Friesian x blue heifer

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

RaggyDays

Are you sure shes not 1/2 fr 1/2 BB ? How would you get to 1/4 BB ?

Anyway If you were going that route you`d be better off picking up an old friesian Cow to feed the calves in spring with then sell her off in autumn. A high cell count cow would do and they are easily bought

Madden171

Yes she 1/4 blue the cow is half Friesian half blue and the sire of the calf is a Friesian bull leaving the calf 3/4 Friesian, I was going to buy her and breed a few calf off her aswel as feed my limousin calf or would I be better getting a old cow as u said thanks

RaggyDays

She sounds like she would breed a good calf herself but would she let another calf suck her aswell? It would involve a lot of work to get her to take to another calf never-mind rearing 4 calves. Especially when she would have a calf herself she would be more inclined to want to rear that calf only.

If she was left to rear her own calf only and she`s a milky cow then you have the trouble of mastitis

Bizzum

You could certainty try it, but I've rarely seen a cow by a scrub bull breed well.
The bigger picture is the Lims with no milk. I'd be looking at addressing this. In my mind a cow that can't rear her own calf is a liability. Is there a reason you can see why they're not rearing their calves?

Madden171

The limousin have just enough to feed there own calf but to give the calf a boost and bring him on well a Friesian cow would make a great job of him the heifer calf was breed from a pedigree British Friesian bull so would be a enough and the mother is a big tall cow, just the heifer is only a few months old id waiting a year or more before breeding her
Make be old cow would be the best option ?

Bizzum

How about forward grazing the PB Lim calves on the best quality grass you have with access to creep. Would that boost performance? Are the cows on good grass?
What age are these PB Lim calves now?

Madden171

Thanks bizzum
He's about 4 months old now and I have one due in 2 weeks and one in November, I thought of the creep but there quite expensive and money is very tight what nuts is good now ?? And is the creep the only way of getting them to eat he's not be wild I can up next to them,

Bizzum

Madden171 wrote: »

Thanks bizzum
He's about 4 months old now and I have one due in 2 weeks and one in November, I thought of the creep but there quite expensive and money is very tight what nuts is good now ?? And is the creep the only way of getting them to eat he's not be wild I can up next to them,

A creep set-up need not be expensive. A simple set-up with raised electric fence at a gap or open gateway could work.
If you had him in you could dose a bit of crunch into his mouth that he'd get a taste for it, most calves eat well when they get the taste of it.
Talk to your local merchant about what he would have to suit.