Suckler cow breed

[Weasel]

Easy enough.. quick and efficiently .. there not as bad as people seem to think.. they work perfect for us.. and they leave a lot better margin than the old welsh black x lims or hrfords we used to keep..

Fair play, what bull do you put them to?

 

[Jones24]

Char now for store market.. saler on the best for replacements

 

[egbert]

How do they get on with Welsh blacks?

The near one is a bit haphazard, so i'd best not say.
Others...one runs up agin my galloways on the common, crosses some to limo, feeds yougsters well once back off hill, and sells very good stock.

they fall twixt 2 camps for me though.
My Galloways live on the poorest ground and keep -or thats the idea, DEFRA get in the way now.
The SDs have the best of it - although thats pretty moderate.

If I were to run summat between them, I'd go SDx gal to a terminal sire, or maybe pure mid sized AA
but the extra management would never give a return under current values

 

[Weasel]

Char now for store market.. saler on the best for replacements

Can see how that works

 

[Jones24]

Can see how that works

If cows get to big can alwise x the galloway back on them to keep size down.. very easy calving the saler with good udders and quick suckling calfs..

 

[Weasel]

If cows get to big can alwise x the galloway back on them to keep size down.. very easy calving the saler with good udders and quick suckling calfs..

You've got me intrigued now

 

[Weasel]

If cows get to big can alwise x the galloway back on them to keep size down.. very easy calving the saler with good udders and quick suckling calfs..

Have you any pictures of these cows?

 

[Jones24]

You've got me intrigued now

Depends a lot on your ground.. what works for some dont for others.. i alwise think that with sucklers its not how much inputs costs but how much you dont spend on them..

 

[egbert]

My neighbour runs pure South Devon cows. Two or three Summers back I remember thinking that I had never seen anyone run suckler cows barer of grass than he was that year. I mean bare - to the boards.

These cows made a fantastic job of their calves and somehow got back in calf again. I'd seriously doubt that Hereford cross cows of any type could have matched that performance on such little grass.

His best ever calves were got by either a Simmental or Limousin bull. The cows left good calves to either breed.

It deffo can be done.
While they will deliver phenomenal performance on heavy ground/better feed, they'll also rough it perfectly well.
I'm feeding one mob of 20 on a round bale a day, with bare rough around them to pick over. All looking happy.
The only thing to watch is if a younger cow or two is getting pushed back. They survive perfectly well, but won't have the condition to milk well.
They never have much grass in front of them, living year round in the same valley.
Their main task is to stop the steep/rocky ground being engulfed. I could keep less, better...but then they'd not be pushing the trash back.

The replacement hfrs 18-22 months, are on off ground, (much lower). 8 of them on about 10 acres, eating about 1 1/2 bales a week, and growing well.

 

[Weasel]

Depends a lot on your ground.. what works for some dont for others.. i alwise think that with sucklers its not how much inputs costs but how much you dont spend on them..

Totally agree. At the moment we have bluegreys, past couple of years I've put on some SimLuings.
The bluegreys don't cost much to keep

 

[Jones24]

Have you any pictures of these cows?

Go to livestock for sale on this fourm and 3rd page Zero homes has some for sale and pictures..

 

[Weasel]

Go to livestock for sale on this fourm and 3rd page Zero homes has some for sale and pictures..

They'd make cracking hill cows

 

[Roy_H]

Saler x Galloway? How do you manage to tag their calf's?

Like this probably!

 

[Stevt]

On here it's always the Hereford's fault LOL! Never what they're crossed with...

I wasn’t blaming the Hereford I’m sure you all know where the problem lies in extreme dairy genetics.

 

[Stevt]

S Devon will eat twice as much as a Hereford X.

Perhaps you need to be sourcing your Hr X replacements from a grazing dairy herd who won't have Holstein type cows

They can eat there fair share. I guess ten years ago they would be bred differently and eat a lot less. 10 cows will see a heavy round bale of silage a day quite happily.

 

[betweenthelines]

My neighbour runs pure South Devon cows. Two or three Summers back I remember thinking that I had never seen anyone run suckler cows barer of grass than he was that year. I mean bare - to the boards.

These cows made a fantastic job of their calves and somehow got back in calf again. I'd seriously doubt that Hereford cross cows of any type could have matched that performance on such little grass.

His best ever calves were got by either a Simmental or Limousin bull. The cows left good calves to either breed.

Hereford x will be 100-200kg lighter than S Devons ergo have lower maintenance requirements.

 

[CharcoalWally]

Hereford x will be 100-200kg lighter than S Devons ergo have lower maintenance requirements.

I ran Hereford X Friesian cows years ago. Then I started bringing Simmentals in against them. Spring calving cows were in individual calving pens and were fed twice a day by me.

At evening feeds, the Hereford X cows had always finished their silage from the morning feed and were looking for more.

The Simmentals were usually lying over the calf chewing the cud . Often, they hadn't even finished the morning feed and weren't looking for any more.

The Hereford cows were always smaller.

 

[Whitepeak]

A lot of people blame the Holstein for the ruination of the first cross suckler cow but i wouldn’t necessarily blame the breed, more how the system of how they are produced has changed. Back in the day when everyone remembers how great HerXFri cows were, how were they produced? Probably by running a batch of friesian heifers with a Hereford bull. Now how are they produced? By putting a beef bull on the bottom end of cows, ie the cows that have been lame, had mastitis or won’t go in calf first service, the heifers and better cows have all been served with sexed dairy semen. Is it any wonder that the beef cross heifers aren’t much good when their mothers weren’t good enough to breed a dairy replacement?!

 

[tr250]

A lot of people blame the Holstein for the ruination of the first cross suckler cow but i wouldn’t necessarily blame the breed, more how the system of how they are produced has changed. Back in the day when everyone remembers how great HerXFri cows were, how were they produced? Probably by running a batch of friesian heifers with a Hereford bull. Now how are they produced? By putting a beef bull on the bottom end of cows, ie the cows that have been lame, had mastitis or won’t go in calf first service, the heifers and better cows have all been served with sexed dairy semen. Is it any wonder that the beef cross heifers aren’t much good when their mothers weren’t good enough to breed a dairy replacement?!

Spot on

 

[CharcoalWally]

If there's any beef breed that can do anything positive with the Holstein, then you'd have thought it could be the Hereford.

It would stand a chance of at least giving a touch of fat cover to make a suckler cow, (when the Holstein has none ) , and it would hopefully help to reduce the stupid oversupply of milk at calving.

But the OP 's cows seem to be bred this way ...... ?