which beef breed

tedandbetty

a friend of mine has a couple of acres and he wants to get a couple of suckler cows, as these will be the only ones he will have he wants someting "special" ie something he can be proud of and will look nice around his house.
i suggested that he get a couple of pedigree in calf heifers and go from there.
he loved that idea. as he has housing he can winter them no problem.

we are looking at different breeds at the moment but we are wondering what people would recommend.

requirement are something liek this.

a beef breed
demand for off spring (bulls and heifers)
quite/doscile breed
looks "good" in the field
easy calving

your comment would be appreciated

Ginja Ninja

I'd have to recommend belgian blues,the take a bit more husbandry than some breeds,but if this is only a small hobby type thing then he should be grand.They've been described as the "arnold schwartzenegger" of the animal world and tend to be very docile and easy going as a breed.Also,there's is always a mraket for bulls/heifers and are one of the higher demand beef breeds at the moment,for export

levallat

I like the Herefords myself, don't know anything about the Belgians but Herefords are easy to feed and very docile and theres allways a market for a nice pedigree animal.

irish_bob

sounds like your friend is looking for a hobby so i would say either angus or hereford and i would lean towards hereford as they are quiter , belgian blue are a breed that needs better quality feed in order to take full advantage of thier potential and this doesnt sound like an intensive operation

Sam Kade

Shorthorn wouldn't be bad either like herefords they are easily managed hardy cattle. Angus cows crossed with a shorthorn bull they will grow faster than pure hereford, shorthorn or angus. If you want to get a blue roan colour in calves use a white shorthorn bull on angus cows using a red shortholrn bull will give you black calves.

leg wax

everyone has their favorite breed my suggestion is bring your friend to the ploughing champs in athy all the beef breeds will be on display and there will be plenty of people to talk to, also he might have a full trailer going home, also get this weeks farmers journal all different breeds are in it

JohnBoy

if it's just to look nice around the house then I think a few charolais' are hard to beat myself, but really it's down to personal preference.

kfk

For me it would have to be Hereford. Was thinking about buying a few for breeding.

DanFindy

Sam Kade wrote: »

Shorthorn wouldn't be bad either like herefords they are easily managed hardy cattle. Angus cows crossed with a shorthorn bull they will grow faster than pure hereford, shorthorn or angus. If you want to get a blue roan colour in calves use a white shorthorn bull on angus cows using a red shortholrn bull will give you black calves.

I fully agree

tedandbetty

thanks for all your reply's
here are my thoughts on your suggestion

belgian blue - lovely looking cattle but i am informed that they often require a c-section at birth which would be a bit of a problem.

herdford - nice cattle but are they not that going out of fashion in recent year - how easy is it to sell a bull or heifer?

Angus - one of my personal favouate but the guy nest door has a pedigree herd and he does not want to get in a competition...

Charlaois - very nice cattle but whats the market like for the off spring?

Shorthorn - interesting choice, but whats the market like for shorthen bull?



was reading this weeks farmers journal and there is a great spread on the different breeds - personally i am very interested in some of the new continental breeds - any view on some of these guys?

Rujib1

I think you should consider a connemara filly / mare for breeding.

The market pricewise has absolutely collapsed. You could buy into the very best breeding at very reasonable cost right now.

In a couple of years there will most likely be a very good pick up in values.

Would look good around the house also, and a lot less paperwork and inspection BS.

Just a thought. I'm a charolais cattle man myself, but I am planning to invest as I have said above in the next few months.

