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Tablerock Ranch eastern Wa | We are an Angus operation with an interest in outcrossing multiple directions one of which is Gelbvieh can you address in your observations, maternal --disposition--feedlot experience and or other things of interest. TIA |
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NS Canada | I had a poor experience with them, but I believe that to be the specific animals I had, not the breed itself. Poor attitudes and didn't make heavy enough calves. It was a short lived experiment on my part after a few years I gave up on them. I still get sales flyers and stuff sent to me though from when I was buying and I still like the look of them.
Good mothers and good milk I will admit though. Smaller framed cows from what I was used to.
Edited by Supa Dexta 2/15/2015 15:06
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nc ks | IWe have been using gelbveih for 30 some years and am very happy with them we are not straight bloods but balancer ,red Angus gel cross, I like them most for fertility.
MARC out of Clay center Ne said gelbveih is only second to Hereford in cow exposed to lbs of calf weaned. The only reason I don't run Herefords is ,at least in my Part of the world. Hereford s bring less at the barn significantly enough my gelbveih I feel will out dollar them in the end IMO.
As for disposition I've seen every breed of cattle under the sun that has a crazy in the herd somewhere, I get along fine with the disp. Of my cows.growth is great. When we added r/a we actually gave up weaning weight but we gained some carcass merit.
No breed solves it all you just have to decide in which direction you want to go and pick wisely |
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nc ks | IWe have been using gelbveih for 30 some years and am very happy with them we are not straight bloods but balancer ,red Angus gel cross, I like them most for fertility.
MARC out of Clay center Ne said gelbveih is only second to Hereford in cow exposed to lbs of calf weaned. The only reason I don't run Herefords is ,at least in my Part of the world. Hereford s bring less at the barn significantly enough my gelbveih I feel will out dollar them in the end IMO.
As for disposition I've seen every breed of cattle under the sun that has a crazy in the herd somewhere, I get along fine with the disp. Of my cows.growth is great. When we added r/a we actually gave up weaning weight but we gained some carcass merit.
No breed solves it all you just have to decide in which direction you want to go and pick wisely |
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Beresford, SD | Balancers are good in the feedlot. My experience with straight bred gelbvieh in the feed yard is that they tend to be a little high strung, too high flanked and get a little horsey when finished. From a feeding perspective, I feel that SimmX or CharX are a better fit to maximize performance of calves out of a British bred cow. JMO |
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north west arkansas | I used a couple of black gelbvieh bulls for a few years and they had awesome, small birth weight, jet black calves that grew out awesome. I personally really liked them. I wouldn't be against a few more if I could find them. I like the style of some of them much better then others. |
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Tablerock Ranch eastern Wa | I appreciate your opinion, looking forward to trying char--simmi and gelbvieh may try horned Herford as well, will feed and get results from packer, read the propaganda from the Gelbvieh web sight and wondered if they were as calm as they claim ? would be a balancer calf created, they talk better feedlot performance and less dark cutter discounts, I wouldn't expect dark cutters from my existing calves anyway. |
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Tablerock Ranch eastern Wa | That's encouraging Wayne, we will be AIing so we will use the best bulls that money can buy if we pick right. do you feel like the calves handled any different? |
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Tablerock Ranch eastern Wa | Tom when you added R A was it a true F1 cross, RA onto your pure bred Gelbvieh cow ? I would have thought you would have gained some heterosis weaning weight? |
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north west arkansas | No, my bulls and calves had excellent disposition. The main thing I have seen about gelbvieh is some of them just have a lot cleaner look to them if that makes any sense at all. The black simmi's can be the same way. I personally think gelbvieh cross cows make excellent mothers. If I could find a good supplier I wouldn't hesitate to use some again. They sure seem to milk good and seems like now that I think about it they were kind of a beef/dairy breed IIRC. I have sometimes wondered how a red gelbvieh would cross with Charolais. |
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NCND | We have used gelbvieh bulls on black cows for years, just more frame in my opinion. We work with a lot of neighbors that mostly run angus bulls, most are looking for calving ease, it is just easy to see the difference in size, not wieght, when we work calves in the fall.
