Beef shorthorn x Fr Heifer calves

[TlymarT_028]

Hi, looking for peoples thoughts on some calves I've bought ages ranging from Feb 2020 to June 2020 and wondering how many would put them to the bull/AI this year and what would you put them to?

 

[Agrivator]

They will make ideal suckler cows. And I would put them to a easy-calving Limousin.

Don't spoil the ship for a ha'peth of tar.

 

[TlymarT_028]

They will make ideal suckler cows. And I would put them to a easy-calving Limousin.

Don't spoil the ship for a ha'peth of tar.

What would you say for calving age? Could put a few to clave down in march that would be 25months when calving and leave the younger ones? Or wait till all are 24 months to AI

 

[Agrivator]

What would you say for calving age? Could put a few to clave down in march that would be 25months when calving and leave the younger ones? Or wait till all are 24 months to AI

If you are confident that you have an easy calving bull, 25 month-old well-grown heifers should calve ok. But calve them later if in doubt.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

With a cross like that what are you looking to calve them to? If it's another native breed and an easy calving line I'd go for it so long as they are reasonably well grown.

 

[JSmith]

That cross will make a good suckler cow if there out of proper fresians, we calve our beef shorthorns mainly at three years old but have calved at two, but they don’t make the size the three year olds would! Only you know if they’re big enough, shorthorns general calve well, should spit a limmy out either age!! Good luck

 

[Uggman]

They will look a bit like the old blue albions the ones that adam hensen got. Good cows plenty of milk put them on a lim good calfs.

 

[topground]

They will look a bit like the old blue albions the ones that adam hensen got. Good cows plenty of milk put them on a lim good calfs.

Except the breeders have been told by the faceless unaccountable desk jockeys of FAnGR that they can’t call their cattle Blue Albion, now have to be called Albion.in order to be blessed with Zoonotic Establishments recognition under Regulation (EU) 2016/1012

 

[Treg]

Except the breeders have been told by the faceless unaccountable desk jockeys of FAnGR that they can’t call their cattle Blue Albion, now have to be called Albion.in order to be blessed with Zoonotic Establishments recognition under Regulation (EU) 2016/1012

 

[Agrivator]

With a cross like that what are you looking to calve them to? If it's another native breed and an easy calving line I'd go for it so long as they are reasonably well grown.

Is the Frisian a native breed. Was it around when the North Sea was still a land bridge to the Netherlands or wherever the Friesian arose?

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Is the Frisian a native breed. Was it around when the North Sea was still a land bridge to the Netherlands or wherever the Friesian arose?

I was referring to the bull used on them, not the heifers themselves.

Calving them younger and so reducing their mature size is a positive in my view too. We're moving away from our Simmental and South Devon cows for exactly that reason. I don't want mature cows over 500kg in future. I aim to get as close to all year grazing as I can.

The smallest of the HxFr we used to run 30 years ago were ideal but it's impossible to get calves out of a traditional British Friesian these days and Holstein blood is the last thing I want for a forage only suckler cow.

 

[DrDunc]

Is the Frisian a native breed. Was it around when the North Sea was still a land bridge to the Netherlands or wherever the Friesian arose?

Pretty sure there must have been a land bridge that the railway ran over

Why? Because my grandfather told of how my great grandfather collected the first black and whites Frisians in Scotland from the Kippet station at Dolphington