| John SD - 3/6/2011 13:22
Guys, thanks for the replies.
My uncles used to use Thortensen Gelb bulls. There were a few other guys around who used Gelb at one time, don't know of any around here right now and I don't see Gelb calves go through the sale barns much anymore either.
Char crosses seems to hang in there but the vast majority of cattle marketed nowdays are straight black Angus. Heterosis is the only "free lunch" there is when it comes to producing heavy calves but it just is not used much any more.
I still lean toward Char as a potential terminal cross because of the disposition. The light color for calves born in my later calving season is another thing. I would not intend to keep any of the 3x offspring for replacements.
are you certain most are 'straight black angus'??? This is where your gelb and gelb cross bulls (along with black simm) will fool ya, and keeps the calves black hided.
I go with a hereford/angus rotation on the herd here. I know according to the math, that this isn't the best for maximum heterosis. I see my neighbor's cattle getting bred to his 'home raised' bulls, throwing every color calf under the sun. Some of his bulls could be a 4 way cross. My feelings on getting too much?? lack of uniformity. Sure, the big un's are huge, and at the same time there are some real dinks. I wonder if the average is any better....
Since the real money comes when I can take a potload of identical steers or heifers in, and there are no 'sorts'. Are you feeding them, or selling calves?
I keep all my own replacement heifers, and this is why I don't go with more than two breeds. 'uniformity'. Years ago, I took in some 'share cows'. they were mostly hereford and hereford/angus bred to Char bulls. I also remember that first spring was a pretty tough spring to calve in, and those smokey calves had NO desire to get up and suck. They all weighed over 100 pounds, and I believe they were so dang stressed at birth that they just wanted to die. (I am sure the cow was feeling the same too!) I know there are better suited char bulls out there, these were what I was stuck with.
our business is a LIVE calf and a cow that's able to rebreed. My fall weaning cows all make the 50% 'cut'. The calves must weigh half the moms weight. I wonder if this is possible with a 1500# cow. (no creep. just grass) |
Gelbvieh vs Charolais question......
