Gelbveih cattle "The Gentle Continental"

[Newguy]

On paper they sound pretty interesting - "According to the USDA Meat Animal Research Centre Gelbvieh are the only widely used breed that excels in calving ease, milk yield, retail yield, weaning growth and yearling growth combined. In sum, Gelbvieh produce more kilograms of weaned calf per cow exposed than any other widely used breed." - http://www.gelbvieh.org.nz/crossbreeding.html

Are there any Gelbvieh cattle in the UK? (excluding stabilisers)

They have a website. But no mention of them existing in the UK. http://www.gelbviehuk.co.uk/the-breed/

"Fertility - Gelbvieh had the largest testicles of all the breeds in the Clay Centre research and since testicular size is related to the fertility of their daughters, this probably explains why the females are most fertile. Gelbvieh bulls taken to AI centres for semen collection have had the most verile semen counts and quality seen of any breed."

They are also tame, hence their slogan - "The Gentle Continental"

Growth, calving ease, fertility, milk, tameness and their confirmation isn't terrible. (They kinda sound too good to be true.)

So why haven't they caught on over here?

 

[Newguy]

Apparently they also have "the largest ribeye-muscle area per 100kg of all the breeds tested" + they are mostly polled.

 

[Baling Hay]

There are a few in the Uk but they are very plain cattle.

 

[le bon paysan]

As far as I remember, they are made from 3 breeds , in 'old' Germany, that now breed true. I saw them years ago at the NBA event at Chatsworth. Wife commented that she thought they were the original composites. Interestingly, Lee Leachman uses Gelbvieh in one of his American composites. They struck us both as good maternal cows at the time.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Heard a few stories about them.
1 being a limi guy walks into ring as they are selling a bull. Thinks 'that's a good lim bull', bids, gets said bull at what he feels is a bargain price only for someone to ask 'I thought you were a limi man - how come you've just bought a Gelbveigh?'
Also have a friend who's bought a few in the calf ring and has been pleased with them.

 

[Newguy]

Heard a few stories about them.
1 being a limi guy walks into ring as they are selling a bull. Thinks 'that's a good lim bull', bids, gets said bull at what he feels is a bargain price only for someone to ask 'I thought you were a limi man - how come you've just bought a Gelbveigh?'
Also have a friend who's bought a few in the calf ring and has been pleased with them.

There are a few in the Uk but they are very plain cattle.

"very plain" and mistaken for a limi?

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Taken from the British gelbveih website.

http://www.gelbviehuk.co.uk/gallery/

But to be fair if you google gelbveih images they vary a fair bit.

 

[Newguy]

The UK Gelbvieh website has straws from 3 bulls for sale, but I enquired about them a while ago and never heard back from them. The website dosn't have any pictures of the bulls on offer. Unless they are some of the bulls in the gallery page?

""the largest ribeye-muscle area per 100kg of all the breeds tested" how significant a role does the ribeye play in the EUROP grading system?

 

[Walterp]

A minority breed, which has only really taken off in the USA (45,000 registered cows) where they have a generally good reputation for cross-breeding to achieve good growth/easy calving off Hereford or Shorthorn cows.

Being the US, you have a choice of black or red (now there's a huge surprise) and there is some doubt just how pure even the purebred (as opposed to 'percentage cattle') really are. Figures coming out of MARC for this breed might have to be treated with some caution, for example here is a good quality pure US Gelbvieh bull - which probably speaks for itself...

 

[Walterp]

And no, I'm not pulling your leg...

 

[tr250]

There are a few in the Uk but they are very plain cattle.

we have won local fatstock show with one and had several E grades with them. we had a lot of them if you get the right ones they are brilliant but we found we couldnt get good quality genetics in this country and the gene pool is too small so crossed them too lims and sims probably got 20 pure cows now used to have 100 at one point

 

[Newguy]

we have won local fatstock show with one and had several E grades with them. we had a lot of them if you get the right ones they are brilliant but we found we couldnt get good quality genetics in this country and the gene pool is too small so crossed them too lims and sims probably got 20 pure cows now used to have 100 at one point

How did your gelbvieh/ gelbvieh crosses finish (time, deadweight, KO%, etc) compared to the lims and sims? And how easy calving, docile, milky and fast growing were/are they? (thanks)

 

[tr250]

they are very lean so can get a big carcase we finnish bulls and they can be a little too lean. kill out well all crossed now but getting near to 60% with hiefers just over with bulls we used to have some calving issues with heifers when pure but its the cows high set tail and wide pelvis that made them a good cow with plenty of milk. some of the best cows we ever had were gelbveih out of our fresian cows when we finnished milking and started sucklers. so yes very good cattle but we got too interbred and couldnt find quality unrelated bulls it got to the stage we had extreme types some brilliant and some bad.

 

[farmeronecow]

We bought one out of the calf ring ten days ago, appears to be a nice strong calf, interested to see how it progresses!

 

[Newguy]

We bought one out of the calf ring ten days ago, appears to be a nice strong calf, interested to see how it progresses!View attachment 18718

So, how is it progressing?

 

[farmeronecow]

Its in a shed with 60 other calves and is the best animal out of the lot! Just started weaning this week, i will take a pic tomorrow!

 

[jamesy]

Neighbour had a few calves got by ai this spring, al see if I can get a few pics.

 

[farmeronecow]

 

[farmeronecow]

 

[Newguy]

Thank you (a like didn't seem like enough for the effort you put in).
The calf looks like it is thriving.