best Angus bull for selling calves at 6 months

ltec

I'm sick of dehorning calves and my father is getting to old to help me. Is there any real good Angus bulls that can compete with a good limousin bull for selling calves at about 6 months. Is anybody successfully doing this and what sort of prices are they averaging
I can get the straws from any ai. Calving shouldn't be a problem as its on cows

tanko

Would you consider buying a decent dehorning crate?
If you had one dehorning calves is a simple enough job.

ltec

What dehorning crate have you got. We tried to make one and it didn't work. The wildest calf near hung itself. When they advertise them on you YouTube they have a dopey calf that doesn't move.

Future Farmer

ltec wrote: »

I'm sick of dehorning calves and my father is getting to old to help me. Is there any real good Angus bulls that can compete with a good limousin bull for selling calves at about 6 months. Is anybody successfully doing this and what sort of prices are they averaging
I can get the straws from any ai. Calving shouldn't be a problem as its on cows

Lots of options - just looking at NCBC/Progressive Genetics/ Munster AI Bulls:

AA - FPI - Friarstown Ideal Pete - breeding super stock.

Polled Hereford - Solpoll Handsome - SPL or Dendor Kohinoor - KKO

Progressive have a new polled Limousin in the stud should be fine for mature cows:
http://www.progressivegenetics.ie/Store/Detail/IVOIRE

Same applies to Polled Simmental - AHC - Auroch Deuter

lakill Farm

bought one from a lad in cavan about 4 years ago.

belly scoop and all. €350 it was. he does be on donedeal sometimes

oldsmokey

Im with the OP here, that dehorning is a pain in the ho%e...we've 5 calves out of FPI this year, put him on heifers, maybe a bit big for those girls but no big drama either. All the rest of the stock are from 2 Lm bulls which of course must be dehorned, but some of them buggers are 5-6 weeks old before the buds are apparent, by then you have a real problem manhandling the calf.Our FPI calves(out of heifers mind) are stand-back and look quality, and are thriving well since we left them out to grass - time will tell how they fare, but its a promising start. And no bloody dehorning!
NCBC now have a number of promising polled bulls on their panel so it seems polled is the way to go.

Bellview

ltec wrote: »

I'm sick of dehorning calves and my father is getting to old to help me. Is there any real good Angus bulls that can compete with a good limousin bull for selling calves at about 6 months. Is anybody successfully doing this and what sort of prices are they averaging
I can get the straws from any ai. Calving shouldn't be a problem as its on cows

are you using on sucklers or dairy? If dairy would you not be better off selling them at 4 weeks approx. as the angus are making crazy money for handy calves. Cairmee Gino (Dovea) is an option for dairy

if suckler I would look to the harder calving bulls Lisduff Dandy from Dovea, Jumbo King from progressive. It may also be worth considering a red angus

ltec

Its sucklers. We haven't enough housing to keep them longer, so calving march or April and selling September or October. Yes its top class Angus I'm after, something to compete with a decent limousin if that's possible

Bellview

ltec wrote: »

Its sucklers. We haven't enough housing to keep them longer, so calving march or April and selling September or October. Yes its top class Angus I'm after, something to compete with a decent limousin if that's possible

you can take the calving difficulty. another to consider is the Bunlahy bull in Dovea. The first calves are on the ground this spring and they are big... may be worth a look especially if they progress on. the red angus are also an option for you with sucklers. good luck

Kovu

Have you many cows OP? And what have you used to dehorn them up til now, gas or electric?

I know it's not a nice job but I'm far happier doing it as i know I've a correct breed for the weanling market we aim for. Angus weanlings will always sell but you won't be getting the true value of the breed. I'd definitely look at the polled limousin unless your cows can bring some extra shape to six month AA weanlings.

Regards dehorning crates, I wouldn't take one if you gave it to me, more danger than they're worth as almost got my fingers taken off in one before. Push the calf out the feed barrier, up the crush and into the lock gate on tightest setting. Otherwise we'd noose halter it and I'd squash him into the gate with a knee behind the shoulder.

ltec

We only have a dozen cows and we use caustic paste. We feel its important to get them at the right time with the paste so we are constantly bringing everything in to the crush to get the ones we need. When I said we calve march and April I mean we try to but there's always some that drags on so it can be 4 months from start to finish.
My fathers not fit and tries to help but I'm sortve doing them myself.
I thought Angus weanlings would be worth a lot less so I'll probably have to go down the polled limousin route.

Farrell

ltec wrote: »

We only have a dozen cows and we use caustic paste. We feel its important to get them at the right time with the paste so we are constantly bringing everything in to the crush to get the ones we need. When I said we calve march and April I mean we try to but there's always some that drags on so it can be 4 months from start to finish.
My fathers not fit and tries to help but I'm sortve doing them myself.
I thought Angus weanlings would be worth a lot less so I'll probably have to go down the polled limousin route.

Polled seams to be the thing lately, they're even breeding CH & SI for it too.
Use the paste at 7-10 days here too, generally quiet enough but does be odd exceptions.
Just wondering if there is some simple way with the use of a gate that you could seperate the calf temporary without causing stress so you could apply the paste on your own easily

Base price

Consult you vet about using Metacam and Norocaine or similar. Makes debudding a hell of a lot easier. I think pain prevention/medication is now a requirement under animal welfare legislation. We have always used pain and sometimes "doping" medications (as advised by our vet) to debud older/suckler calves.

grazeaway

Try AngusX cows and limo bull. Only about half ours have horns.

That said we have some that don't show buds till they are a few months old. Dad made his own calf crush about 20 years ago and it's great, most of the ones for sale are too small so they can their legs out the back.

That said we had a few late calver last year that didn't show buds for months. Did them in the crush. A couple of pallets to squeeze up the space and the injection to numb the head and it worked out grand. Find it a lot easier to do them once the buds appear properly.