Whats the Look

[Howard]

If I had only one breeding pasture and switched the breed bull every two years from a black angus to a hereford to a red angus and so on and kept the replacement heifers from their offspring what would my herd look like? Would they be mostly black, black baldies, red baldies, red, or a motley looking crew of all of the looks? Thanks

Howard

 

[IluvABbeef]

OMG... :shock: :shock:

Two questions:

1) Is this a trick question? What the herd will look like depend on the females you're breeding...which leads my second question...

2) What breed of females do you have in mind to do or start this three-breed rotation with?? Are they straight bred or cross-bred females??

Reason I asked the 1st question was because that type of question you asked can get really complicated, primarily because of genes, heterzygosity, etc etc etc. For instance, if your "foundation" herd are Angus cows, there are chances you'll get a cow with a red gene, which'll throw a red-baldy calf if mated with a hereford sire....then beyond that, I'd get pretty lost...and confuddled...

So I'm not answering this question 'til I know what your "foundation" females are, and what other folks' guesses are.

 

[EAT BEEF]

What would be your reason for doing this? You would have lots of different things and your calf crop would become less and less consistant with each new breed added to the mix.I'm assuming your trying to capitalize on hybrid vigor with this breeding plan?If I didn't have my reg. herd to pull culls out of for the comm. herd,I would breed the top end of my cows to make replacements and breed the rest to more terminal bulls of another breed.Or just buy replacements.

 

[IluvABbeef]

What would be your reason for doing this? You would have lots of different things and your calf crop would become less and less consistant with each new breed added to the mix.I'm assuming your trying to capitalize on hybrid vigor with this breeding plan?If I didn't have my reg. herd to pull culls out of for the comm. herd,I would breed the top end of my cows to make replacements and breed the rest to more terminal bulls of another breed.Or just buy replacements.

Just noticed something, after this was posted. You won't get much hybrid vigour with the two breeds of Angus/Red Angus bulls thrown in, you'll have to go with an entirely different breed for a three-breed rotation, for instance Gelbvieh instead of Red Angus, or even consider throwing in Simmental, or Maine Anjou, or even possibly Shorthorn. These breeds will definately maximize your hybrid vigour in your calf crop. If you're a commercial producer, uniformity shouldn't be much of a concern. And, depending on your "foundation" females I would think that in the end you will have a bit of a mottley herd, though a good producing herd, both on the reproduction end and the carcass end.

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

Yet at the sale barn, uniformity of size, weight, and type help you to put together a group that will probably average higher.

Having said that, each year's batch of calves would probably uniform enough. After a few years, I'd say you would have mostly black baldies when using the black bull, and perhaps half black and half red baldies when using the red bulls. I don't think you have a bad plan especially regarding the type of cows that would result. Furthermore, I think the steers would do well both on the market and the plate. I think they would be efficient in the feedlot. These statements are assuming that you are using good genetics from all three breeds.

 

[Frankie]

If I had only one breeding pasture and switched the breed bull every two years from a black angus to a hereford to a red angus and so on and kept the replacement heifers from their offspring what would my herd look like? Would they be mostly black, black baldies, red baldies, red, or a motley looking crew of all of the looks? Thanks

Howard

Black is the dominant color; the Hereford white face lasts several generations. I think you'd wind up with black baldies.

 

[Brandonm22]

I agree with Frankie. When you were using a black Angus bull, the calves would be ~5/8 Angus, 1/4 Hereford, 1/8 Red Angus. Most would be black with a white mottled face. When you were using a Hereford bull the calves would be mostly Black with black baldie markings and a few red calfs would show up. When you were using red Angus most of the calves would still be black with some reds and most would be baldies or brockle faced. I don't see this as a bad crossbreeding system at all, though others get a little more heterosis.