Sussex Cattle.

[CopperBeech]

Right, theoretical question time. . . . If someone gave you a herd of pedigree sussex cattle, which were tb restricted, so progeny had to be finished, and only had access to semi improved permanent pasture and rough grazing. Also had sheds.

They wanted you to improve the time to slaughter and carcass, from a starting point of breeding them pure.

What sire would you use? And how would you run them?

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Keep them pure if you find the right bull.
Or could use a Limousin.
Many of the "modern" Sussex have some Limousin blood in them.

 

[GTB]

High index polled Hereford bull. Spring calving herd, housed over the winter, turned out to calve in April/May. Progeny finished on grass at 24 to 30 months. You could push them to finish sooner but native cattle need time to grow, and once mature they will finish on grass only at low cost.

 

[CopperBeech]

Ok, current issue is - purse take too long to finish and don't have a great carcass and with tb, can't sell breeding stock so its a waste really. Want to keep sussex cows as base. Was thinking easy calving continental. Why hereford Dai?

 

[caveman]

Trouble with staying pure is the larger amount of the national herd would have a good deal of their blood from a narrow selection of breeders who pass bulls round and round.
Get out of the loop.
A good dark red Salers...... from the same roots way back.
They will improve the pasture themselves if management is right.

 

[CopperBeech]

Yep, we will be using them alongside sheep to improve the grazing. We were leaning toward a fast growing, leaner, easy calving continental?

 

[caveman]

Chandler and Dunn may have some off the wall blood.
Nearly bought a polled Salers x Sussex bull off them once. Wished I had now.

 

[MJT]

Don't think you could go wrong with a good growthy limo . Put some size and shape into the calves , be nice and easy calving and wouldn't take a lot of finishing .

 

[choochter]

I've no experience of Sussex cattle other than what I've seen on here, and they seem good cattle, and I would think that a Bazadaise bull would give a good cross calf that, steers or heifers, would finish in under 21 months

 

[Sussex Martin]

Simmental produce some cracking cross bred calves that should finish well.

 

[S J H]

A good Angus? Or continental if you can feed concentrates.

 

[caveman]

Guess the OP is looking to retain a few heifers for the herd. That's why I would go Salers then back to Sussex on them.

 

[CopperBeech]

Could retain some, but some kind of HLS agreement or something means its got to be mainly sussex cows.

 

[GTB]

Ok, current issue is - purse take too long to finish and don't have a great carcass and with tb, can't sell breeding stock so its a waste really. Want to keep sussex cows as base. Was thinking easy calving continental. Why hereford Dai?

Was thinking low cost (but slower) finishing and possibly a bit of bonus for native breed beef.

As for continentals, my thoughts would be...

Lim. Heifers would get too fat at low weights? But are easy calving and easy fleshing. Not sure about the temperament when crossed with a Sussex though...

Char. Great growth but will need lots of feed to finish.

British Blue. Excellent shape but don't grow very big or fast especially out of native cows. Can be hard to finish but might not be crossed with a Sussex?

Pretty much all of the above will be easy calving these days with the right management i.e. keep the cows lean pre calving.

 

[Keepers]

So progeny needs to be faster finishing than currently and also of slightly better conformation

However I would worry about how a char/lim would calve over a sussex? what would be an easy calving alternative, bazadaze? or something similar like a finer boned continental?

 

[Wooly]

Not really what grass fed Sussex cattle are designed for, but you can Creep feed the calves, wean them at 10 months and put them on add lib concentrates.

Hopefully finished then at a sensible weight at 15 months old.

 

[GTB]

So progeny needs to be faster finishing than currently and also of slightly better confirmation

However I would worry about how a char/lim would calve over a sussex? what would be an easy calving alternative, bazadaze? or something similar like a finer boned continental?

Blues are easy calving generally because they have a shorter gestation and a lower birth weight. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule Never had any experience of Sussex cows so I don't know how they would calve tbh.

 

[Keepers]

Blues are easy calving generally because they have a shorter gestation and a lower birth weight. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule Never had any experience of Sussex cows so I don't know how they would calve tbh.

I do like Blues, have always fancied them if I was to sell as stores

 

[Keepers]

Blues are easy calving generally because they have a shorter gestation and a lower birth weight. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule Never had any experience of Sussex cows so I don't know how they would calve tbh.

However what would be the average blue cross finishing age? are they not relatively steady on growth?

 

[GTB]

When we had Blue bulls on Lim x cows we'd get them fat by 18 to 24 months ish. Heifers would be about 520kg live 320kg dead. Steers 600kg live 360 dead. Not pushed until they had grown a bit of frame though.