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Garrett County, MD | We have a primarily black angus herd and have been using reg angus bulls. Will have 2nd season of calves hitting the ground soon from our first balancer bull. So these calves are 25% gel.
Cant speak to carcass quality or maternal char as we arent that far along with it yet. I hear they make really good cows.
What i can say is that the same cows are producing on average a more robust calve. Better legs. Thicker all the way around. More butt. Great disposition, although i didnt have disposition issues before. You can pick the balancer calves right out of the group. Higher avg weaning weight by the looks of it.
With that being said i am a big believer in hybrid vigor so maybe that is part of it. I also bought an awesome bull. Never bought that good of a bull before and he personally has the above mentioned attributes himself. I probably could have found an angus bull that would have given me the same things.
I like it so far and my goal is to produce a better all around cow that will be more rugged and wean a heavier calf.
We will see, but it looks good so far. |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | tomlec - 2/15/2015 15:45...MARC out of Clay center Ne said gelbveih is only second to Hereford in cow exposed to lbs of calf weaned. The only reason I don't run Herefords is ,at least in my Part of the world. Hereford s bring less at the barn... Useful information. MARC is certainly a trusted, data-oriented source of info. Thanks for the post. edited to add: I think there often Herefords being discounted at sales because buyers believe they CAN discount them....
Edited by Jim 2/16/2015 17:48
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| We've used them all and in the last 10 years have gone more and more Gelb on the cow side mainly Balancers, but going to a higher% for cows all the time. The Gelb breeders in the Dakotas seem to make them a frame size bigger than others to complement Angus cattle in their area, but overall the breed is very moderate in size making a natural fit in a cow equation. As stated above there can be an attitude in any breed but our experience is that gelb are pretty easily among the calmest, another good fit in the cow side of the equation, I'd say Gelb and Hereford are neck and neck disposition wise. Balancers can be a little different as some of the Angus bulls used to make them can bring their attitudes with them. Seeing your geography, Midland will have some Gelbvieh, Gustin's in ND. Cedar Top in the Neb sandhills has a sale this week, would really like to go but it is a long ways and we are calving, been very satisfied with the bulls they have sent sight unseen. They have a no-nonsense approach to cattle. Judds in Kansas is kind of like SAV in angus, good cattle but pushed hard. Biggest downside I see to Gelb is some will carry a diluter gene if color is real important to you, although most sale bulls will be tested for color. Some would argue ,but I say aGelb x Angus, red or black is about as good as it is cow wise, come back about any way you want to on the terminal side |
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just a tish NE of central ND | Smaller framed but much easier calving that the chaar cows and Holsteins I once had... dead ones don't sell very good and I can go back to bed after checking cows most nights instead of ratcheting a calf puller regularly. Have had good luck with their disposition. |
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nc ks | Yes for the most part at the time we first tried the cross we were looking at a f1 cow we terminated our first r/a bulls because of th loss of weaning weight but made different bull selections and went back to the cross because we seen the value of the better carcass and actually we improved on udder quality over the pure Gelbvs,,once again a wrong bull selection we lost some udder quality,that's s always been my biggest problem with the cattle industry it takes years sometimes to know what a new sire or breed will do to your cow herd program,.
But now I ,other than for my heifer bulls ,buy only red balancer bulls for my herd ,.
We've done years of selection for carcass data ,both ultra sound and actual carcass data and have been really pleased with the feed efficiency and fertility ,and carcass data on our herd . We run 120 + both fall and spring cows and in a 45 day breeding period will usually get in th mid to upper 90s in conception rates,but my philosophy on cows is probably a little different than most.it's what works for us. |
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NCMO | I have been using Gelbvieh Bulls for a while. Been keeping heifers and had great luck. Make great cows. Easy calving. Great growth. Weaning weights are higher with Gelbvieh. Cows are great milkers.
