cow family

[lewscrew]

what are some of the best cow families to start a 20 cow club calf herd with?

 

[kfacres]

angus, maine, or Sim.  I'd say just any ole basic commercial cow of the three that would start.  Anything that doesn't have any "clubby" is the ONLY way to go. 

 

[Bradenh]

i agree. just get some get sound maine cows and stay off of the clubbys. theres plenty of bulls that can put the clubby in them. but not many that can put the soundness in them

 

[HAB]

I am being biased here.  Have a commercial herd of Galloway or Galloway cross.  They will be sound, last for years, won't eat you out of house and home, cross well with everything, and yes they will obviously give you some hair.  You can use whatever bull you want, because you will know what your base will do.  The calves that don't make clubby, will make great feeders.

HAB

 

[kfacres]

I am being biased here.  Have a commercial herd of Galloway or Galloway cross.  They will be sound, last for years, won't eat you out of house and home, cross well with everything, and yes they will obviously give you some hair.  You can use whatever bull you want, because you will know what your base will do.  The calves that don't make clubby, will make great feeders.

HAB

ditto that.. If you are like I sometimes do, and think outside the box.. this is a way to go.  

My question though, of which I suspect you can answer.. how do the galloway cattle reflect to calving ease of the clubbier oriented bulls?  I mean, what are Gallo?  4-5 frame?  BW 70-80's?  Would you want to wait until a cow is mature (4+) to breed her clubby?  Question, questions, questions????  How about color, do you have blacks, reds, or belted?  Would you get something colored like Tiger Woods from a Gallo?

 

[HAB]

I am being biased here.  Have a commercial herd of Galloway or Galloway cross.  They will be sound, last for years, won't eat you out of house and home, cross well with everything, and yes they will obviously give you some hair.  You can use whatever bull you want, because you will know what your base will do.  The calves that don't make clubby, will make great feeders.

HAB

ditto that.. If you are like I sometimes do, and think outside the box.. this is a way to go.  

My question though, of which I suspect you can answer.. how do the galloway cattle reflect to calving ease of the clubbier oriented bulls?  I mean, what are Gallo?  4-5 frame?  BW 70-80's?  Would you want to wait until a cow is mature (4+) to breed her clubby?  Question, questions, questions????  How about color, do you have blacks, reds, or belted?  Would you get something colored like Tiger Woods from a Gallo?

I myself have not bred with clubby bulls.  However, many people have, most just don't admit it ;D.
The Galloway cow will control some of the birthweight, and shape of the calf at birth.  Most Galloway cows have large pelvic areas, and can handle good sized calves.  I think you could breed them clubby for their 2nd calf without problem.  Galloways will gain on just about anything, so getting the cows overfat could be an issue for calving.  I have mostly blacks, with a few reds, and duns (smokes).  Some blacks are red carriers, but you will not get a belt or a white one out of solid blacks fullblood Galloways.  The belteds and the whites are in completely different herdbooks.  If you have more questions, shoot.  I have raised them for 28 years.

HAB

 

[oakie]

I was told that it is harder to stick a clubby/maine cow than it is to stick a more conventional crossbred female (simmental angus x is what we use).  We use that breed mixture and have had good success with AI. A friend of mine who breeds my cows had horrible stick rates on his maine females a few years and we had a 100% stick rate. That is what we based our decisions on, also not many feedlots want a maine anjou calf, so you probably don't want to risk not having a place to send a "dink".

 

[LostFarmer]

My grandpa used to say about Arabian horses.  Not many people didn't like a little Arabian blood but not many liked much.  I sometimes think that the Chi and Maine is the same.  A little to clean up the front and square up the pins but not so much you have to deal with the hard keeping hard breeding side of it all. 

If I were to try and build a base to breed clubbies off of I would start with a good commercial cow of  angusxsimmi breeding.  I would then breed her to one of these bulls.  http://www.cattlevisions.com/Composite/ChainReaction.php or http://www.cattlevisions.com/Simmental/Backlash.php  The females out of this cross would be my club mamas of the future.  The steers should make good calves for most shows but the heifers should make some super functional and clean genetically clubby mama's.  At that point you could get crazy and put any of the Heatwave, Monopoly, Char. type clubby bulls over them.  The calves should work in a feedlot or the show ring.