Favourite breed of beef cattle

LivInt20

What is your favourite breed of beef cattle.

Don't have to specifiy for Beef or Suckler or any other, just your own favourite breed for what ever reason.

Do feel free to add reason below.

on the river

LivInt20 wrote: »

What is your favourite breed of beef cattle.

Don't have to specifiy for Beef or Suckler or any other, just your own favourite breed for what ever reason.

Do feel free to add reason below.

Angus for me. Great hardy animals. Can be successfully outwintered.

I said

Anything that kills out well have a fierce soft spot for a good Simmental

GrandSoftDay

Limousin and Charolais for me .

bogman_bass

No Parthenaise?

Mad4simmental

I'm a bit one sided by my name, but love Simmental cows and cross with a good bb or ch and I reckon your on a winner. Always had a soft spot for aa we even have two in the middle of the Simmentals for a mix. They will probably breed the freezer meat every year! :-)

allbuiz

A docile Limousin, hard wearing and doesn't need to expensively fed. Hardy calves that get sucking quickly.

foxy farmer

A herd of PB Herefords out on grass in summer is always a fine sight. Docile (mostly) and resilent. Had mostly red and white here when I started but shifted to Simmental to improve grading. Most cowboy films featuring cattle drives had herefords.

Oldtree

My wifes uncle always had charlies and I enjoy looking at them.

whelan2

ANGUS OF COURSE

Kovu

I'd like to start a new breed of milky LMs crossed with boney CH.
A Limolais herd.
Who's with me:D

Closest to that would be blonde soooooo other continental for me please!

on the river

.Kovu. wrote: »

I'd like to start a new breed of milky LMs crossed with boney CH.
A Limolais herd.
Who's with me:D

Closest to that would be blonde soooooo other continental for me please!

Too soft.can't beat the British breeds for toughness

Zr105

.Kovu. wrote: »

I'd like to start a new breed of milky LMs crossed with boney CH.
A Limolais herd.
Who's with me:D

Closest to that would be blonde soooooo other continental for me please!

Go the opposite way! Charlois cow out of a good square fresian and put a lim bull on them, cows have size and buckets of milk, and the calves fall out and hit the ground running!

Have a slight soft spot for Simmental or else as above or limxfr cows. But its a
Lim bull, all thats ever been here that i remember have been lim and id think it hard to go away from them really!

TUBBY

Ones that leave a few pound

As far as breed go if had to choose one, Hereford.

Miname

I like the markings of the irish moile and the speckled park.
The simmentall frame.
The limousines head
The blondes back-end
The way the charolais carries weight
The pay cheque of a good blue.

What do i cross what with first?

kelslat

Salers, easily calved. calves have a good growth rate.

Farmer Pudsey

There is no Friesians or JEX's to vote for so i will leave it. The breeds I like best are the ones that I can make money out of

Base price

Blonde's are my favourite breed. Used to breed them once upon a time.
I also like Angus and Shorthorn.
If I was going to keep pb cattle again I would go for Dexter or Irish Moiled just to help keep the breeds going.

nqtfarmer

Do blonde's offer a good return? Big, square animals but always thought hard to finish.

Robson99

Charolais - Limousin cross. The best a man can get.

Base price

nqtfarmer wrote: »

Do blonde's offer a good return? Big, square animals but always thought hard to finish.

No harder to flesh than other continentals like LM or CH. Although with Blondes you get more for your efforts - they are longer (in general) so you have a better carcass weigh and kill out.

severeoversteer

kelslat wrote: »

Salers, easily calved. calves have a good growth rate.

not the easiest in the world to flesh now though, theyd have a few tonne ate by the time they have a pinch

GrandSoftDay

Robson99 wrote: »

Charolais - Limousin cross. The best a man can get.

