Bulling heifer dilemma

[shearerlad]

I'm in a bit of a dilemma about what to do for bulling heifers to be bulled this summer.
It's getting harder to source good lim or bb cross heifers that are going to milk, not too extreme or plain and of good health status.
However, there is 8 autumn 2015 heifers in the shed. They are all from my first efforts of DIY ai and by lodge hamlet, powerhouse elite and swarland Eddie. Mosty out of black lim cross cows that have plenty of milk and usually calve fine.

I'm keen to try them but dad is not convinced by them, he reckons they are too close to pure and won't milk

Thoughts please. TIA

 

[AGN76]

I suppose you could just as easily buy in 8 that don't milk!

Bull them.

 

[AGN76]

Out of interest how did Eddie calve?And did the calves suckle okay? I heard they were terrible for not suckling.

 

[shearerlad]

She calved fine but was about what I reckoned a week early at 286 days. Was no bother to get suckling either.

Edit. It's not what you would say a show style Eddie calf but still reasonable quality especially over her plates

 

[M-J-G]

Difficult to know @shearerlad, either you or your old man are right, you can only find out which of you is right if you try them and see.

 

[John Chance]

You're both right. You're right that it is harder (impossible ?) to get decent beef cross dairy heifers (without taking a chance on 25 and culling 15 after a couple of years). He's right that heifers bred this way are for killing fat for good money, not to make sucklers. None of that really helps though. Sorry.

 

[west coast angus]

Can you not sell them, and buy some good high health maternal heifers?

When bulled with a good lim or bb, their calfs will be as good if not better esp if the heifers have some simm in their breeding!

 

[CharcoalWally]

I'm not following @shearerlad . What do you normally buy? Dairy X heifers or first cross beef heifers that are a step away from the dairy influence?

 

[shearerlad]

@CharcoalWally we have a mix of bb and lim cross out of dairy, and and also 3/4 lim-1/4 dairy and 1/2 lim-1/4 bb-1/4 dairy.

The heifers in question would be 7/8 lim. They are good shapes but not extreme types.
Will try to post some photos tomorrow

 

[MJT]

If their mothers have plenty of milk like you say and worst case scenario you could cope with a slight drop in milkiness then why not ? If they aren't overly extreme and look like cow makers then get them bulled

 

[shearerlad]

Can you not sell them, and buy some good high health maternal heifers?

When bulled with a good lim or bb, their calfs will be as good if not better esp if the heifers have some simm in their breeding!

Tin hat on but wouldn't have a simm on the place. Just don't seem to suit out system

 

[S J H]

You got on well with ai'ing then @shearerlad what do you think of hamlet? I served one with him tonight.

 

[shearerlad]

Really impressed with hamlet calves so far. Got a nice baby calf by him too

 

[west coast angus]

Tin hat on but wouldn't have a simm on the place. Just don't seem to suit out system

That's cool, out of interest, how come they never worked?

 

[shearerlad]

Calves are not the quality nor did they finish as quick. Plus the cows always seemed to wild barstewards

 

[west coast angus]

Calves are not the quality nor did they finish as quick. Plus the cows always seemed to wild barstewards

God I never thought a simmyx would be harder to finish than a bb out of a limxdairy!! I always thought Simms where easy fleshing,

Go for it bull you heifers and if they don't milk just fill the creep feeder,

 

[shearerlad]

Four of the heifers

 

[bigw]

We have quite a few dairy crossed sucklers mainly lim and they are great cows, never thought much of the bue or sim crosses though. We kept a few 3/4 lims from them and they were just nutters, horrible and dangerous to work with.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Four of the heifers

Just get them bulled, if you're not happy with them after you've calved them you can sell them, you'll get a good trade on them

 

[Happy]

We have quite a few dairy crossed sucklers mainly lim and they are great cows, never thought much of the bue or sim crosses though. We kept a few 3/4 lims from them and they were just nutters, horrible and dangerous to work with.

Not sure why that is as people say the pures are very calm compared to crosses so would think 3/4 should be better than 1/2 Lim but agree from experience that they tend to be worse.

That middle one of the three foremost ones has a bit of a "fast" look about it but agree with @Northeastfarmer about getting them bulled and see how it goes.