Montbeliard X Norwegian Red X Friesian Heifer as suckler cow?

[willie waver]

had a couple of norwegian red x holstein suckler cows, they were a bag of bones but great milkers and grew big calves, biggest problem was they weren't eligible for the calf sub and needed some special feeding in the winter because they were so skinny. got rid last year after just 4 calves, would give them a miss in future

 

[oilymuck]

Best suckler cow we ever had was a Brown Swiss x Lim
Quiet calved herself and always reared a good shaped calf

 

[Rogstores]

Pro cross , depends wat u feed them for starters , we bucket rear a lot of the calves of these sort of cows , the Norwegian is for the health traits, tried Swedish and Viking but the Norwegian is best , the calves grow like weeds but start of tiny , the more you get away from the Holstein the better the calves do , I’d imagine if u kept the concentrates away from them they would be fine , they can be bred to give 40 litres plus ,

 

[Davy_g]

I should think the first cross heifers out of these cows to a beef bull would be a serious cow. I suspect the longevity of the dairy cow and the fleshing ability of their calves will mean you wont keep them as long as your usual suckler cow. If i was starting up and they were the right price I would take a chance.
Other than that just fire some monty sexed onto your continental suckler cows to breed replacements?

 

[Rook]

Is this still a question in anyone's mind? I actually think this is a brilliant idea for a number of reasons. Counting the Norwegian Red effectively like a viking red, which you basically can in the procross, and is probably slightly more beefy, a suckler farmer has the option to literally breed quality dairy heifers or beef bulls or heifers.

Something that every beef man and most dairy men seem to forget or not know, is that dairy stock, being heavily selected for longevity, mastitis resistance, other diseases resistances (especially nordic reds but montbeliardes also excel here) and calf survival, means that the dairy line adds a whole lot of survival percentage to the calves. You will genuinely see more calves make it to desired age.

We use norwegian red x montbeliarde x holstein. Have tried them all. They last well, no doubt. They milk extremely well and have incredible fertility and I'd imagine with all the emphasis on genomic breeding value improvements, they are probably better calvers than your beef cows. Montbeliardes are great at getting big calves out in particular. It could be efficacious to throw a fleckvieh into that mix somewhere too, because you still have a breed where the immune system is being considered, which you don't with ANY beef breed to my knowledge.

Oh and if you have too much milk for the calf, which is possible, throw another one on. And to some asking about meal to keep flesh, my experience with norwegian red x holstein crosses is that they maintain adequate flesh very well. They do not require the level of concentrate input that the holstein does. Breed them for higher beef value which you can do, breed them shorter, breed them with milk, breed them with longevity and health traits, and forget about conformation except udders if you are going to sell dairy heifers. It's profit, profit, profit you are after, and a healthy animal can deliver that.