Which breed of stock bull?

FarmerDanny1989

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
Interested to know people’s opinions on which breed of stock bull they use and why? What they put them over, there kill out grade and %. Iv currently 4 lims, 2 blue, 2 Charolais, 1 shorthorn, but I’m finding my lims to wild even tho there hand bedded daily, so looking to change breed. I’m thinking blonde but open to other people’s opinions.
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
Interested to know people’s opinions on which breed of stock bull they use and why? What they put them over, there kill out grade and %. Iv currently 4 lims, 2 blue, 2 Charolais, 1 shorthorn, but I’m finding my lims to wild even tho there hand bedded daily, so looking to change breed. I’m thinking blonde but open to other people’s opinions.
It’s a pity about the lims being more jumpy because other than that they are the perfect animal. Do you find the charalais much harder calving?
 

Wolds Beef

Member
@FarmerDanny1989 Why not try a Lincoln Red or 2 I see you only have 1 native at the moment. Lincoln's are docile easy feeding easy handling animals and it just so happens there spring sale is at Melton Mowbray tomorrow. Auctionmart.com will screen it live. Many farm shops and box schemes use Lincoln Red as there meat is noted for its marbling and its flavour. Contact the society if you want to know more about grades and killing out percentage. The modern Lincoln Red has a small amount of Continental blood in it but the society has always been honest about what they have used.
WB
 

FarmerDanny1989

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
It’s a pity about the lims being more jumpy because other than that they are the perfect animal. Do you find the charalais much harder calving?
They are I think I’ll keep 1 but I won’t be replacing any Iv only ever had to cull lim bulls for there temperament and umpteen cows/heifers just can’t take the risk. My Charolais bulls seem very easy calving hardly pulled any, actually pulled more lims last year, but I mainly put them over the blue cows and 3rd + Calvers.
 

FarmerDanny1989

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
I would not go blonde if better temper is what your after,we left blonde for blue purely for that reason.our blue fat cattle you can just wander around them and even have to push them out of the way to get though the blondes would have been in a pile down the bottom of the yard or trying to kill you!
How long ago was this?
 
I used to run four blondes and loved the easy calving (mostly) and how they got up and sucked, they went on mainly black Hereford cows with a few continentals thrown in. However two things I would point out, ime, firstly your calves will not be quieter than the lims and second they won't stamp your calves with a dominant colour, that depends on wether it matters to you though. Do you sell fat or in the stores?
My bulls all had good temperaments and would lie in the yards with the cows and I bedded up by hand.
 

Treecreeper

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'm bias towards Lims, but saying that I would choose a bull depending on type of cow. eg charolais on Hereford x or Lim on bbx cows.
Have the best of both worlds, use a lim/bb x bull
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
They are I think I’ll keep 1 but I won’t be replacing any Iv only ever had to cull lim bulls for there temperament and umpteen cows/heifers just can’t take the risk. My Charolais bulls seem very easy calving hardly pulled any, actually pulled more lims last year, but I mainly put them over the blue cows and 3rd + Calvers.
We have got 2 salers 4 lims and 2 charalais. We like the charalais the best and I think we will have more of them in future now we are getting more saler blood in the cows and less dairy influence. But as you say we put the charalais on older cows but not entirely sure I’d be happy with all charalais from second calvers. We won’t have anything else but a saler on the heifers the trouble we’re having is calving 2 year old heifers to a saler and bulling saler females is that we have to change bulls so often
 

Cowslip

Member
Mixed Farmer
We run south Devon cows. Sd crossed with saler cows and sd crossed with lims. Saler bull on heifers 2 south Devon bulls for breeding replacements and 3 limousins. All cattle are quiet we sell all Youngstock as stores straight of the cow around 8 months old no creep feed. Top the market and have repeat buyers. Cows grass fed only maybe a bit of South devon blood in your cows would help to quiten things down.
 

FarmerDanny1989

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
We have got 2 salers 4 lims and 2 charalais. We like the charalais the best and I think we will have more of them in future now we are getting more saler blood in the cows and less dairy influence. But as you say we put the charalais on older cows but not entirely sure I’d be happy with all charalais from second calvers. We won’t have anything else but a saler on the heifers the trouble we’re having is calving 2 year old heifers to a saler and bulling saler females is that we have to change bulls so often
How do you find your salers? Wouldn’t mind trying them Iv heard there very good mothers but can be wild?
 

FarmerDanny1989

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
We run south Devon cows. Sd crossed with saler cows and sd crossed with lims. Saler bull on heifers 2 south Devon bulls for breeding replacements and 3 limousins. All cattle are quiet we sell all Youngstock as stores straight of the cow around 8 months old no creep feed. Top the market and have repeat buyers. Cows grass fed only maybe a bit of South devon blood in your cows would help to quiten things down.
How do you find the SD? Do you know if they finish well? I sell roughly 50% of mine live @ 10/11 months rest I finish 16-20 months.
 

Cornish bob

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cornwall
Both breeders that they came from have given up the breed,as for blood lines I can't remember all the stock bulls were very quiet and easy to handle it was just the young stock were the problem and that was on Simmentals! The only thing I did notice was the redder the bull the easier fleshing the calves were
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
I would not go blonde if better temper is what your after,we left blonde for blue purely for that reason.our blue fat cattle you can just wander around them and even have to push them out of the way to get though the blondes would have been in a pile down the bottom of the yard or trying to kill you!
I have had two Blonde bulls (Druk herd) and they were the quiet, especially the second one I had, he was the quietest bull you would ever meet.
 

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