santa gertrudis

[Wolf EB]

All: I have been breeding our cross cows to a Santa Gertrudis bull. We kept 6 of the best heifers for replacements. My neighbor thinks we are crazy, he tried Santa's years ago and had bad luck. We breed the heifers to a Executive Order Simmental bull (my brother needed a place to put him, so we used him). We like our Santa bull, the most gentle thing anyone could have. has anybody else had bad luck with Santa's?.

 

[greybeard]

No Gert experience from me but, Welcome to CT!
If you could edit your profile so a general location shows up, many here would appreciate it.

 

[BC]

Today's Santa Gertrudis are not your dad's Santa"s. Just like the Charolais made improvements to get away from the "cow killer" image of the 1970's, Santa Gertrudis have cleaned up sheath's and are working on carcass traits. Bottom line is if you like the calves and the heifers work for you, don't worry about what others say.

 

[Lucky_P]

What BC said. While I have no direct info on Gerts, and haven't worked on one in over 30 years, I do know that some years back, the King Ranch brought in some Shorthorn genetics from Waukaru Shorthorns - who are noted for concentrating on a balanced package of solid red, polled, calving ease, growth and carcass traits.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Had a Santa G bull in the 90's on Saler/Red Angus. The year weight was about 50# less than straight RA for us.
Calves also had 'personality' issues, which I attributed to the Saler influence. That's me. You do what works for you,,,

 

[Ky hills]

I've had a few Santa Gertrudis, I didn't have any disposition issues with what I had, but like with any breed there will definitely be problematic individuals. Ours were dog gentle, but could be stubborn. One when going through the chute would balk in the alleyway and just stand. If pressured she could be like a machine gun with her kicking.
Another issue that I had was that around here a lot of the Gerts are bred by hobby show ring type outfits and sometimes they won't milk enough to raise a calf. Well bred ones milk real well and can wean off some impressive calves.

 

[greybeard]

Another issue that I had was that around here a lot of the Gerts are bred by hobby show ring type outfits and sometimes they won't milk enough to raise a calf. Well bred ones milk real well and can wean off some impressive calves.

I've never been able to understand whether the Gerts were developed using milking shorthorns or beef shorthorns. King Ranch detailed that once developed, all their initial stock came from Monkey (bull) but never really say whether the shorthorns in the development were from the Thomas Bates (dairy) line or the John Booth (beef) line.

 

[A.J.]

I would think those heifers could cross several different ways and do you a good job. Midtncattle on here has some purebreds and crosses some with Herefords and has some nice calves.

 

[greybeard]

I would think those heifers could cross several different ways and do you a good job. Midtncattle on here has some purebreds and crosses some with Herefords and has some nice calves.

Wouldn't that be close to a Droughtmaster, with some shorthorn in the mix? I remember seeing Midtncattle's calf crop pictures. Impressive.

Gert Cross

I've recently bought a herd of pure bred Santa Gertrudis cows and am looking for suggestions on what breed of bull to turn in with them. Being located in middle TN the less ear you have the better and of course black is king. DMF has recommended a Charolais bull and I'm sure that cross would...

www.cattletoday.com

 

[Brute 23]

All: I have been breeding our cross cows to a Santa Gertrudis bull. We kept 6 of the best heifers for replacements. My neighbor thinks we are crazy, he tried Santa's years ago and had bad luck. We breed the heifers to a Executive Order Simmental bull (my brother needed a place to put him, so we used him). We like our Santa bull, the most gentle thing anyone could have. has anybody else had bad luck with Santa's?.

That's extremely vague. If you and your neighbor have different goals for yalls operations then yall will want different things out of yalls cattle.

I'll give a good example. My family use to have red and grey Brahmans. When I was young they sold all of them and went to Beefmasters. The Brahmans got pretty wild to the extent they were literally having them chase them up the chute and in to the trailer at the end to haul them out.

When I went to buy some grey Brahmans for myself and the people I work for I had to listen to all the old stories from my dad. Basically the same thing like you heard... the didn't work for us so they won't work for you.

Fast forward and we are having great luck with the Brahmans. I just sold a Brahman bull that I loaded in the trailer with a feed buck and no chute. With our replacement heifers I can stand outside the chute and call them and they will all come through the pens, down the chute, and stand in front of me waiting for cubes.

My family created their own problems with the Brahmans by not interacting with them enough and doing it in a negative way, when they did.

Although it's good to talk to your neighbors to find out why they had problems, so you can learn from them, their problems may or may not be your problems.

