what breed to cross longhorns with for best replacement

[trin]

i know longhorns r not liked much on here but if you was going to get some replacements heifers what breed would you use and why?

 

[piedmontese]

there is actually a breed of cattle known as salorn,longhorn x saler.they look pretty good.so u might wanna check them out.

 

[Isomade]

i know longhorns r not liked much on here but if you was going to get some replacements heifers what breed would you use and why?

30-06

 

[dun]

Corrienta, that way you would at least have something that had a use, roping calves

 

[TexasBred]

Corrienta, that way you would at least have something that had a use, roping calves

But otherwise worthless.

 

[Angus Cowman]

i know longhorns r not liked much on here but if you was going to get some replacements heifers what breed would you use and why?

I will disagree with what all the others have said
no I don't raise them and they wouldn't be my first choice but they are and can be very productive cattle
and I still do have one I just keeep her hidden :lol:
From everything I have read and heard and tried if you are wanting to break the color and raise solid color calves a Charloias bull will do that the best
I have bred some to Limi, herefords and angus but most of the time you will still wind up with the wild color and therfore get docked some when selling
I think the limi put more weight on the calves than any other bull but they were still wild colored

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

I had a bull buyer once that had a few Salorn cattle. He sure was proud of them.

 

[VanC]

i know longhorns r not liked much on here but if you was going to get some replacements heifers what breed would you use and why?

I will disagree with what all the others have said
no I don't raise them and they wouldn't be my first choice but they are and can be very productive cattle
and I still do have one I just keeep her hidden :lol:
From everything I have read and heard and tried if you are wanting to break the color and raise solid color calves a Charloias bull will do that the best
I have bred some to Limi, herefords and angus but most of the time you will still wind up with the wild color and therfore get docked some when selling
I think the limi put more weight on the calves than any other bull but they were still wild colored

Great answer, AC. Not that I have an answer to trin's question, but it's nice to see someone that doesn't automatically jump on the "longhorns are crap" bandwagon.

 

[Dylan Biggs]

Angus Cowman makes a good suggestion. We ran some Longhorn bulls on commercial heifers in the early 80's, kept some of the heifers some of them made great cows. We still have a few 1/2 and !/4 bloods. Longhorn are very intelligent cattle in my experience. Tremendous longevity, fertility, and great mothers. A Longhorn Saler or Hereford bred Charolais would work very well I expect.

Here are our two Longhorns, got to have some color! :cboy:

 

[TexasBred]

i know longhorns r not liked much on here but if you was going to get some replacements heifers what breed would you use and why?

I will disagree with what all the others have said
no I don't raise them and they wouldn't be my first choice but they are and can be very productive cattle
and I still do have one I just keeep her hidden :lol:
From everything I have read and heard and tried if you are wanting to break the color and raise solid color calves a Charloias bull will do that the best
I have bred some to Limi, herefords and angus but most of the time you will still wind up with the wild color and therfore get docked some when selling
I think the limi put more weight on the calves than any other bull but they were still wild colored

Great answer, AC. Not that I have an answer to trin's question, but it's nice to see someone that doesn't automatically jump on the "longhorns are crap" bandwagon.

Van...fact is..for 95% of the folks they ARE crap. There is a reason they are no longer the dominant cow in the Southwest. The other 5% just love'em to death.

 

[Northern Rancher]

A good thick Angus or Horned Hereford bull works well.

 

[Northern Rancher]

15 year old 3/4HH/1/4 LH cow-I've raised some Prime-y1 steers off the old girl-when I dispersed my mature cows I had her sorted off as too old to go but the buyer wanted her in.

Same cow a year later-her udder his holding together pretty well. She was a bit stingy with hfr calves over the years. 1/2 to 1/4 LH cows winter better up here than some of the high milk lines of straight Angus cattle.

 

[djinwa]

Let me toss out some ideas and the experts can tell me why I'm wrong.

Are longhorns unpopular because they don't make a profit, or because their calves attract less revenue? What's the difference?

Profit equals revenue minus expenses.

It is easy to see what your revenue is when you sell calves. Yes, black calves get more at sale time, but is that everything? Determining expenses is a lot harder. How much do certain cows eat?

Great looking cows can eat more. Muscle is more metabolically active, so requires more calories to maintain.

Longhorns are lighter muscled, so shouldn't take as much to feed. Reduced expense to maintain all year. Breed her to a heavy muscled bull to get a productive calf.

Lighter muscled cows also handle the heat better. Hard to feed a calf if heat stress keeps a cow from eating.

I guess my main question is how everyone is determining the input costs of their cows.

Maybe if lack of growth outweighs the easy maintenance, you could use crossbreds to gain some of the advantage.

 

[dun]

The only thing that I don;t like about longhorns is that the cat hammed rear end seems to be the one trait that carrys for generations.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Best crosses i have seen on longhorn cows in this area is Char or Red LImousin. I think Hereford would be a better cross on them than Angus.

 

[Angus Cowman]

pros and cons of a LH cow

pros
longevity
pretty much can live on anything
can produce a calf on less inputs than any breed I know of
is very protective against predators
and usually pretty easy to handle
can adapt to the weather better than most cattle
cold and heat doesn't seem to bother them as much as any other breed I know of
they love eating tree leaves and brush even if they have good pasture


Cons
color gets docked
they are usually lighter muscled
horns get docked and a LH that has been dehorned is easily spotted
even with generations of cross breeding and diluting the color will still pop up
will grade out lower than most all breeds even when cross bred

but dollar per dollar I would say a LH crossed with a char or Lim would probably net you around the same $$$ if you used a minimal management strategy on the

 

[VLS_GUY]

The type of breed to cover longhorn cows depends on what you want to do with the calves and the environment the cows are in.
For the most part I would want to use a higher growth bull with some muscle. For producing replacements In a higher rainfall environment I would likely use a solid red or black Simmental, Gelbvieh, or Saler. In a lower rainfall environment I would look at a higher growth hereford, a sim-angus or balancer. The white face the Hereford puts on them will let the buyers know the calves are out of a Hereford bull. If you want a terminal cross a good Charolais or Limousin will work well here-particularly on half Longhorn cows with more growth and milk.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Got a friend with some longhornxlimi cows that sure do alot of things right. Breeds them to a Angus bull. Sell some nice calves.

 

[TexasBred]

You can buy longhorn pair down this area for $300-325 so I guess you could say low start up cost would be an advantage...until market time.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Breed them right-sell them on the rail-thsat's where the true value of cattle is discovered. Emotion, commotion, hype, myth, biases and loyalties peel off with the hide.