Santa Gertrudis

[CCRanch]

Going to look at a few SG bulls. Haven't had one. Any bad news out there about the breed. I will be putting them on x-bred cattle. Thanks.

 

[movin' on]

CC, the only bad thing I have heard about Santa Gertrudis' is that they are almost unanimously thought of as one of the more wild breeds! I have no experience with them, that's just what I have heard many times.

 

[greatgerts]

What are you going to cross them with? Where are you going to look at them? I can help you with your answers a little better knowing that.
A lot of the things that people have against breeds are just opinions. Different cattle work in different locations. Being in TX, Gert bulls will work well for you, but if I know of where you are looking, I can at least tell you if I have dealt with them and what I have gotten out of the cattle that I had bought.

 

[dun]

When we used Gert bulls the only complaint s we had were with the daughters. Too much milk and tended to be calf stealers. But that may have all changed in the past 30 plus years.

dun

 

[novatech]

When we used Gert bulls the only complaint s we had were with the daughters. Too much milk and tended to be calf stealers. But that may have all changed in the past 30 plus years.

dun

Showing my ignorance but what is a calf stealer?

 

[dun]

When we used Gert bulls the only complaint s we had were with the daughters. Too much milk and tended to be calf stealers. But that may have all changed in the past 30 plus years.

dun

Showing my ignorance but what is a calf stealer?

A cow that stales other cows calves and raises them as her own.

dun

 

[novatech]

When we used Gert bulls the only complaint s we had were with the daughters. Too much milk and tended to be calf stealers. But that may have all changed in the past 30 plus years.

dun

Showing my ignorance but what is a calf stealer?

A cow that stales other cows calves and raises them as her own.

dun

I figured thats what it was but have never seen it. Thanks

 

[dun]

When we used Gert bulls the only complaint s we had were with the daughters. Too much milk and tended to be calf stealers. But that may have all changed in the past 30 plus years.

dun

Showing my ignorance but what is a calf stealer?

A cow that stales other cows calves and raises them as her own.

dun

I figured thats what it was but have never seen it. Thanks

The problem it caused us was some cows drying off and breeding back but the calf stealers getting so poor that they didn;t breed back. They would also raise mediocre calves because of the insufficient milk for as many calves as they were raising.

dun

 

[Limomike]

I used to have SG bull, and it was a very tame one; but then again I rasied it from about 8 mths old, and sold it at 4 yrs. It made some good calves from my beefmaster cows, but I seemed to have more premature or crippled calves with him.
I dont know if that as the problem, but since then I got a Limo bull, and havent had any prematures or crippled ones.

 

[Matt S]

My experience with raising them has told me they are very docile creatures. The man that got me into the cattle business raised them, and he could walk up and bear hug any of his cattle while they were in the pasture. Mine were no different. I even climbed on one of my heifer's back to show a fella how calm they were. My cattle were horned as well.

Disadvantages to the breed: They don't like cold weather. When it's below freezing, they are laying down out of the wind trying to stay warm while the other cows are eating.

 

[bward]

This is our 20th year of raising Gerts in Alberta. In those years I have had a few extremely docile bulls... and the nice thing about them is that they stayed that way as they aged. I've also had some testy ones that never got the chance to prove me wrong. My advice to you is to look for performance especially in weaning weight. You won't beleive how fast the cross bred calf will grow, as long as you have some decent milk in the moms. As far as faults go, watch for big open shoulders saggy pasterns and narrowness in the animal. In their efforts to clean up the sheath some herds have lost body depth, and with that went natural thickness, but I notice that they are improving on that a lot in the last few years. Pick a bull with horizontal rather than droppy ears as that seems to be heritable and the calves wont show as much ear. Other than those few ( dumb) tips pick a thick meaty hulk that pleases your eye and respects your space.

 

[MountainFarmChar]

There's a farm close to ours that has SG bulls and Angus cows and they produce some good looking calves.

I have noticed (several times) the SG bulls being on the wrong side of the property line at times but never seen their cows or calves roaming. Not sure if that means anything or not?

 

[ALACOWMAN]

yep. if your putting them on cattle that aready have a little ears then i wouldnt use em. to much frame and leather and no meat on the calves. now on hereford or angus or simm cows. you'd like the calves

 

[CowpokeJ]

If you are keeping replacements, Gert crosses usually make good mammas. Using a Gert bull, you'll be able to sell Star Five replacements.

 

[jcarkie]

i used one 25 years ago and the heifers were dandy's but they aren't around here anymore at all. hereford gert cross are some of the prettiest cows, and good mommas

 

[phillse]

As a breeder of Shorthorn cattle in Southern Alabama, I have looked at using SG as a cross to increase solid color patterns and to increase heat tolerance. The reason for looking for solid color patterns is due to local breeders wanting solid colored pattern bull. There are many Longhorn and Longhorn crosses in our are the farmers don't want the roan calves from shorthorn because to the uneducated the discount them as longhorns.

The main reason or concerns that hve kept me from crossing SG to shorthorn has been the concern of temperment and too much leather.

Our cattle are typically handled and worked by a single person either my father or myself. Since we typically have only one of us working cattle at a time temperment is extremely important. With shorthorn the temperment is great, did not want to ruin it by using wild SG.

Also, I felt that SG would bring down the overall thicknes of the cattle down while attributing to larger cow size. Most of the SG, I have seen were quite large framed.

I may be wrong but to me SG are a breed that got a little behind the times as for a Brahman influenced breeds go and have a lot of catching up to do. If they clean up the excess leather, modrate frame size and imporve temperment then they have a chance at being a strong voice in the Brahman influenced cattle world, and the comercial brood stock business.

If you have evidence to point otherwise I would be glad to hear it. I have always loved the dark red color of SG.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Rocky Vess, the manager of Winrock Farms in Arkansas
has a SG bull that had a perfect marbling and tenderness
score on the original GeneStar testing system. They have
a website & sell semen and bulls as I understand...
extremely nice people.

 

[gertfan]

right now our son has 3 reg gerts, we have 200 commercial cross bred cows. we have had several gert crosses over the years and if it wasn't for the market giving us a lower price due to the ears we would raise nothing but gerts.
They are wonderful mothers and they will often babysit the other calves. They produce alot of milk and are very easy calvers, if you have any gert influenced cows you understand what I mean, they get huge on the backend to the point you think the calf will just fall out. We have only had 1 gert bull that had some attitude but I think you can have that with any bull. The 3 heifers that our son has are like dogs, they follow everywhere.