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[kfacres]

the swiss milk.. they just don't rebreed on a "timely" fashion....  They don't quite milk like a 'stein... but honestly, I bet the average daily production= over the entire lactation will smoke a hol...  I bet they have a 10 lb difference from high to low, over a 20 month lactation.. instead of a holstein who peaks at 130 lb, and right before drying off is only giving 60. 

 

[hamburgman]

Do dairy cows even know how to mother a calf anymore? Not really a trait that is required in them.

BS I bet those heifers would have been able to raise a ET calf, milk would not have been a problem for the calf.

They will, may not be the best mothers, but I also can't say I have seen one try to kill her calf either.  My experience is limited though.

 

[hamburgman]

Plenty of work has been done on putting embryos in hard breeding holsteins, and it works.  The reproduction problems aren't because the uterus won't accept a fertilized embryo it's a variety of other factors.  Heard some dairies in Florida were actually working on going to all ET work during summer months, or a large % ET work.  It could have just been second hand rumors however.

 

[kfacres]

BS I bet those heifers would have been able to raise a ET calf, milk would not have been a problem for the calf.

We ended up keeping one of the best of the Red Angus x Milking Shorthorn heifers for a cow in our beef herd- to try her out and see what happens.  I think she'll work-- she's a fall that got turned in with the bull a few months ago now.  I sold several of these heifers to locals- and I think the oldest are due to start calving this spring- so we'll see what happens.  Our calves from the Red Angus bull are limited from now on- as we sold him in October as a 5 year old.  Here's a picture of the daughter we kept- photo taken this summer, never been fed grain; has run with our beef heifer calves all her life.  The next two pictures are of the Red Angus bull- also taken this summer; and the fourth picture is the Milking Shorthorn dam of the heifer I pictured in this post, and the last photo is a straight beef daughter of the Red Angus bull.  We have a few straws collected on the Red Angus use- saving them for our beef heifers in the future-- and when Bill from Interglobe was down-- he was throughly impressed with the RA bull.  Thought he was one of the coolest looking RA bulls- he'd ever collected.

Do you think this heifer would work for anything?

 

[Mueller Show Cattle]

Can't you usually find Jerseys even cheaper than than Holstein cattle? I had heard that the Jerseys tend to get docked at sales do to the yellow fat compared to white fat of Holsteins, don't know if this is true for heifers or breeding stock as I heard that for cattle heading to feed yards or slaughter houses. I would care less what color fat they have as they would just be recips for me. Would a Jersey tend to be able to have as large of a calf as a Holstein? I know a guy down the road from me that has 2 Holstein cows that he uses as recips and they are able to have large calves. With me breeding club calves, they would have to be able to have 100lb calves, of course when they are mature not 1st calf heifers. The guy down the street had 2 calves on one of his Holstein cows and both of them calves grew fast.

 

[RankeCattleCo]

The guy down the street had 2 calves on one of his Holstein cows and both of them calves grew fast.

That's what I figured so we'll pry do that.

 

[Mueller Show Cattle]

The guy down the street had 2 calves on one of his Holstein cows and both of them calves grew fast.

That's what I figured so we'll pry do that.

The Holstein Cow had an ET calf and then he had a cow go down that had a heifer calf, so he put that Holstein cow and her calf in a pen with the other heifer calf and shackled her legs at first to let that heifer calf suck after 2 days in a pen with that heifer calf, she took that heifer calf as her own also and produced more than enough milk for both calves.

 

[kfacres]

Can't you usually find Jerseys even cheaper than than Holstein cattle? I had heard that the Jerseys tend to get docked at sales do to the yellow fat compared to white fat of Holsteins, don't know if this is true for heifers or breeding stock as I heard that for cattle heading to feed yards or slaughter houses. I would care less what color fat they have as they would just be recips for me. Would a Jersey tend to be able to have as large of a calf as a Holstein? I know a guy down the road from me that has 2 Holstein cows that he uses as recips and they are able to have large calves. With me breeding club calves, they would have to be able to have 100lb calves, of course when they are mature not 1st calf heifers. The guy down the street had 2 calves on one of his Holstein cows and both of them calves grew fast.

About 10 years ago, we covered all our cows with a Holstein bull--  At that time, I'd guess about 2/3 of them were very high % Jersey...  I'd guess less than half of them were assisted at birth...  Get a good, mature Jersey-- and I don't suspect many problems should arise...

I'm going to say- that there won't be many Hol, Jersey, or dairy heifers in general attending local auctions...  Unless they are free martins...

 

[oakie]

Would jerseys be a better solution, due to their higher %age milk fat?

 

[kfacres]

Would jerseys be a better solution, due to their higher %age milk fat?

I don't think it matters.. any way you look at it, they're going to smoke a beef cow.  I've always been told that the actual % of Milkfat, is directly correlated to the IMF in an animal...  So that would give you an idea of what kind of BF a beef cow is producing. 

If you want BF, take that calf off and raise it on a goat..  Much higher, and more digestible BF.