South Devon cattle any good?

[Devil's advocate]

Talking to someone who fancied buying some pedigree South Devons. Must admit I tactfully tried to talk him out of it, but failed. Are they ok, in this particular case single suckling on a disadvantaged farm on the foothills of the Pennines. I thought black baldies would be better for that job.

My Dad had the odd one SD muti suckling on good grassland & she was ok, brought in twice daily to rear 4 calves at a time 3 batches a year. AI'd to Charrolais bull.

 

[devonshire farmer]

We run a south devon bull on lowland farm, have been very pleased, been with the breed probably 10 + years now and also run a charolais and the grades come back as good if not better fairly consistently. Hope this helps, not sure what they would be like in the location you describe as I haven't kept them in that environment.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Doesn't Anton keep some on the edge of Dartmoor @JP1 ?
Don't presume he keeps them on the moor, but they certainly wouldn't be on lowland.

 

[JP1]

Doesn't Anton keep some on the edge of Dartmoor @JP1 ?
Don't presume he keeps them on the moor, but they certainly wouldn't be on lowland.

He does. He keeps them pure. I have a friend in this Suffolk village that had them. Quiet and a bit stubborn. He's building up a Simmental herd and crossing the SD cows, nice cross that

 

[Poorbuthappy]

I do like how this forum works

 

[CharcoalWally]

My neighbour runs a herd of South Devon sucklers here on the West Coast of Scotland on a windswept , exposed unit where the climate and the environment are considerably less kind than that of their native land. I would say they're great cows that do a fine job.

Very milky , very maternal , and unbelieveably docile. As posted above , he's also crossing them with the Simmental , and the calves are crackers.

I'd say they'd be a considerably better cow than the so called Black Baldie - the re-branded re- launched re- bleedin' everything HF X AA [or is it AA X HF - does anyone care?] I remember them from the 80s/90s , and they couldn't milk then and I'd have doubts about them now.

But the South Devons - a much better bet.

 

[Walterp]

My neighbour runs a herd of South Devon sucklers here on the West Coast of Scotland on a windswept , exposed unit where the climate and the environment are considerably less kind than that of their native land. I would say they're great cows that do a fine job.

Very milky , very maternal , and unbelieveably docile. As posted above , he's also crossing them with the Simmental , and the calves are crackers.

I'd say they'd be a considerably better cow than the so called Black Baldie - the re-branded re- launched re- bleedin' everything HF X AA [or is it AA X HF - does anyone care?] I remember them from the 80s/90s , and they couldn't milk then and I'd have doubts about them now.

But the South Devons - a much better bet.

It's difficult to recommend a breed for anyone, without knowing a lot about the farm, the farmer and the aims of the farm business: Black Baldies may, indeed, be a really good choice for a Scots farm up around Stranraer (where they have strong UK proponents with Messrs John Douglas and Robert Parker) rather than a bony, hungry, big-framed lowland breed like the South Devon.

Neither are popular breeds, because they've been out-performed by Continentals.

I'd tentatively suggest that the emphasis might, perhaps, need to shift from the 'top price' approach to the 'maximum reared weight of beef over a cow's lifetime' approach, but that's just a personal view. But maybe that's wrong, when even proponents of the South Devon suggest using a Simmental (and Black Baldie owners suggest a Charolais for their choice); both are missing the entire point of keeping such native cattle, in my view, but it'll be interesting to see how that pans out over the next few years.

 

[chipsngravy]

My neighbour runs a herd of South Devon sucklers here on the West Coast of Scotland on a windswept , exposed unit where the climate and the environment are considerably less kind than that of their native land. I would say they're great cows that do a fine job.

Very milky , very maternal , and unbelieveably docile. As posted above , he's also crossing them with the Simmental , and the calves are crackers.

I'd say they'd be a considerably better cow than the so called Black Baldie - the re-branded re- launched re- bleedin' everything HF X AA [or is it AA X HF - does anyone care?] I remember them from the 80s/90s , and they couldn't milk then and I'd have doubts about them now.

But the South Devons - a much better bet.

SD v Black baldies.........Well the large beef countries like US, Argentina, NZ with no farmers dole seem to have the black baldie as the cow of choice. Different take on walters view - take the weight of weaned calves through cows life but also involve the cows own weight to assess her profitability.

 

[NZDan]

SD v Black baldies.........Well the large beef countries like US, Argentina, NZ with no farmers dole seem to have the black baldie as the cow of choice. Different take on walters view - take the weight of weaned calves through cows life but also involve the cows own weight to assess her profitability.

Not many black baldies left here in NZ. The only black baldies you see about here are Hf X FH.
South Devons were used quite extensivley by Leachmans when they developed the Stabilizer, as they say "they yield like a continental and marble like a british"

 

[penntor]

I run a single suckle herd of South Devons on the edge of dartmoor, the moor starts outside my hedges but I don't run the cows out there. See plenty out on the moors in the summer months. Mine are out all year round and seem to do well.

penntor

 

[Devil's advocate]

Thanks for replies, sounds like my friend will be ok with his South Devons. I'm not knocking the breed, in fact if I had the time I would have a go at multi suckling like Dad used to with South Devons or Simmentals.

A South Devon bull on an Angus cow now that would produce some interesting replacement heifers, does anyone have any of those?

 

[bluepower]

Thanks for replies, sounds like my friend will be ok with his South Devons. I'm not knocking the breed, in fact if I had the time I would have a go at multi suckling like Dad used to with South Devons or Simmentals.

A South Devon bull on an Angus cow now that would produce some interesting replacement heifers, does anyone have any of those?

Lots of AngusXSouth Devon cows down here, a really good cross but that is the other way round. Ie: Angus bull on south devon cow (or usually heifer) for ease of calving.

 

[C.J]

Lots of AngusXSouth Devon cows down here, a really good cross but that is the other way round. Ie: Angus bull on south devon cow (or usually heifer) for ease of calving.

Angus or Red angus used by 2 Y.O calving herds.Wonderfull flavour

 

[Penmoel]

The place we are stopping at the moment used to be the home of a well known Lim herd, the present owner runs 100 South Devons on the farm just south of the Cheviots , not lowland but not moorland the cows, appear in good nick with some well grown calves on an organic unit. Good firm dry ground mind, I think at home with us in a wetter climate and softer ground we would struggle with such a heavy cow.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Farm next door run by a Mr Burrows many years ago used to keep them using a Charlie bull on them , best calves I have ever seen but Christ they took some calving , would this be common using that cross , the cows were pure I believe

 

[Scania 143]

Farm next door run by a Mr Burrows many years ago used to keep them using a Charlie bull on them , best calves I have ever seen but Christ they took some calving , would this be common using that cross , the cows were pure I believe

Am farming in the west of Ireland and want to improve maternal side of replacement heifers any information on South Devon x Limousin

 

[marco]

Have you looked at the stabiliser cattle? They are bringing in ai semen from now on if its of interest

 

[C.J]

Am farming in the west of Ireland and want to improve maternal side of replacement heifers any information on South Devon x Limousin

Do you already have Limo ? Why not buy some pure S.D and breed your own.

 

[Scania 143]

Do you already have Limo ? Why not buy some pure S.D and breed your own.

Thank you for replies. I have Limos and want to improve the maternal side. I have sent email to The South Devon Society re information on their bulls at A.I. and sourcing straws but have heard nothing yet from them. As regards buying some pure S.D. it is some thing I will be looking into

 

[Qman]

I've used Genus SD bull Menzies and have had some good calves. I also put a SD on Lim cows and save the heifers for breeding. Then I put the SDs back to Lim.