Agreed, always in high demand at the weanling sales!

severeoversteer

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

Agreed, always in high demand at the weanling sales!

if you walked into my yard you would see that I am an advocate of the yellow charolais

GrandSoftDay

severeoversteer wrote: »

if you walked into my yard you would see that I am an advocate of the yellow charolais

Stay that way too, I have a herd of red cows built up over the last few years and there's going to be a white bull running with them next year all going to plan!

mahoney_j

Could look at a field of little boney jex all day,fine looking ainmsls!!!!!!!
Would of always like Charolais or bb.freindvof mine has pure bred aubracs,they'd now be my favourites.hes crossing some of them with Charolais serious looking ainmsls

GrandSoftDay

mahoney_j wrote: »

Could look at a field of little boney jex all day,fine looking ainmsls!!!!!!!
Would of always like Charolais or bb.freindvof mine has pure bred aubracs,they'd now be my favourites.hes crossing some of them with Charolais serious looking ainmsls

Only fault I'd have of the aubrac a is they seem to breed the calves a bit short. Calves seem to bring great muscle off them alright though.

Base price

mahoney_j wrote: »

Could look at a field of little bonny jex all day,fine looking ainmsls!!!!!!!
Would of always like Charolais or bb.freindvof mine has pure bred aubracs,they'd now be my favourites.hes crossing some of them with Charolais serious looking ainmsls

FYP

mf240

Angus and hereford for me.

exercise is the antidote

BBxFr cow with a blonde bull, some nice calves

Genghis Cant

I like Charolais cattle. We've some great stock over the years crossing PB Ch cows with Limousine and Blonde bulls.
If I was to pick a cross Ch x Ba is a super cross. Body, and power of the Ch and a bit of style and length off the Ba.

Outside of the above, one of the nicest heifers ever I laid eyes on was out of a PB Parthenaise cow by a BB bull. Pure class.

severeoversteer

Genghis Cant wrote: »

I like Charolais cattle. We've some great stock over the years crossing PB Ch cows with Limousine and Blonde bulls.
If I was to pick a cross Ch x Ba is a super cross. Body, and power of the Ch and a bit of style and length off the Ba.

Outside of the above, one of the nicest heifers ever I laid eyes on was out of a PB Parthenaise cow by a BB bull. Pure class.

I have a few blonde x charolais bullocks below in the fields, fine animals

I have an idea of setting up a seperate herd of extensive Hereford sucklers, a low input system with heaps of cows and finishing all stock

I wouldn't replace the charolais farm it would have to be a separate project on one of the outfarms

Base price

About 25 years I had the opportunity to travel to the Aquitaine region of France. As a young breeder of Blondes I grasped that opportunity.
I saw the coal face of pedigree breeding via the Midatest system that was in place in France at that time. To be honest, to this day we have not even touched on the French beef system.
Maybe SB could clarify as he is there now.
Anyway, 25 years ago I spoke (via an interpreter) with some purebred CH breeders who used Blondes as the first sire for their heifers.
I was a bit mesmerised as to why one would use a different breed on heifers.
Apparently Blondes are easier to calve on maiden heifers than Charolais.
Seems to me that over the years that the main French breeds of Blonde D'Aquitaine/Charolais/Limousin cattle that are bred in Ireland and the UK bear little resemblance to the original of the species.

gally74

Base price wrote: »

About 25 years I had the opportunity to travel to the Aquitaine region of France. As a young breeder of Blondes I grasped that opportunity.
I saw the coal face of pedigree breeding via the Midatest system that was in place in France at that time. To be honest, to this day we have not even touched on the French beef system.
Maybe SB could clarify as he is there now.
Anyway, 25 years ago I spoke (via an interpreter) with some purebred CH breeders who used Blondes as the first sire for their heifers.
I was a bit mesmerised as to why one would use a different breed on heifers.
Apparently Blondes are easier to calve on maiden heifers than Charolais.
Seems to me that over the years that the main French breeds of Blonde D'Aquitaine/Charolais/Limousin cattle that are bred in Ireland and the UK bear little resemblance to the original of the species.

