Tell me about longhorn cross cattle

[midtncattle]

Got a few questions for you more experienced cattlemen. With the price of longhorn females being so much lower than other breeds, what is the major disadvantages of purchasing longhorn cows that are bred to angus bulls or buying solid cows and breeding them to black bulls? What will the resulting calves look like? Will they have a destinct look that will get them docked at sale bar? Also, I saw some 5/8 gerts 3/8 longhorn mommas the other day. How would they do crossed to char for sale barn? Purpose of my calves are straight to sale barn.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Crossing with angus bulls does not seem to work as well as using a char or red limousin bull.

 

[plumber_greg]

Buy 'em cheap, sell 'em cheap. gs

 

[Angus Cowman]

it will work if you get the correct cross and can knock the wild color out of them and add some meat to them but that said
I have a friend that runs % LH cows and still has some of the wild color
His calves usually sell for $.10 to $.15 back of what top calves sell for and his input cost are lower as the LH cross cows will maintain themselves cheaper than a commercial cow when they don't have a calf on them
and when he sells his cows at age 10 or 12 or older they will usually bring close to the same money he paid for them when the were 2 or 3 yr olds
most of the EXPERTS on here say they are worthless but a person can make them work

I sold an old full blood LH cow this yr that I bought in 1995 as a 3 yr old she calved every yr and raised some nice calves the best and biggest were from a Limi bull didn't break the wild pattern but he added lots of meat
I paid $325 for the cow and sold her this yr for $512 as a weigh cow

 

[midtncattle]

Is there a cross that gets the wild color out of them?

 

[kenny thomas]

I have kept a few longhorn cows for the last 15 years or so and have bred them to Angus, Black Simmental, Black Limousin and Charolais. Although I had good calves from all the Charolais took care of the wild color much better than the others.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Red limousin will take care of the wild color most of the time. Angus won't even dehorn all of them.

 

[kenny thomas]

Red limousin will take care of the wild color most of the time. Angus won't even dehorn all of them.

I agree with that. The problem here is nobody has red limo's anymore. Guess I need to bring the trailer by your place. It does seem odd but you are also correct about the horns.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Started to take a few pictures of some LHxlimi cows today, got busy doing some other stuff and forgot. Them LH don't give up them horn easy.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Started to take a few pictures of some LHxlimi cows today, got busy doing some other stuff and forgot. Them LH don't give up them horn easy.

yep bout as easy as getting stink of $hit

 

[circlew]

LHxHereford bred her to a brangus bull and she threw a baldy calf.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Started to take a few pictures of some LHxlimi cows today, got busy doing some other stuff and forgot. Them LH don't give up them horn easy.

yep bout as easy as getting stink of $hit

You got that right AC. Them LH cows don't got no give up in them.

 

[CCRanch]

I had alot of longhorns and put a red Beefmaster on tehm. Knocked off all teh spots and most of the horns. No horm=ns over a foot long and made some of the best momma cows I've had. Just sold my last two and they were 14 years old.

 

[Rustler9]

Put a Charolais bull on your Longhorn cows, get yellow calves that will sell for every bit as much as a black calf at least here in our area. I have a friend who has been doing this for years. He sold a bull calf a couple of weeks ago here for $745. His neighbors who were laughing at him stopped laughing when he showed his check for 18 Char x LH calves. He paid $450 for the LH grade cow several years ago and she has made him money ever since. People here who are paying $1100 to $1400 a head for black heifers have to sell about three calves before the heifer is paid for. Then when the black cow is 10 years old it's time to grind her up. She's about too old to do anything with. Longhorn cows are in their prime at 10 years old. Guess it all depends on what you like though.

 

[WagaAgeyv]

I have had the neighbors charolais bull tearing down fences for last few years. We usually do well with cross that way. He usually polls calves or nubs them. Got 2 for sale now.

 

[JHH]

What about putting a Horned herf bull over them. I realize we have horns still but with the price of L.H. cows that I seen sell last week I would think a person could make them work it out in years. I seen some bring around 1.30 and they pounded them out. They aren't big cows either.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

What about putting a Horned herf bull over them. I realize we have horns still but with the price of L.H. cows that I seen sell last week I would think a person could make them work it out in years. I seen some bring around 1.30 and they pounded them out. They aren't big cows either.

I breed the few longhorns I have to a horned hereford, the longhorns I have are very splashy colored and with the Hereford all the calves I've had are red or yellow with a little white on there faces, it's amazed me he the hereford has taken nearly all the color off.

 

[Big Cheese]

We have Longhorns and run Charolais Bulls with them. The cross is great and the calves are growing better then our full beef calves. I love a Longhorn momma cow and we are keeping the majority of the heifers out of this cross as well and already have a couple half breeds that we bought that are already calving and thei calves are solid white and grow exceptionally well. A Longhorn and a Longhorn cross cow is a really good cow in my opinion.

 

[Big Cheese]

Also we have a solid white Longhorn that we bought that had a Hereford looking calf and she is growing pretty well and I have seen a few Hereford crosses as well and they grew well also. Hereford isn't a bad cross but Charolais is the best way to go with Longhorns.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Cheese you are full of crap. Char is a good way to but no better than some other crosses.