Santa Gertrudis

[wacocowboy]

there is a guy selling some SG heifers that I am looking at but I must admit it is one of the beef breeds I don't know a whole lot about. I know they came off the King ranch and I think they are a Short Horn Brahma cross. right now I have an Angus bull may be switching to a Hereford and was wondering how the SG do with Angus or Hereford bulls. I am guessing sorta like Beefmaster which I have had some good luck with but like I said don't know much about SG cattle so I am not sure so any thoughts anyone has I would be glad to read them

 

[Bigfoot]

Hereford on gert is a nice cross. In my opinion. Especially if you want to keep back some heifers.

 

[dun]

Yeaars ago we used a Gert bull on F1 AngusxHolstein and F1 Hereford xHolsten cows. Kept the heifers and gradually replaced the original F1s. We then used a Hereford on the angus cows and an angus bull on the Hereford cows. Made great momma cows and the steers did really well at the salebarn. That's was 30-40 years ago but don;t see why they wouldn;t still do well. A neighbor raises registered gerts and bought a bunch of cross bred cows, some Hereford based some Angus based. He has to haul the calves to OK to sell them to not get a dock but makes more moeny even with the hauling then if he sold yhem around here because of the ear. His daughter showed a market steer from that cross at the fair last year and he was really a great calf.

 

[Rafter S]

You're right about the makeup of Santa Gertrudis. They're 5/8 Shorthorn and 3/8 Brahma (the same percentages as Brangus, but with Shorthorn instead of Angus).

And I agree with Bigfoot about using a Hereford bull. That will make a good cross. I don't know that I've ever seen any Angus x Santa Gertrudis, so I can't say what that would be like.

 

[u4411clb]

Gerts work really well with Hereford and with Angus. Gerts provide heat tolerance and allot of milk along with good mothering ability. You combine that with the way a Hereford goes out and makes a living on less and puts on condition with less then you have a momma cow that can really make you some money. If you combine it with Angus then you can get a momma that will let you have calves that can really grade well and will have the milk to get that calve started and give the market what they are looking for Angus genetics with very little ear. Plus the Hereford and Angus will help the Gert reach maturity allot sooner which can be an issue with Gerts sometime and will kick their fertility through the roof. If the set of Gert females you described above is all you have imo then you should use Hereford bulls first and keep 10% of your heifers for 5 years and then get red Angus bulls and keep 10% of those heifers for 5 years and then finally get Gert bulls and do the same for the next 5 years. If you are still in the cattle business after that restart the rotation. You will have red hided calves some with a little white on their face and most with just enough ear that should grade and put on weight. The reason that I chose Red Angus instead of Black is so that the cows would be more consistent instead of having black calves and red calves but if hide color doesn't matter then feel free to go with Black Angus instead of red. Since Brahman is not in any way related to English cattle then you will get probably the biggest kick from crossbreeding that you can get in the cattle business.

 

[u4411clb]

2 Hereford x gert crosses and 1 Angus by Gert cross.



Hereford x Gert





Gert x Hereford Cows

 

[u4411clb]

Gerts

 

[BC]

Santa Gertrudis crossed with Hereford or Angus makes an acceptable feeder calf and a great replacement heifer. Kind of like having your cake and eating it too. I prefer Gert X Hereford because I am not hung up on having to have a black calf (I buy stocker cattle a couple of days a week and do not see the price premium now that we saw 5 years ago for black hides).

 

[Simmental7]

Put a Charolais bull on those girls.. They'll make you some money

 

[Bigfoot]

Put a Charolais bull on those girls.. They'll make you some money

I bought two char/gert heifers from a member here, back in the fall. I ended up swapping them to my daughters for their steer calves off of their cows. I'm still interested to see how they turn out. I think I would like to have some heifers out of gert/horned hereford cross.

 

[Anonymous]

Gert x herf. Our first cow and her 4 th calf (heifer) We have kept 2 of her heifers and will likely keep this one.

 

[Bigfoot]

Bet she's a milker.

 

[midtncattle]

Good to see some of my customers posting pictures of some of my girls. Bigfoot, a horned hereford will be in the field this spring. I personally think gerts give you lots of options. I have had gerts bred to angus, hereford, and char. The angus calves suprised me. They were both out of heifers and one had the heifer calf in u4411clb's first picture the other was a bull calf that weaned as 660 lb steer. The angus/gert make good steer and females can be breed back to char or hereford. The hereford /gert make great mommas and can go back with black hided bull are char. Gert/Char makes premier sale barn calves and functional females. Bigfoot has one out of my 989 cow I thought looked great. Hope she is a good producer for him. Several people have even started using red angus on gerts.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Put a Hereford or a Charolais bull on some good Gerts and you will have some very impressive calves.

 

[thommoos]

You're right about the makeup of Santa Gertrudis. They're 5/8 Shorthorn and 3/8 Brahma (the same percentages as Brangus, but with Shorthorn instead of Angus).

And I agree with Bigfoot about using a Hereford bull. That will make a good cross. I don't know that I've ever seen any Angus x Santa Gertrudis, so I can't say what that would be like.

If using a Herf bull you are not to far off from having Beefmasters. No one really knows the percentages of a Beefmaster. Either which way you go Beefmaster or SG, Breed a Char to them for terminal and it will ring the bell. I raise Beefmasters and if I were doing a terminal cross, Herf or Char is the way i would go. If you are looking for replacments to build a herd go with the Herf, Terminal go with Char. :2cents:

 

[TexasBred]

Waco only reason I wouldn't recommend the Gerts is that your'e apparently in Central Texas. You can just about count on your fingers the numbers of Gerts in the area and the same for the crosses. I'm afraid you'll be disappointed when you sell your calves.

 

[Anonymous]

Waco only reason I wouldn't recommend the Gerts is that your'e apparently in Central Texas. You can just about count on your fingers the numbers of Gerts in the area and the same for the crosses. I'm afraid you'll be disappointed when you sell your calves.

Really? Isn't the king ranch right there? Why do people steer away from the gerts in Texas when they were designed to walk long distances for water?

 

[TexasBred]

Waco only reason I wouldn't recommend the Gerts is that your'e apparently in Central Texas. You can just about count on your fingers the numbers of Gerts in the area and the same for the crosses. I'm afraid you'll be disappointed when you sell your calves.

Really? Isn't the king ranch right there? Why do people steer away from the gerts in Texas when they were designed to walk long distances for water?

No it's several hours farther south. Down that way they'll work. Totally different country. Very rugged. We have plenty of brangus that do just as well and sell much better.

 

[cow pollinater]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried breeding them back shorthorn to knock a little ear off kind like the brangus do with ultrablack?

 

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried breeding them back shorthorn to knock a little ear off kind like the brangus do with ultrablack?

I like the idea. I may try that. I've got the gert x, a Bradford x and a char I would love to cross back to shorthorn. What's the semen availability like