Any of you lads have AAx heifers from dairy herd as sucklers?

shy_boy

Any of you lads have AAx heifers from dairy herd as sucklers.. Have a few here. Are they any good ? Or are they only used for ease of calving for the dairy farmer? Would they produce a good calf?

1chippy

shy_boy wrote: »

Any of you lads have AAx heifers from dairy herd as sucklers.. Have a few here. Are they any good ? Or are they only used for ease of calving for the dairy farmer? Would they produce a good calf?

Bought a springer a bit back and she threw a good calf from a charlaois bull, only slightly off white too. they could be worth trying on, they will have milk anyway.

dzer2

shy_boy wrote: »

Any of you lads have AAx heifers from dairy herd as sucklers.. Have a few here. Are they any good ? Or are they only used for ease of calving for the dairy farmer? Would they produce a good calf?

Have a whole herd of them here. Have smashing calves out of them and they could nearly double suckle them.

shy_boy

1chippy wrote: »

Bought a springer a bit back and she threw a good calf from a charlaois bull, only slightly off white too. they could be worth trying on, they will have milk anyway.

How did the calving go? Any trouble ?

tanko

dzer2 wrote: »

Have a whole herd of them here. Have smashing calves out of them and they could nearly double suckle them.

What breed of bull do you put on them?

dzer2

Norwegian Red

I will dig out the sire in a while for you.

shy_boy

dzer2 wrote: »

Have a whole herd of them here. Have smashing calves out of them and they could nearly double suckle them.

They Sounds good so..!

bbam

shy_boy wrote: »

Any of you lads have AAx heifers from dairy herd as sucklers.. Have a few here. Are they any good ? Or are they only used for ease of calving for the dairy farmer? Would they produce a good calf?

We had a few in the past.
My opinion is that your starting off with a plan to breed average weanlings at best. Colour is usually a problem as they usually throw mousy brown calves. And it's hard to get the weanlings into a good frame size.

reilig

bbam wrote: »

We had a few in the past.
My opinion is that your starting off with a plan to breed average weanlings at best. Colour is usually a problem as they usually throw mousy brown calves. And it's hard to get the weanlings into a good frame size.

+1

Its better to have your breeding cows 1 or 2 generations after this stage. Breed carefully to try to keep milk in the cows. At this stage you will have bred the tight skin and thin bone out of them and you will be in a better position to produce bigger framed weinlings.

Juniorhurler

bbam wrote: »

We had a few in the past.
My opinion is that your starting off with a plan to breed average weanlings at best. Colour is usually a problem as they usually throw mousy brown calves. And it's hard to get the weanlings into a good frame size.

Ya, only really suitable to try and finish in a low cost system off grass imo.

johnpawl

shy_boy wrote: »

Any of you lads have AAx heifers from dairy herd as sucklers.. Have a few here. Are they any good ? Or are they only used for ease of calving for the dairy farmer? Would they produce a good calf?

I have them as cows. I have more time for then than a lot of lads on here do. Got some great ch calves off them in the past, never got a mousy brown one all yellow or off white. Also had 3 part bulls off them last year that were killed at 15 months graded U3. Have blonde and part on them for next year.
One thing I did notice is that even though they have heaps of milk, the ch stock bull bred the milk out of them in one generation, a couple of replacements I kept are very poor on milk. I thought the mothers had so much milk that's it wouldn't matter a sh1te what bull was used their daughters would have to have plenty milk. It.didnt work out as expected.

bogman_bass

dzer2 wrote: »

Have a whole herd of them here. Have smashing calves out of them and they could nearly double suckle them.

Have 2 here. Very fertile dont hold condition well but doesn't seem to phase them. Middling limo calves from them as heifers. Used blues and worked out ok (I'm finishing offspring btw)

dzer2

bogman_bass wrote: »

Have 2 here. Very fertile dont hold condition well but doesn't seem to phase them. Middling limo calves from them as heifers. Used blues and worked out ok (I'm finishing offspring btw)

THis is the way it works for me. The sire really determines the quality of calf. Selling weanlings average 950 euro for a real low cost maintainance cow that leaves a nice few pound.

Sam Kade

dzer2 wrote: »

Have a whole herd of them here. Have smashing calves out of them and they could nearly double suckle them.

A dairy farmer near me was short of replacements so he put a few aax heifers incalf they milked 1100 gallons each.

RaggyDays

Have 2
They always have a calf every year
They make good job of the calf
The Weanlens never seem to achieve a full price for some reason. I ve put it down to the off Grey/mouse color which if it is the case its pure madness!!

Timmaay

Sam Kade wrote: »

A dairy farmer near me was short of replacements so he put a few aax heifers incalf they milked 1100 gallons each.

I've heard stories as such also, they supposely milk very well 1st 4/6months, then the milk just stops.

whelan1

Timmaay wrote: »

I've heard stories as such also, they supposely milk very well 1st 4/6months, then the milk just stops.

Have one. She's an aax out of my highest ebi Cow. Did 1400 gallons on 3rd lactation

Timmaay

Why didn't you go for a fr outa your best EBI cow???

I supposedly have 2 BBX cows in the parlour at the minute ha, they definitely are full FRs however, I assumed my dad put them down as BBs by mistake as calves.

whelan1

Timmaay wrote: »

Why didn't you go for a fr outa your best EBI cow???

I supposedly have 2 BBX cows in the parlour at the minute ha, they definitely are full FRs however, I assumed my dad put them down as BBs by mistake as calves.