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SE SD | We have mostly all red angus/red gelbvieh cross here. We switch bulls up every couple few years.
Happen to have all Gelbvieh bulls at present. Will be buying a couple red angus bulls this year
for retained heifers.
Pros to Gelbvieh
More milk
More frame
More calf at weaning
Easy temperment.
Cons
Lager teats and more prone to bad bags
Hard to find quality bulls- not many breeders of straight Gelbvieh.
They always like to be on the other side of the fence
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| Been using all balancer bulls on crossbred cows for ten years or so and seems to me the calves are a little on the spooky side. I keep thinking it's just my perception but sure seems like it to me. Calves look great and sell good though. Before the balancers we used Gelbvieh and seems like calves were pups, idk maybe just me.
Edited by JPT 2/15/2015 22:27
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Tablerock Ranch eastern Wa | Thanks for all the replies by far the best info I have had in years, based on what I hear I am excited to finely get to start our F 1 program and will look for the right Gelbview bull as part of the breeding's even though we will take these calves to fats I will attempt to find a black Char bull and black Simmi as well, that being said our Angus herd has extensive R A genetics built in as we turned this herd from red to black through the years to chase the $ so we will see our share of red calves im sure. THANKS AGAIN !
Edited by t rock 2/15/2015 23:04
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nc ks | Be careful of running red gelbs on blacks you'll be unhappy with all the gray calves at least in my area they beat you up worse than a Hereford. |
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Nebraska, The land of corn and cattle | Weve been running Balancers and Gelbviehs for about 15 years now, when we decided to get back into the cow herd our neighbor that rented our pasture at the time was running them, and as a lifelong cow man who had raised every breed out there, we valued his opinion and we really liked the looks of the cattle themselves. We try to stay at about the 50-50 ratio of Gelbvieh and Angus on both the cows and the bulls, we feel like coming at the cross from both directions helps to get the good traits and minimize the bad. Dispostion is as good or better than most Ive been around and we dont do anything special with them, theyre about as good as you could ask for as far as mothering, just enough fight in them to protect the calves but calm enough to let us up and tag them, for the most part, theres always gonna be a few crazies. Milking is great, although like someone mentioned there are some problems with getting bad teats, but we have a few cows that have a bad quarter and they raise just as big of calves as the rest, and weve had more than one thats raised a set of twins by herself, again come weaning time you couldnt tell them from the others. Low birth weight is great, we rarely have to pull one unless theres a problem, and weaning weights are right up there. We run both reds and blacks, and red and black bulls, we have a few greys but none have been rat tails. Doesnt seem like we get docked but theres alot of guys who run mixed herds around here. I saw someone mention about them not staying in and I can say that with ours it hasnt been an issue, in fact we joke that if theres the illusion of a fence, theyll stay in. Our one neighbor had some salyers (sp?) and I swear they were part deer. Its been awhile since weve fed ours out but they seem to gain faster than straight angus either red or black. One of the things we like is the longevity of the cows, weve got a couple cows that were bred heifers when we bought them and arent all that far from driving age, and are still kicking out great calves every year and stay in good condition.
I think youd be really happy with the Gelbieh in your herd, Ive never heard of anyone going back to straight angus personally. We deal alot with Flying H genetics in Arapahoe NE. I think they are one of the top Gelbvieh breeders in the country. Dick is a really nice guy and would be more than happy to answer any questions you have, and I know they are fooling around with some simm/angus and simm/gelbvieh/angus crosses as well. Weve never done anything with Cedar top personally but Ive heard they have good stock. Also Werner cattle out of Arapahoe NE is another one weve dealt with, and have been pleased.
http://flyinghgenetics.com/ |
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PROS AND CONS TO THE GELBVIEH
