Easy calving suckler herd

Dickie10

I was just thinking about my suckler herd and the different ways i spend money on them through an odd calf lost and vet fees with c sections etc. i was wondering should i move away from trying to produce very fancy weanling calves and move to a more extensive suckler sytem. i usually sell the bull calves in january at around 10 months and keep all heifers to finish around 30-32 months. i work as a teacher as well so if i hadnt the aul lad which i wont have always as hes 80 this year i would be under pressure to keep an eye on things even though the job lets me be home at 4.30 every day.

i was wondering about angus x cows with a limo bull heard angus cows will calve easily, then i thought about charrolais or limosouisin x cows with an angus bull, these would be easy calved with no dehornig which would be a big help. basically i want cows to calve down on straw handy, and can be turned out after a few days. i would sacrifice having very fancy cattle if i could save on vets call outs and jacking cows.
this year i have almost all my truble cows culled the cows i have are mostly limosousin and simmental to a liosousin bull and all these calved themselves this year but only after getting poor silage and straw from xmas on otherwise they wouldnt have got them out as its a well muscled limo bull.

so my question is how small or butty would my calves/cattle be out of an angus bull or angus x cows to limosusin. i want to take the work out of sucklers when im not producing for the weanling market, if i could finish these angus x stock at 24-26 months id be doing as well as i am now.

on another point do people find it costs much to keep there suckler cows ? mine seem to be kept easy enough very little big feeding in winter. does your grazing ground in summer make the difference as there working off there backs in winter? my biggest job is to stop the father putting silage in front of them from xmas on, they do get dry cow minerals (lifeline ) though which i think is great for geting there essentials in to them.

T0001

My info isn't up to date cause we got out of sucklers about 5 years ago, but we had an Angus bull and Hereford x cows mainly with a few charolais and limosin. They were easy calving, from what I remember over a 4 calving seasons we needed to call the vet on 3 occassions and for the charolais and limousin only. We castrated the males and kept them for finishing at 26-30 months although they never really needed to be fed past 24 months and they had a good turnover. The heifers were divided after the first winter and we replaced 5-8 cows a year and sold the surplus heifers. Personally I don't care about fancy cattle, any half decent animal can make money, which is the aim of the game! Deffo recommend an Angus bull though. Makes life much easier. After that you can mix your cows

yellow50HX

Most of our cows are AAx and limo cross cows. We keep our own heifers but also buy in a few AA calves from dairy herds to double suckle the cows with lots of milk. On our 3rd limo bull so hopefully he will be good for calving he is supposed to be an easy calving bull. The last fella we had was a great bull for breeding very little issues calving and fine calves. The AAx cows from dairy herds have loads of milk which does help a lot and are great mothers.

Dickie10

yes just wondering would that if i was finding the limo x angus cattle a bit light that i could try an odd ch x cow to add bulk but still have a lot easier calving than a ch bull and no dehorning , if i was better set up or if cattle prices continue to be to high to buy stores my plan would be 20 angus x cows to limo bull and 20 limo/simmental/ch x cows to angus bull , no dehornig and no more buying in cattle. my neighbour doesnt buy in anything only bulls and rams for breeding, going this route may be a good option as my land is dry and good and i can finsh all cattle i breed or send to mart as heavy stores

blue5000

I guess you're not teaching english anyway:)

Thing with angus is, to get the most out of them you have to finish them yourself.

They are easier cows to keep, I have a used a blonde bull on aa x cows without too much calving problems. Good angus bulls are expensive though.

Mad4simmental

Keep the cows you have and get a blonde bull. Easy calving, hardy calves, very nice cattle.

Count Mondego

I wouldn't be choosing my cow's breed based on not having to dehorn the calf anyway, you'd do 20 of them in an hour for god sake.

I think black LM/FR cow wit a pure LM bull is the best combination. Light cow but with a good frame, and they'll be easy calving with the LM bull. My best cow is LM/FR and her offspring out perform all others such as CHX and SIMX.

I wouldn't go with AA/FR cows as the angus offspring have a tendency to get over fat and sometimes don't have the frame.