Agree. The charlois in France are a joy to behold. I was in the limousine area last Jun and they look great too in their native land

Base price

gally74 wrote: »

Agree. The charlois in France are a joy to behold. I was in the limousine area last Jun and they look great too in their native land

Correction Gally74 - all French breeds in their homeland are a joy to behold

onyerbikepat

Base price wrote: »

Correction Gally74 - all French breeds in their homeland are a joy to behold

Are we talking about the south of France beaches?

yellow50HX

allbuiz wrote: »

A docile Limousin, hard wearing and doesn't need to expensively fed. Hardy calves that get sucking quickly.

Yipp have to agree.

All depends on what type of farming you are doing with them. As a suckler man the lim and AA make life a whole lot easier and you will get good calves at the end of the year.

The Angus is probably the hardyest little bugger around but they just don't have the size if there is too much AA in them. That is why we tend to breed LIM into them here so that we have hardy cattle that flesh out well.

If your looking at finishing and having big cattle for the factory then I suppose SIM, CH, and BB will feature highly but then your buying them young so don't have to worry about calf issues.

Used to go on Hols to Northern France when we were kids and the dairy farm up there were all normende, we actually had a few in the 90's. Huge cows, some people thought we had bulls running with the herd. I wonder what they would be like as sucklers? Big cow with lots of milk.

yellow50HX

exercise is the antidote wrote: »

BBxFr cow with a blonde bull, some nice calves

Yeah had a blonde bull a few years back and there were great calves from the BBxFR cows, a much better match then with the LIM bull, the LIMxAA cows threw better calves with the lim bull.

FineFilly

a nice square charolais but you cant beat a good ar$e on a blue

Sunset V

Simmental, Lim and Ch for me.

I think the Sim is the best dual breed - great mothers.

exercise is the antidote

onyerbikepat wrote: »

Are we talking about the south of France beaches?

Or the lady's???

LivInt20

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

There is no Friesians or JEX's to vote for so i will leave it. The breeds I like best are the ones that I can make money out of

The title is BEEF breeds.

Dont be daft

Hereford for me. Absolutely love them.

Fast growth rate, small tidy frame, power on during the Summer on grass alone, timid, hardy etc. etc.

The end product is something special too.

severeoversteer

Dont be daft wrote: »

Hereford for me. Absolutely love them.

Fast growth rate, small tidy frame, power on during the Summer on grass alone, timid, hardy etc. etc.

The end product is something special too.

have you hereford sucklers?
rare to see a full herd of red white head hereford sucklers

Dont be daft

severeoversteer wrote: »

have you hereford sucklers?
rare to see a full herd of red white head hereford sucklers

No, finish a good few HEX's every year though.

severeoversteer

Dont be daft wrote: »

No, finish a good few HEX's every year though.

what kind of weights grades and ages are they killed,
would you get a carcase weight of 290kg or more within 18-19 months with probably O+ steeer ?

sure its probably Hex out of fr cows mostly you have?

blue5000

Looks like shorthorn and saler are our equivalent of the labour party:D

Dont be daft

severeoversteer wrote: »

what kind of weights grades and ages are they killed,
would you get a carcase weight of 290kg or more within 18-19 months with probably O+ steeer ?

sure its probably Hex out of fr cows mostly you have?

The bulls were finishing last year at between 20-22 months with a carcass of around 300 and they would nearly all be R's.

The steers this year will probably be around 21-23 month old with about 10 kg less of a carcass and I'd be expecting O's mostly.

All dairy herd progeny.

severeoversteer

Dont be daft wrote: »

The bulls were finishing last year at between 20-22 months with a carcass of around 300 and they would nearly all be R's.

The steers this year will probably be around 21-23 month old with about 10 kg less of a carcass and I'd be expecting O's mostly.

All dairy herd progeny.

Hereford suckler progeny would probably have a had a better head start in life and kill heavier younger and slightly better grade maybe ?

Mac Taylor

Limousin is the breed of choice here, suits p/t farming.
Anyone watch countryfile on bbc tonight. They did a piece on cattle attacking. Cows seemingly a bigger problem than bulls. Tried to suggest that native breeds are more docile than continental types. Suggested aswell because the uk lim society measured docility they most be an issue in lims. Personally, I find the aax wicked.

Bellview

Has to be angus for me for single minded personality alone