two.

 

[True Grit Farms]

What is the market looking like for the future? I'm never good at predicting lol and we are about to have a good few calves to sell over the next month or two.

Your guess is better than mine. But all those heifers and expanding that folks did during the good times should start to show up in the market this fall. The more supply the lower the price, that's just the way it works in free enterprise.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Finally read this whole mammoth thread. It took me three days of breaks!

It seems to me that one huge reason Big Cheese gets better prices for his LH x valves is because an older guy who was mentoring him was doing that for the last 40 years (iirc; that was very early in this thread) and the buyers are used to seeing them and know what to expect.

Discounts come when buyers smell risk ... when there is some uncertainty. A 40 year track record sure eliminates quite a bit of uncertainty!

I love the colorful cattle...but not nearly as much as those light fawn colored calves!

Excellent stuff here.

 

[Muddy]

I've seen the pics of Big Cheese's mentor's LH x Char cross calves and you won't know they are out of longhorn cows.

Last fall I saw a group of Hereford X LH cross steers ran thru the ring. They were very thick and definitely not hatchet azzed but all have lineback so they got docked 5 cents less than the typical feeder price.

I've also visited a breeder that raises both Longhorns and Belted Galloways. He has xbred calves and they were stout & fleshy tho some calves did have slender legs but they ain't boney like PB longhorn calves. All xbred calves have a belt.

 

[Big Cheese]

I don't technically get better money then the full beef calves. Some of our calves do but most don't but we can run 3 longhorns to two full beefs and sometimes 4 to 2. They eat less and have virtually no vet bill. We get docked on some of our cross calves for sure. The whole point was getting that Longhorn Cross heifer and breeding it back to a Charolais. That is when we make just as much as a full beef but still get to run 3 to 2. That is what we are in the process of doing and we are getting really to letting our first Charolais Longhorn (or Charhorn as we call them) heifer out with a bull. It is a long process but it seems to be worth the weight so far. The 3/4 breed calves dont show hardly any longhorn in them.

I may go back and read this thread again lol its been around for a long time.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

I like your plan Big Cheese. We started running an Angus bull on our Longhorn cows about 7 years ago. We've saved several of those heifer calves and put an Angus bull back on them. Those end up some of our best calves with the lowest inputs. We've been selling to the same buyer for several years, and he likes them.

 

[TexasBred]

I like your plan Big Cheese. We started running an Angus bull on our Longhorn cows about 7 years ago. We've saved several of those heifer calves and put an Angus bull back on them. Those end up some of our best calves with the lowest inputs. We've been selling to the same buyer for several years, and he likes them.

When the longhorn has been diluted that much what do they still bring to the table vs just going angus?

 

[Big Cheese]

I like your plan Big Cheese. We started running an Angus bull on our Longhorn cows about 7 years ago. We've saved several of those heifer calves and put an Angus bull back on them. Those end up some of our best calves with the lowest inputs. We've been selling to the same buyer for several years, and he likes them.

When the longhorn has been diluted that much what do they still bring to the table vs just going angus?

They still have the toughness of the Longhorn. They still retain most of the Longhorn traits like no calving problems but Longhorn doesnt show up as much. They will be more beefier and bring more money.