 

[A.J.]

Wouldn't that be close to a Droughtmaster, with some shorthorn in the mix? I remember seeing Midtncattle's calf crop pictures. Impressive.

Gert Cross

I've recently bought a herd of pure bred Santa Gertrudis cows and am looking for suggestions on what breed of bull to turn in with them. Being located in middle TN the less ear you have the better and of course black is king. DMF has recommended a Charolais bull and I'm sure that cross would...

www.cattletoday.com

I think there is some variation of that cross with the droughtmaster. I bet those would make some great mamas.

 

[jdeere7210]

All: I have been breeding our cross cows to a Santa Gertrudis bull. We kept 6 of the best heifers for replacements. My neighbor thinks we are crazy, he tried Santa's years ago and had bad luck. We breed the heifers to a Executive Order Simmental bull (my brother needed a place to put him, so we used him). We like our Santa bull, the most gentle thing anyone could have. has anybody else had bad luck with Santa's?.

 

[BrazosBottomHand]

There are more differences among breeds than between breeds. Like Brute said the disposition has a lot to do with how they get handled. Idk if all the paint has been bred out of your Simmental bull but if the calves have some paint on them they will be discounted at the sale barn in addition to the fact that they are not black or charx. Also the more ear you breed into those calves the more they will get discounted at the sale. A lot of people run good crossbred/Gert/beefmaster cows with some ear on them to make them more thrifty and better mommas, and then take the ear off the calves with the bull (usually a Charolais or angus bull). Generally speaking, Santa Gertrudis are good momma cows, especially in hot and humid climates.

 

[coachg]

Can't beat that Shorthorn cross ! My dad and I had polled shorthorns for years till his health got bad and my busy life as a young married father of 3 , teacher / coach forced us to sell our herd . Back in the 80's never thought I'd ever own a black angus cow .

 

[Warren Allison]

That's extremely vague. If you and your neighbor have different goals for yalls operations then yall will want different things out of yalls cattle.

I'll give a good example. My family use to have red and grey Brahmans. When I was young they sold all of them and went to Beefmasters. The Brahmans got pretty wild to the extent they were literally having them chase them up the chute and in to the trailer at the end to haul them out.

When I went to buy some grey Brahmans for myself and the people I work for I had to listen to all the old stories from my dad. Basically the same thing like you heard... the didn't work for us so they won't work for you.

Fast forward and we are having great luck with the Brahmans. I just sold a Brahman bull that I loaded in the trailer with a feed buck and no chute. With our replacement heifers I can stand outside the chute and call them and they will all come through the pens, down the chute, and stand in front of me waiting for cubes.

My family created their own problems with the Brahmans by not interacting with them enough and doing it in a negative way, when they did.

Although it's good to talk to your neighbors to find out why they had problems, so you can learn from them, their problems may or may not be your problems.

Great post. And I think this applies to most any breed. Behaviour is more a result of enviroment (handling) than of genetics ( what breed it is).

 

[greybeard]

What Brute said..
There was a time, that docility was just a word and not a result of management function. We had Brahmas when I was young. It weren't much fun. The bulls were mostly fine but the mommas would Eat You Alive.
Mostly because we never spent much time around them.

 

[Ky hills]

I agree that handling has a role in disposition, but I am also a firm believer that some lines within breeds are more flighty or aggressive than others.
Remember Limousins in the 80's for example. There's also a few lines of Angus that I don't want on the place.
That being said, a few years ago had a Limousin bull that was one of the calmest of any breed I've ever had. As for Angus, I've had some that were calm and some that were crazy.

 

[brw]

All: I have been breeding our cross cows to a Santa Gertrudis bull. We kept 6 of the best heifers for replacements. My neighbor thinks we are crazy, he tried Santa's years ago and had bad luck. We breed the heifers to a Executive Order Simmental bull (my brother needed a place to put him, so we used him). We like our Santa bull, the most gentle thing anyone could have. has anybody else had bad luck with Santa's?.

I have all gerts now all my neighbors told me not to get them....I had Black Angus crossed Gert bull with Black Angus, Same neighbors have bought the cross bulls from me. I call mine up in pens to sort them. I just like the red better.

 

[FungusProudKY31]

This was decades ago but BW and prolapse were issues. I always liked the look and wanted some but never got there.

 

[BC]

This was taken from an ad in breed magazine back in the early 1970's

This is an example of what the breed is trying to produce now