R1

Cran

as someone with a passing interest in cattle, and considering getting back into a few always think Simmental or Limousin look best in a field. personally think Simmental would prob suit him best as limos slightly mad!

leg wax

was reading this weeks farmers journal and there is a great spread on the different breeds - personally i am very interested in some of the new continental breeds - any view on some of these guys?

i think first of all you have to get in order which is more important, looks good , easy calving, make money as being able to sell in the spring or give them away. the new breeds of cattle as blonde,parthensise,piemontese,aubrac are great breeds of cattle but ireland is still not ready for them and sale value for their ospring is limited as you can see from other posters they are staying with the old style of cattle, until there is big volumes of cross bred weanlings from these breeds comeing out in sales and makeing money to match the blues and top lim and char the new breeds will take a long time to take off, the blues are easy to calve the vet does it!!!!

irish_bob

whatever you do op , stay away from saler,s , they are cracked , make limousins look like lambs , hereford has increased in popularity in the last few years again , dairy farmers especially like the breed for cleaning up with their cows as they are easy calving , produce a decent calf and they are very quiet

curious guy

we have Pietmontese ourselves..like lambs and great cross with charlois..no probs calving as they are not born with the muscle it just develops..cool looking aawell in my opinoin

tedandbetty

thanks for your views guys,
we are off to the ploughing match this week and will check out the breeds there.
at the moment we are consider either
Herdford out of the traditional breed
Carlaois out of the "tradition" continental
or maybe one of the new european beeeds
such as Aubrac or one of those.

any one know what the market for charlois or herdford was like this year?

sobs

Just a word of warning. a neighbour of mine bought some partanaise cattle a couple of years back. He planned on breeding them and selling the bulls to dairy farmers as he thought they would be an easy calving breed. Anyway the first of his partanaise cows need a section and most after that needed assistance from the vet. There has been about 4 sections done since he got these cattle. I would be very wary of some european breeds. Think I would stick with a proven breed.

irish_bob

tedandbetty wrote: »

thanks for your views guys,
we are off to the ploughing match this week and will check out the breeds there.
at the moment we are consider either
Herdford out of the traditional breed
Carlaois out of the "tradition" continental
or maybe one of the new european beeeds
such as Aubrac or one of those.

any one know what the market for charlois or herdford was like this year?

i know someone who bred aubracs for a year , they didnt go back the second year , small and extremley wild , not as mad as saler,s but mad yokes none the less , chaorlaois has more potential for growth than any breed but you must feed them intensivley to achieve this , hereford are much lower maintenance but are the best of cattle and are the most docile aswell , chaorolais are quite too but not as gentle as the whitehead

leg wax

sobs wrote: »

Just a word of warning. a neighbour of mine bought some partanaise cattle a couple of years back. He planned on breeding them and selling the bulls to dairy farmers as he thought they would be an easy calving breed. Anyway the first of his partanaise cows need a section and most after that needed assistance from the vet. There has been about 4 sections done since he got these cattle. I would be very wary of some european breeds. Think I would stick with a proven breed.

before i would blame the breed i would look into the management pre calving

reilig

sobs wrote: »

Just a word of warning. a neighbour of mine bought some partanaise cattle a couple of years back. He planned on breeding them and selling the bulls to dairy farmers as he thought they would be an easy calving breed. Anyway the first of his partanaise cows need a section and most after that needed assistance from the vet. There has been about 4 sections done since he got these cattle. I would be very wary of some european breeds. Think I would stick with a proven breed.

I find that a lot of sections that farmers have to have done are due to the feeding of the animal. You will find that a lot more sections have to be done on pedigree cows as opposed to ordinary cows because the farmer treats his pedigree cow a lot better by giving her the best silage and meal etc.

By right a cow should be fed enough before she goes in calf. She should not need feeding like meal or really good quality while she is in calf - because instead of putting it on her back, she will put it into the calf and this increases the chances of having to have a section done.

Incalf cows should be restricted to the amount of silage that they receive for at least 3 months before they calve.

Saves an awful lot on the vet bills and reduces the mortality rate when you have small hardy calves as opposed to big soft ones.

Of course there will always be the 1 in 100 case where there is a problem and a section has to be done.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

I find that a lot of sections that farmers have to have done are due to the feeding of the animal. You will find that a lot more sections have to be done on pedigree cows as opposed to ordinary cows because the farmer treats his pedigree cow a lot better by giving her the best silage and meal etc.

By right a cow should be fed enough before she goes in calf. She should not need feeding like meal or really good quality while she is in calf - because instead of putting it on her back, she will put it into the calf and this increases the chances of having to have a section done.

