Honest opinion

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STEERJOCK21L

Active member
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
41
You guys know what your talkiing about,so i want your opinion. We have a dark red rock star calf. He is one of the best calves we have ever raised. We are looking at our options. I know that  a great the promotional bulls come few and far between.But he,s pretty good,the only promblem is that his dam is a pureblood gelbvieh cow. So alot of people wouldn't use him because of hair. But I was thinking that the gelbvieh influence would make really good cows after the show ring. So what do you all think,would you breed cows to a bull like that?
 

knabe

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
13,639
Location
Hollister, CA
ask the owners of TURK.  he's out of a national champion braunvieh cow i think, by and wild turkey by irish whiskey.
http://www.thornecattle.com/turk.htm

a guy up the road from me has gelbvieh cross cows.  has 300 of them.  moderate frame, decent milk, and they don't get babied, believe me, not with our grass, or, uh, lack of it.  i'm thinking hair doesn't matter to him. if he's a great promotional bull, he will have performance records that shine, or lots of winning calf pics in a grid pattern ad.  why isn't he the bet calf you raised, and if he's not the best, how did you market those other calves?  why do you need a great promotional bull?  wouldn't you rather sell one, rather than be saddled with one?  keep some semen and send him.  then you don't have to start another marketing department. 
 

Ruchian

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
465
Location
Oregon
If he is that nice of a calf he would eventually catch on.  It might be hard to get much interest at first, but after he produced enough winners and good replacement heifers people would probably get more interested.  If bred to the right cow and worked with enough you can get some of the hair that you would lose because of the breed.  Also if you could get enough for him then it might be better to sell him and keep so semen like knabe said.
 

Ruchian

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
465
Location
Oregon
Also, I don't know if it is a nation wide thing or not but I have been hearing more about Gelbvieh cattle.  More people are going to Gelbvieh influenced cows because of the meat quality.
 

CAB

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
5,607
Location
Corning,Iowa
   Can you post a pic? I have bred to some Gelbveih bulls in the past and they do tend to take hair off of cattle, but not everyone is wasting time breeding for hair. The cattle are pretty complete in general and do cross well with many breeds. Saying that , I think it would be a hard sell as a promotional bull because Rock Star himself is just getting statrted and there are so many bulls and great promoters out there pushing way too many bulls. Do you have any experience promoting bulls? Some promoters are taking on bulls to promote for a percentage of the take. Usually from 25 to 33 % of the sales. If you can get the right guys, that may be an option for you. I personally do have 1 F-1 hf this year and am planning on trying to mate her back to a Thc SH to try to get hair & bone back on the offspring,( I know that should show some of you how crazy I really am), but I am just waiting to get that 1st calf out of the way to do it. The Gelbveih's do make good mamma's and marble well. They are a tick dirty fronted for the club world in general. I'll be waiting to hopefully see a pic. Good Luck, Cab
 

shortyisqueen

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
313
Location
Alberta, Canada
Gelbvieh hair is TERRIBLE. That said, if you are worried about people not liking his hair, promote him as a slick shear bull - where he doesn't need hair. There are more and more of these shows appearing, so tailor your marketing to the market.
 

shortyisqueen

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
313
Location
Alberta, Canada
As a side note, the main bull we A.I. to for siring steers doesn't leave much hair, but he calves like a dream, meaning we can raise show calves out of first calf heifers. His calves are still highly marketable and FULL of muscle - and they get themselves sold. I love it when I've got something with it, but there are more important things than hair.  :D
 

OH Breeder

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 14, 2007
Messages
5,954
Location
Ada, Ohio
The Gelbvieh wouldn't bother me as much, but I would want to make sure he was sound etc. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Post one if you have one.
 
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