Belgian Blue x Parthenaise

htobee

First time poster....

I've a 2yo blue cross heifer from empire, mainly white with a few small black areas. I'm tempted to give her a Parthenaise bull (probably Bolide) but I'm not sure what colour the calf will come......I don't want it to be fifty shades of grey......:D

vanderbadger

htobee wrote: »

First time poster....

I've a 2yo blue cross heifer from empire, mainly white with a few small black areas. I'm tempted to give her a Parthenaise bull (probably Bolide) but I'm not sure what colour the calf will come......I don't want it to be fifty shades of grey......:D

kinda serious muscle cross for a first calver maybe

moy83

I wouldnt give that cross to a heifer .I would be afraid of the fifty shades of blue the calf might be after a hard calving

just do it

Agree with posts so far. Easy calving first time.

Bizzum

I would echo what the lads said above. The colour wouldn't bother me. I have met the owner of Bolide and he told me the calves he brings are very small, so much so that he wasn't impressed at first but the grow on very well.
Still these blue heifers can be notoriously difficult calved so I'd be cautious.
Super cross though!

I'd be tempted to try it though if the Blue heifer wasn't too extreme? (Talk about hedging my bets!)

pakalasa

Put an easy calving Limousin on her first and you'll know where you stand then. Enough hardship in farming without bringing more on yerself.

yellow50HX

oh jesus yeah, easy calving bull 1st time around, last thing you want to lose a good heifer just for the sake of colour. Had some bad times with blueX cows and heifers a few years back. They were fine with a blonde and a AA but was a terror with the Lim (granted he wasn't an easy calver, but the rest of the herd had no issues with him just the blues).

Give her an easy calving bull 1st then you'll see how she develops within the next year. Blues have a small pelvis and a big belly so they can let a big calf develop but may not be able to push it out.

htobee

I'm a fan of the blues despite the problems with calving etc. but I've seen a few right good Parthenaise crosses and I'm very impressed with them. This heifer of mine is quite well muscled so I very much doubt there will be any calf coming out the back door anyway......:eek: I've seen parthenaise crosses off black blues and they mainly come black but I haven't come across any off white bb heifers/cows......

Bizzum

htobee wrote: »

This heifer of mine is quite well muscled so I very much doubt there will be any calf coming out the back door anyway......:eek:

Not the type of heifer I'd be thinking of breeding from so. However if I was happy to CS her I'd get (if I could) a couple of straws of CF52 and let her be lucky.
If you're gonna section her to get a calf, easy calving would go out the window.

Wouldn't be for me though!

johnpawl

Don't know much about blue cows, never had them, but i can vouch for the fact that bolide is very easy calved, calves born small but thrive very well.

offaly hurler

Had a cracking partenaise bull calve by bolide from a 2nd calving blue hefier. Massive calve . Got stuck at shoulders ,needed vet to do c- section. He,s not that easy calved from a blue.wouldnt go down this road again with a blue,