replacement heifers

[longhornlover3498]

we are wanting to buy about 3 replacment heifers and i wanted to get a tiger stripe(hereford/brahma),a black angus(preferably sitz upward 307r daughter), and a black baldy. what do you guys think about those breeds?

 

[Engler]

all 3 are good options, somewhere.

I think I saw that you are in Montana. Eared cattle have their place, but close to the Canada/US border probably isn't one of them. People say they'll work up there, I don't know either way, but probably not the ideal match of cattle to environment. With that I'd say bad idea on the tiger stripe.

What do you want to do with the calves? If you just want to raise feeder calves the baldy would probably be a better bet to get some maternal heterosis. If you're looking at raising breeding stock then it could be a coin flip. I don't know about the Angus pedigrees that you tossed out so I can't give you an opinion on that vs. a baldy.

Whatever way you go I would say get all 3 the same. That will be easier to manage and have 3 similar calves to sell vs 3 individuals.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

all 3 are good options, somewhere.

I think I saw that you are in Montana. Eared cattle have their place, but close to the Canada/US border probably isn't one of them. People say they'll work up there, I don't know either way, but probably not the ideal match of cattle to environment.

:nod: :nod:

Those Brahma crosses also may not be very easy to find up that way for that very reason.

Katherine

 

[longhornlover3498]

all 3 are good options, somewhere.

I think I saw that you are in Montana. Eared cattle have their place, but close to the Canada/US border probably isn't one of them. People say they'll work up there, I don't know either way, but probably not the ideal match of cattle to environment.

:nod: :nod:

Those Brahma crosses also may not be very easy to find up that way for that very reason.

Katherine

we have actually. nice set of heifers. bred to a red angus bull.

 

[429421blkangus]

I won't comment on the tiger stripe because you are having good luck with the bos indicus strains, more than to say i have seen a huge difference in feed converson and marbling (ie beef quality/cost of production) with the bos taurus breeds in our northern climate in my years of grading and judging beef.
In terms of your baldy choice i would go with two straight bred heifers and breed to a hereford bull or another outcross because of the loss of cross breed vigor (hetirosis) after the first generation and put that money in your own pocket. How do you intend to market the calves from these heifers?

 

[longhornlover3498]

bull calves will go to market after weaning. heifers possibly kept. possibly not.

 

[429421blkangus]

Are you framilar with the USDA Young Farmers Loan program?

 

[longhornlover3498]

Are you framilar with the USDA Young Farmers Loan program?

not really. the loan im getting is FAS or FSA.

 

[429421blkangus]

Oh ok i think that's the same thing, low interest and 5 years i believe? I took one out when i was ten to buy more cows with and got a good start from there (but cows were alot cheaper then!) so i was just making sure you knew about it!

 

[longhornlover3498]

Oh ok i think that's the same thing, low interest and 5 years i believe? I took one out when i was ten to buy more cows with and got a good start from there (but cows were alot cheaper then!) so i was just making sure you knew about it!

yeah. but before i was using my grandpas brand and his is 7x but now i have to get my own and a family friend said that his took 5 months to get here from helena. they wont do it unless i have my own. those heifers need to be bred by next month and the bull gets turned out in early july no matter what. the south devon bull didnt work out either. they asked for 6500 for him.

 

[Mid South Guy]

Can think of no good reason to have eared cattle much north of I-40. I would suggest you try to find cattle that have evolved and adapted for your area of the country.

 

[longhornlover3498]

i have decided to go with 2 red angus and 2 baldys. i have heard baldys calves gain better and baldys are pretty. upwards daughters are too expensive any way.

 

[longhornlover3498]

i feel so undecided. i wanted those 4 cows but we found out that they were inbred (closely) so we didnt want them. now we found a longhorn ranch in northern montana. they sell their heifers for a lot less than the other heifers we wanted to buy and they arent inbred. they are very pretty too.

 

[3waycross]

i feel so undecided. i wanted those 4 cows but we found out that they were inbred (closely) so we didnt want them. now we found a longhorn ranch in northern montana. they sell their heifers for a lot less than the other heifers we wanted to buy and they arent inbred. they are very pretty too.

There's a reason they sell them for less than the other heifers you wanted to buy!

 

[Taurus]

If I were you, I'd pass up the deal on longhorn heifers and still looking for good heifers or just get the four heifers that you passed up on.

 

[429421blkangus]

In my above post i said it and i'll say it again, almost all of crossbreed vigor or hetrosis from baldy calves only comes from the first crossbreeding, therefor i would be looking at straight bred cows to then cross with a straight bred bull of a different breed to get baldy calves. I feel in Montana the market might be limited for longhorns, but as you already raise them you have a system in place already. Are you looking for beef animals or to sell cow calf?

 

[longhornlover3498]

sorry taurus,i dont want inbreds. they are out of cows that were bred to their sire. besides,i dont know how long our 3 foundation longhorns are going to last and i want keep some purebreds in our herd.

 

[longhornlover3498]

In my above post i said it and i'll say it again, almost all of crossbreed vigor or hetrosis from baldy calves only comes from the first crossbreeding, therefor i would be looking at straight bred cows to then cross with a straight bred bull of a different breed to get baldy calves. I feel in Montana the market might be limited for longhorns, but as you already raise them you have a system in place already. Are you looking for beef animals or to sell cow calf?

im sorry i dont know what you mean by cow calf? we are buying them as breeding cows. we will breed them to our black maximizer bull.

 

[429421blkangus]

By cow calf i mean how do you intend to market you calves? Cow calf operations are the ones that sell their calves in the fall by selling and shipping to a feedlot in the midwest, usually after contracting the fall or spring before, but generally it just means you sell your calves at weaning time and don't feed them and sell as beef in the spring.

 

[Taurus]

sorry taurus,i dont want inbreds. they are out of cows that were bred to their sire. besides,i dont know how long our 3 foundation longhorns are going to last and i want keep some purebreds in our herd.

At last these inbreds will bring you more money than these cheap longhorns (like Dun said there is a reason why they sell these longhorns cheap, suggests something is wrong with these longhorns). Breeding these "inbred" cows to an unrelated bull and sell the calves to feedlots, simple as that.