Incalf cows should be restricted to the amount of silage that they receive for at least 3 months before they calve.

Saves an awful lot on the vet bills and reduces the mortality rate when you have small hardy calves as opposed to big soft ones.

Of course there will always be the 1 in 100 case where there is a problem and a section has to be done.[/QU
good point..spoke to man who is a serious charolais breeder before when enquiring about a bull and he teld me his cows come off silage a month or two befor calving, hay only, he couldnt manage the calves other wise.

Rujib1

Feeding rolled oats with either silage or hay is supposed to help keep the calf tight and handy.
I allways feed rolled oats to springers and any cow I would have in calf to a bull with low rating for ease of calving.

robototitico

Click on "Breed Percentiles" to see stats on calving difficulty, docility etc.

http://www.icbf.com/services/evaluations/beef.php

By the way, what do you guys think of these kind of stats? Do you value them, or rely more on your own experience?

Bitten & Hisses

robototitico wrote: »

Click on "Breed Percentiles" to see stats on calving difficulty, docility etc.

http://www.icbf.com/services/evaluations/beef.php

By the way, what do you guys think of these kind of stats? Do you value them, or rely more on your own experience?

Anything from ICBF should be regartded as a useful pointer to send you in the right direction. Provided you don't go accepting everything from them as unadulterated fact, you should be ok. As a Limousin breeder, I would recommend Limousins highly for ease of management. People who tell you that all Limousins are wild do not know what they are talking about. Any pedigree Limousin worth looking at will have been scored for docility and if you select accordingly, you will have animals as docile as any other breed, if not more so. If you are going to the ploughing, talk to the people exhibiting Limousins and they should fill you in on this in more detail.

leg wax

tedandbetty wrote: »

thanks for your views guys,
we are off to the ploughing match this week and will check out the breeds there.
at the moment we are consider either
Herdford out of the traditional breed
Carlaois out of the "tradition" continental
or maybe one of the new european beeeds
such as Aubrac or one of those.

any one know what the market for charlois or herdford was like this year?

well how did you get on at the ploughing

tedandbetty

leg wax wrote: »

well how did you get on at the ploughing

yea went to ploughing, only problem i had was that we did not have enough time to see all we wanted to see. we did spend a good bit of time going about the different cattle breeds, and spoke to plenty breeder,
after all the looking i think i am most tempted by there herefords - not the most stylish cattle but think they may suit this operation best.
easy to handle and all that.

nest thing is to source a few heifers at the righ price.

yessam

a friend of mine had the very same idea as your friend. his land ran along the front and side of his house and he wanted to put something unusual in it. he bought some belted galloway cattle. they are the most attractive cattle i have seen. they are a hardy brred of cattle from scotland and can be outwintered without any problems. he enjoys taking them to shows also. have a look at them on the web.

Indubitable

tedandbetty wrote: »

yea went to ploughing, only problem i had was that we did not have enough time to see all we wanted to see. we did spend a good bit of time going about the different cattle breeds, and spoke to plenty breeder,
after all the looking i think i am most tempted by there herefords - not the most stylish cattle but think they may suit this operation best.
easy to handle and all that.

nest thing is to source a few heifers at the righ price.

And if you had a Hereford Burger when you were there you would notice they were delicious

dar31

yessam wrote: »

a friend of mine had the very same idea as your friend. his land ran along the front and side of his house and he wanted to put something unusual in it. he bought some belted galloway cattle. they are the most attractive cattle i have seen. they are a hardy brred of cattle from scotland and can be outwintered without any problems. he enjoys taking them to shows also. have a look at them on the web.

