BB X Fresian Heifers

adne

local dairy lad has 4 BB x FR heifers for sale. 5 Mths, bucket fed around 6 mth mark.

Im tempted as an experiment as they going cheap, would these make good breeding stock when crossed with LM.

Do 6 Mth Heifers need to be blood tested beforesale?

whelan1

wont need to be blooded... i sell bbx friesian calves , the buyers say they are great for milk:rolleyes: they keep coming back are they out of holstein fr or british friesian?

adne

whelan1 wrote: »

wont need to be blooded... i sell bbx friesian calves , the buyers say they are great for milk:rolleyes: they keep coming back are they out of holstein fr or british friesian?

send me a PM with the guide price for a 200 KG BBX 6 Mth calf.
I have not bought in this type before

reilig

adne wrote: »

local dairy lad has 4 BB x FR heifers for sale. 5 Mths, bucket fed around 6 mth mark.

Im tempted as an experiment as they going cheap, would these make good breeding stock when crossed with LM.

Do 6 Mth Heifers need to be blood tested beforesale?

I have had a couple of BB x FR crosses in the past. If you sell as weinlings, then they will breed very well with LM of CH bulls. They will have lots of milk and calves will do very well when sucking.

The problem only arises after weining. These calves were used to getting a lot of milk - up to the time that they were weined. They didn't have to rely too much on grass or creep (if you feed it). So when weined, they experience a sudden loss of food (it takes them a while to get used to meal and grass). They can very often lose condition.

So very often, they are not the best type of cows to have if you intend keeping weinlings beyond weining.

I have daughters of BBxFR off CH and LM. They are some of the best breeding cows that I have. Cows have enough milk. Calves have lots of muscle - and not just fat put on by excessive milk feeding.

whelan1

our angus stock bull broke into a neighbours this morning - over 4 strands of barbed wire:eek:- he has belgian blue cows that are out of friesian cows- was a dairy farmer- he has a limousin bull with them , the calves have a great backside and look great but the main downfall was too much milk , he had to buy extra calves and then get them to take to the cows. One of the bought in calves never took to the cow so more hardship.

Dozer1

had a couple of BB x FR in the past, as previous posters said, plenty milk and bring good quality weanlings. Our main issue with them was calving, they were quite narrow and you really needed to be there when they were calving, the stock bull was easy calving the rest of the cows had no problems.

pakalasa

Dozer1 wrote: »

had a couple of BB x FR in the past, as previous posters said, plenty milk and bring good quality weanlings. Our main issue with them was calving, they were quite narrow and you really needed to be there when they were calving, the stock bull was easy calving the rest of the cows had no problems.

This is a very important point. I've seen it first-hand myself with a neighbour. BB cows, be they 1/2 bred or full, are the worst cows to calf. You really would want to be using a very easy calving Lim bull on them.
I know they have loads of milk and they're lovely and quiet, but they're just too narrow internally at the hips.
As they say - let the cow have the frame and the bull add the muscle.
Get some quiet Lim cows and your laughing!

snowman707

pakalasa wrote: »

This is a very important point. I've seen it first-hand myself with a neighbour. BB cows, be they 1/2 bred or full, are the worst cows to calf. You really would want to be using a very easy calving Lim bull on them.
I know they have loads of milk and they're lovely and quiet, but they're just too narrow internally at the hips.
As they say - let the cow have the frame and the bull add the muscle.
Get some quiet Lim cows and your laughing!

I remember having a chat with Clive Jennings while he was having a break from the ring,(think it was at Ossory show a few years ago). I commented on 2 year old BB heifer he had taken a fancy to and given a red rosette and asked would she be suitable for breeding, Clive reckoned no, that to breed a good animal from her you most likely have to do c section. He maintained the best route at least for show quality was as you said the 1/2 or 3/4 LM cow and the BB bull

ellewood

pakalasa wrote: »

This is a very important point. I've seen it first-hand myself with a neighbour. BB cows, be they 1/2 bred or full, are the worst cows to calf. You really would want to be using a very easy calving Lim bull on them.
I know they have loads of milk and they're lovely and quiet, but they're just too narrow internally at the hips.
As they say - let the cow have the frame and the bull add the muscle.
Get some quiet Lim cows and your laughing!

yea, get some mad ones tho and ur crying..

Tora Bora

snowman707 wrote: »

I remember having a chat with Clive Jennings while he was having a break from the ring,(think it was at Ossory show a few years ago). I commented on 2 year old BB heifer he had taken a fancy to and given a red rosette and asked would she be suitable for breeding, Clive reckoned no, that to breed a good animal from her you most likely have to do c section. He maintained the best route at least for show quality was as you said the 1/2 or 3/4 LM cow and the BB bull

Let me ask you, what would you cross a bunch of 3/4 bred charolais cows with to get show potential offspring.
I'm running a charolais bull, but hoping to AI a few for autumn calving next year.

Bigbird1

Tora Bora wrote: »

Let me ask you, what would you cross a bunch of 3/4 bred charolais cows with to get show potential offspring.
I'm running a charolais bull, but hoping to AI a few for autumn calving next year.

The cows have to be good but i would go for a CH eg. KIB,LNZ or Alibaba or limousin eg. Rocky,But or vivaldi

ellewood

saw a group of 3/4 bred char and lino cows last spring with calves from the char bull ADA the calves from the limos were v good but the calves from ADA were exceptional, really good, there were as good as blues youd actuallt think they were blue cross. no bother calving either and the cows were handy and narrow behind the 1/4 in them was holstien. he had 2 pbnr limo hfrs as well but the calves didnt seem as good still not bad but the hfrs were very handy

bogman_bass

I had a BBxFr heifer calve last night unaided but in saying that she was in calf to REQ.

besides being a bit narrow I cant fault them. they are very easy animals to work with

Madden171

Hi
Could any one tell if a 3/4 British Friesian and 1/4 Belgian blue heifer calf would be a good buy seen cow big cow with lots of milk she's feeding 5 calve currently, the reason I wanted this heifer as I'm breeding a few pedigree limousin they have little milk so thought if i had the blue cross heifer she could feed the limousins and her own calf, but would the breed good calves aswel