About 25 years ago, I met a man that bred Chianina x Holsteins, to raise competition draft oxen from. from. He had at that time, 6 Holstein cows that he AI'ed to his Chianina bull, and 6 Chianina cows he bred to a Holstein bull. He would sell the heifers at weaning, and wasn't getting much for them at the sale barn. I struck a deal to get them every year, and these cows made a LOT of money for me. I'd breed then 1st time to an Angus, and Brangus the rest of the time. These cows looked like giant, meaty Holsteins, and always had black polled calves. The cows were heat and insect resistant just like Chianinas, and would graze at high noon in July, while the other cows , especially the black ones, stayed in the pond all day. I would sell these calves at 4-5 months old, and they'd be as big as 7-8 month old Angus. I never kept a heifer,. but had buyers that did, and they'd breed these back to mostly black bulls, with similar results: Polled black calves that grew like wildfire. Zero calving problems, more than enough milk for these giant calves, but never any udder or mastitis problems. These cows were very docile,. even with new-borns, and were excellent mommas.
This man, about the time I met him, had decided he was going to breed bucking bulls, and decided to develope his own breed of them...3 way crosses of longhorn, brahman and chianina. After a few years, as he started getting enough of the 3-way crosses to use in his program., he started selling off his 2=way cross cows. I ended up getting all of his F1 Brahma x Chianina cows. Huge, white, polled cows as big or maybe bigger than the pure chianinas. Chianina will take more leather off a Brahma cross than any breed will, too. All of these cows were polled, and white, with dark skin and points. They were probably the best momma cows I ever had.. more than enough milk for their calves, which you could just about sit on the porch and watch them grow daily. The 1st year I got them, I bred them to the same Angus bull that I bred the Chi-Holsteins to. All black polled calves that brought top dollar at the sales. The 2nd year and all the rest, I bred these to a reg polled Charolais. Forget now why I decided to do that, but Holy hand grenades Batman!!! Talk about high bread vinegar!! These calves weaned out 150-200 lbs heavier than their Angus-sired siblings, even those out of the Chi-Holstein cows! Those white steers might have brought a few cents a pound less than the black ones, but that 200 lb more weight more than made up for it. It was the heifers though, that people would pay a LOT of money for. They looked like big ole tall Charolais, with black skin and points, and less ear than you'd see in a Charbray. One person who bought them and bred them to black bulls did get a lot of smokies out of them. Another guy that got them, though, used Simmental and Charlolais bulls on them for their 2nd calves on. Those calves out- performed the calves out of his pure Charolais cows 20-25%.
I don't know if that's considered an odd combo! It gave us a nice grey heifer! We'll see how big she gets!
and beefalos are really cool as well