Was her first calf

shy_boy

bogman_bass wrote: »

Have 2 here. Very fertile dont hold condition well but doesn't seem to phase them. Middling limo calves from them as heifers. Used blues and worked out ok (I'm finishing offspring btw)

what was the blue bull you used?

Seaba

shy_boy wrote: »

Any of you lads have AAx heifers from dairy herd as sucklers.. Have a few here. Are they any good ? Or are they only used for ease of calving for the dairy farmer? Would they produce a good calf?

Their good if you can get a good heifer calf. Key is to get ones with a decent square behind - many are too narrow which bring calves that are narrow.

We had one a couple of years ago, smallish but square and great bag of milk - BB weanlings off her all made €3 a kilo. Her fertility was great, good feet, quiet-ish and you could fit more of them into a slatted house pen than some of the cows we have at the moment!

Colouring can be an issue at times as they can bring mousey/grey Charolais calves.

Last year we bought 3 black LMx heifer calves off a dairy man (stock bull) that we are bulling next year so I'm hopeful.

bogman_bass

Sam Kade wrote: »

A dairy farmer near me was short of replacements so he put a few aax heifers incalf they milked 1100 gallons each.

We had one like that that the neihbours bull got at. definitly gave 1000 gallons anyways.

Had 2 hereford cows that were the same story and they were better again

J DEERE

I think to reap full benefits of an AAX herd you need to be finishing the offspring

KatyMac

I used to buy and rear AAX heifers from a neighbouring dairy man. Decided about 5 years to go down the suckler route instead and kept the heifers I had at the time. I've got 6 and a couple more that are ready for bulling now. They give me great calves, you do have to be careful around them for 2/3 days after calving though!! They are quiet the rest of the time and their calves are easy going as well, and no dehorning. I've been trying to build up numbers so have kept most of the heifers, but have been very happy with the bulls. Up to now I haven't been finishing them but maybe next year my numbers breeding will be enough. The last of this year's bull calves is heading to the mart tomorrow!

J DEERE

KatyMac wrote: »

I used to buy and rear AAX heifers from a neighbouring dairy man. Decided about 5 years to go down the suckler route instead and kept the heifers I had at the time. I've got 6 and a couple more that are ready for bulling now. They give me great calves, you do have to be careful around them for 2/3 days after calving though!! They are quiet the rest of the time and their calves are easy going as well, and no dehorning. I've been trying to build up numbers so have kept most of the heifers, but have been very happy with the bulls. Up to now I haven't been finishing them but maybe next year my numbers breeding will be enough. The last of this year's bull calves is heading to the mart tomorrow!

Best of luck with them. Let us know how you fair out, may be beneficial to anyone on the fence about it

blue5000

Have about 40 angus x fresian cows here.
Pros are

• Very easy kept
• Light weight, roughly 550kg LW so easy on wet land
• Good calving interval
• Very easily calved.
• Have a couple of weanlings that were 70% their mother's weight at weaning.
• Sound feet.

Cons are

• Need to keep calves to beef to get the best value
• Low cull cow weights
• They can be very thin at drying off, they put it all into the calf.

OP if you are buying a few make sure to see the the cows and the bull. Most dairy farmers want an easy calving bull for heifers. You may have problems calving heifers from such a bull. Try find a dairy herd with a big angus bull.

shy_boy

blue5000 wrote: »

Have about 40 angus x fresian cows here.
Pros are

• Very easy kept
• Light weight, roughly 550kg LW so easy on wet land
• Good calving interval
• Very easily calved.
• Have a couple of weanlings that were 70% their mother's weight at weaning.
• Sound feet.

Cons are

• Need to keep calves to beef to get the best value
• Low cull cow weights
• They can be very thin at drying off, they put it all into the calf.

OP if you are buying a few make sure to see the the cows and the bull. Most dairy farmers want an easy calving bull for heifers. You may have problems calving heifers from such a bull. Try find a dairy herd with a big angus bull.

Did you use AI on them blue? If so what bulls were successful for you? I have used HCA from progressive genetics on 2 as I was told he was suitable for heifers! The 1 thing I don't want to have is trouble at calving as I am not experienced yet but I want a calf that will grow into a decent animal all the same.

Any recommendations?

blue5000

I mostly run a blonde bull with the angus x cows, he is a son of OXY, dovea bull. I used an aubrac on the angus x fresian as heifers. Now have angus cross aubrac heifers in calf to zfl. All the blonde calves are sold, none of the heifers are kept for breeding, this means the blonde bull can be kept longer than two years.

munkus

blue5000 wrote: »

I mostly run a blonde bull with the angus x cows, he is a son of OXY, dovea bull. I used an aubrac on the angus x fresian as heifers. Now have angus cross aubrac heifers in calf to zfl. All the blonde calves are sold, none of the heifers are kept for breeding, this means the blonde bull can be kept longer than two years.

How are those bulls for temperment, blue?

KatyMac

Sold two AAX bulls today. 410kg made €765 and 345kg made €700. They were about 7 months old.
That's it for this year. I'm keeping the last couple of calves as replacements, one is AAX from a AAX cow and the other is SHX from AAX mother (she is a blue grey)

blue5000

munkus wrote: »

How are those bulls for temperment, blue?

Blondes and angus are fine, but you'd know when you had an aubrac in the crush:mad:

wool521

Have six aax heifers here,last one ai'd yesterday to RHF from doves

manjou

blue5000 wrote: »

Blondes and angus are fine, but you'd know when you had an aubrac in the crush:mad:

The angus calves are quiet.Finding the same with the aubracs aswell not as quiet as they were supposed to be.