dam you yessam, was just scrolling through this thinking about only one breed, belted galloways, just to get to the end and see your reply:)
lovely animals, always thought of getting a few for a hobby, remember seeing a field of them, 30 odd with calves, down the country a few years back. lovely sight

leg wax

dar31 wrote: »

dam you yessam, was just scrolling through this thinking about only one breed, belted galloways, just to get to the end and see your reply:)
lovely animals, always thought of getting a few for a hobby, remember seeing a field of them, 30 odd with calves, down the country a few years back. lovely sight

guys i think the op wanted to make some money as well :D

yessam

leg wax wrote: »

guys i think the op wanted to make some money as well :D

He will propably make as much from Belted gGalloways as from Herford, Angus, Shorthorn or any other non Continental Breeds. They are hardy beef breed which can be outwintered, easly fed will trive on poorish land. Plus there will always be some intrest in rare breeds of cattle. So I dont think you would loose money on them,

dar31

tedandbetty wrote: »

a friend of mine has a couple of acres and he wants to get a couple of suckler cows, as these will be the only ones he will have he wants someting "special" ie something he can be proud of and will look nice around his house.
i suggested that he get a couple of pedigree in calf heifers and go from there.
he loved that idea. as he has housing he can winter them no problem.

we are looking at different breeds at the moment but we are wondering what people would recommend.

requirement are something liek this.

a beef breed
demand for off spring (bulls and heifers)
quite/doscile breed
looks "good" in the field
easy calving

your comment would be appreciated

there is very little mention in op of making a few quid,
mainly wants some thing in the feild to make use of the ground and look well.
if he wants to make a few pound from a couple of acres, let it to the neighbor, take the cash, go to the pub and support the rural economy:D
as for something to be proud of and look good beside the house, any breed will do( as long as they are not black and whites x's), as they will be well looked after(pets) and always look good. in my oppinion belted galloways, then every one to them selves
check them out http://belted-galloways.com/

leg wax

dar31 wrote: »

there is very little mention in op of making a few quid,
mainly wants some thing in the feild to make use of the ground and look well.
if he wants to make a few pound from a couple of acres, let it to the neighbor, take the cash, go to the pub and support the rural economy:D
as for something to be proud of and look good beside the house, any breed will do( as long as they are not black and whites x's), as they will be well looked after(pets) and always look good. in my oppinion belted galloways, then every one to them selves
check them out http://belted-galloways.com/

demand for bulls and heifers = money

sculptor

As with our language, music, sports etc, it seems our own is not good enough.
If you want something to catch the eye you cant beat the Irish Moiled, for something hardy to give you the best beef for least input Dexter, for the best milk at least input one of the oldest breeds in europe the Kerry.
Our ancestors were not stupid.

tedandbetty

thanks for all your dfiierent views guys.
after considering all things we have deceieded to go with Hereford and Angus as they can be some of the easiest cattle to keep.
we plan to cross then with a continental type bull next year which should produce some nice calves in time.
the older more traditional breeds are interesting but as the number are low in this case we do not want to get something that there is little or no demand for. not that we expect to make much but at least they should cover themselves and with a bit of luck a bit with it.

jimini0

hi everyone im a huge fan of the belted galloway does anyone know of farm where i could purchase a heifer? i have searched all the marts in mayo and asked nearly every farmer and still no joy.so if ye know or hear about anyone selling im very very interested...

massey 133

i think limousins are by far the best. they are hardy, are large and the cows are excellent mothers which have plenty of milk.

jimini0

thanks massey i dont have the land suitable for them but from my research our land is ideal for the galloways so thats why im lookin for them well one to start off with and see how things go from there

yessam

jimini0 wrote: »

hi everyone im a huge fan of the belted galloway does anyone know of farm where i could purchase a heifer? i have searched all the marts in mayo and asked nearly every farmer and still no joy.so if ye know or hear about anyone selling im very very interested...

There is a heard of belted galloways on a farm close to Athenry. I dont know his name but he had lovely stock. I presume if you contacted the mart or teagasc in Athenry - someone would know who he is. I know he was on the Monivea side of Athenry, a few mile out from the town.

robototitico

Here is one you could contact

http://www.farmads.ie/animals/cattle/347_belted_galloway

Can I recommend you place a wanted ad on Farm Ads ? Never know who would see it.

robototitico

And a couple more

http://www.gallowaycattlesociety.co.uk/

http://belted-galloways.com/

jimini0

thanks everyone for your help ill get onto it straight away ill let ye know how i get on