We have been toying with the idea of running a different breed of bull, at the moment we always keep two British blue stock bulls to run with our suckler cows and heifers including our pedigree blues as well as using AI to try to get some replacements
Was thinking of just keeping one blue stock bull for our own use and getting a different breed for getting replacements from our crossbreeds and also to use on some of our ped blue females as we seem to be getting more of them than we want for pedigree breeding
It would have to be a breed that was quiet, cave easy, milky/good mother but also would want a breed that the steer calves would sell well at about 10 months,
Breeds I have thought about and my thoughts about them
Lincoln red
we have a few cross bred cows and they seem to have a good calf and calve easy to the blue bulls and seem to milk well enough keep themselves up together and are not to big, we have calved a few Lincoln red calves and they seem to come out ok,
downside maybe the steers wouldn't sell so well ?
Simmental
we have a few crosses and the seem to go well with the blue bull and calve ok, they milk well and are quiet enough, we have calved a few AI simmys and they seem ok though we have had to pull them,
downside, would hope the steers would sell ok though the last one we sold we were disappointed with, also the only two sim bulls I have had anything to do with turned in to nasty buggers
Angus
Cross well with the blue and seem to calve them ok, should be easy calving if we got the right bull, the cross cows we have had seem to milk ok and steer calves should sell well with the named sire
downside, the calves can be a bit of a handful also the only cow we have ever culled for temperament was an angus but I have dealt with a few angus bulls and they have been fine
Sheeted Somerset
a bit of a different idea, we have some heifers coming on they were calved easy and they look OK so far, should milk well, could be a selling point one day?
downside, mostly unknown, steers may not sell very well
South Devon
don't know so much about them, should milk ok ? we have a crossbreed cow and she has a good calf to the blue, we had a twin of calves got by an AI south Devon and they were very quiet and sold well, the ones I have seen have looked good
downside, could be a bit big ?
What do other folk think ?
Was thinking of just keeping one blue stock bull for our own use and getting a different breed for getting replacements from our crossbreeds and also to use on some of our ped blue females as we seem to be getting more of them than we want for pedigree breeding
It would have to be a breed that was quiet, cave easy, milky/good mother but also would want a breed that the steer calves would sell well at about 10 months,
Breeds I have thought about and my thoughts about them
Lincoln red
we have a few cross bred cows and they seem to have a good calf and calve easy to the blue bulls and seem to milk well enough keep themselves up together and are not to big, we have calved a few Lincoln red calves and they seem to come out ok,
downside maybe the steers wouldn't sell so well ?
Simmental
we have a few crosses and the seem to go well with the blue bull and calve ok, they milk well and are quiet enough, we have calved a few AI simmys and they seem ok though we have had to pull them,
downside, would hope the steers would sell ok though the last one we sold we were disappointed with, also the only two sim bulls I have had anything to do with turned in to nasty buggers
Angus
Cross well with the blue and seem to calve them ok, should be easy calving if we got the right bull, the cross cows we have had seem to milk ok and steer calves should sell well with the named sire
downside, the calves can be a bit of a handful also the only cow we have ever culled for temperament was an angus but I have dealt with a few angus bulls and they have been fine
Sheeted Somerset
a bit of a different idea, we have some heifers coming on they were calved easy and they look OK so far, should milk well, could be a selling point one day?
downside, mostly unknown, steers may not sell very well
South Devon
don't know so much about them, should milk ok ? we have a crossbreed cow and she has a good calf to the blue, we had a twin of calves got by an AI south Devon and they were very quiet and sold well, the ones I have seen have looked good
downside, could be a bit big ?
What do other folk think ?