Aubrac cattle Pros and cons

Jimmy2020

Hello, any one out therewith a small herd of pedigree Aubrac cattle? What are the pros and cons of these cattle?

Currently have a small mixed cross bred suckler herd, mainly limo.

Calving ease and Hardy are a must.

Thanks

Jimmy

weatherbyfoxer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058331750/aubrac-cattle-pros-and-cons

Decent angus cattle be a better option,would be more demand for your bulls in Pedigree situation

Bangoverthebar

I am milking jersey cross cows i have used aubrac bulls for years. No issue calving would put on heifers. Great strong calves.

Good demand for calves, my neighbour buys some and killed heifers at 20 months at 310kg r grade.

Better calves than angus,hereford, they have a great shape to them.

The country is full of angus if going pedigree it would pay to have something different

K.G.

In my experience and I ve had a few bulls not suitable fir dairy herds as they take too much time

mr.stonewall

Have been using them for the past few years in the suckler herd and also buying some of the calves for calf to beef.

I like them for a number of reasons on the suckler herd, easy calving, great to grade and good carcase weight. The weight like lead when hanging. While you will be a touch back on liveweight of limo you will get close on DW. Cows are great mothers.

On the calf to beef, I would take them any day over the Angus and that with finishing them. Very simple they grade better and weight better than the Angus on the hook, and that's what pays.

No very little about the pedigree side, but nice mix in genetics the commercial side

Cavanjack

Finished a good few of them over the years as bulls. I Like them, they weigh well and flesh up quick. Much prefer them to an Angus of wh

White Clover

I have had a few Aubrac heifers out of good HO cows. Great cattle in my view. Weigh well, grade well and easily finished.

Castlekeeper

Would have had a few Aubrac bulls on the dairy herd here. Really happy with calving ease, calf quality, gestation length. Stock bull quality as in temperament and ease of management also good. Good customers keep coming back for calves. But all that said, they're still a bit foreign and different to get what they deserve at the calf mart.

From what I know of pedigree herds, what you'll lose out on in a bull sales, you'll make up on in commercial. Also, they won't cost as much to get into and it would be easier to get good quality stock. Go visit a few herds on similar land type and scale as you. There's a few pedigree sales coming up too.

Jimmy2020

Thanks for the replies, I don't know much about the breed at all. I think ill touch base with a few breeders and get more info.

As long as they calve easily, have good feet to last the winter on slats (nothing worse then bad feet in my opinion and any cow with a light colured hoof are the worst offenders) and are docile that's half the battle.

Something a bit different is what I'm thinking, angus seem to be all over the place.

Thanks again

tanko

If Aubrey cattle are so great there would be a lot more of them around. When selling cattle colour is important, the likes of yellow, orange, blue, red, white, roan etc sell the best. If you put an Aubrac bull on dairy cows do they bring that mousey brown colour that doesn’t sell as well? Do their offspring look like Jersey cattle?

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633536#Comment_121633536

The ones I have had from Ho cows have all been black. Look similar to a good type Angus.

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633400#Comment_121633400

Re: light coloured hoof

I've read that elsewhere too - but even have been one of the farming youtubers. Is there anything to back it up?

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633536#Comment_121633536

Black for the majority.

Colour never makes a difference when they are on the hook

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121634053#Comment_121634053

If you’re selling weanlings or stores colour makes a big difference.

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633985#Comment_121633985

There’s plenty to back it up, cattle with black hooves have a lot less feet problems than those with white ones, I notice it here with the Saler cross cows compared to the Simmental cross cows. When there was AAX cows here they had very little foot problems.

tabby aspreme

Same with sheep, white hooves are softer

Birdnuts

Its a good sign when the breed is popular with top organic beef producers like Kim McCalls operation in Kilcullen. Been on a few farm walks there and well impressed with his set up in terms of the top quality pasture and thriving, well turned out stock.

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635089#Comment_121635089

Recognised that name. He done an advertorial for bacteriosol. Seems to run a very good outfit from the videos I've seen of his place.

Would be a good advert for the breed.

blue5000

I'm not a pedigree breeder but have had a couple of Aubrac bulls running with suckler cows. No issues calving them anyway and they are good to kill and make a decent suckler cow. Gestation is longer than Angus, but calves are hardy and quick to get up and suckle. Only con I have found is the back legs can be sickled, and pedigree breeders don't calve the heifers until three years old to try and get as much size as possible into the cows.

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121636962#Comment_121636962

Good question, colour makes a difference because it tells you how an animal has been bred and how it should perform in the future. The roan thing comes from the show calf scene, red roan and blue roan cattle can make huge prices at these sales so more and more farmers are trying to breed them and get the big prices, its a big craze at the moment. The most sought after colour for beef animals are yellow Charolais, white Charolais, Belgian blues and red Limousins around here anyway. Mousey coloured Charolais and black Limousins often don’t sell as well because buyers might be wary of dairy breeding in them but that’s not to say you can’t have top quality animals with those colours too.

Anto_Meath

We tried a few Aubrac on suckler cows a few years ago & still have two half breeds in the herd. They are OK, easy calved, good lively calves, cows have a good bit of milk and happy with how they preformed & graded in the factory. The down sides are they don't sell well in the Mart & the ones we had were very stubborn to do anything with. In that if they put their head down in the crush at dosing you wouldn't get it back up. They are quite to manage in the field but at the end of the day I prefer the limo.

Gudstock

Aubrac make fine cattle but suited to home finishing only (really really good for that). They don't sell well at mart in my exp, bad colour and low stature can come against them.

older by the day

I was looking at skibb mart yesterday. A few suckler bred bulls came in.

2 AA 305kg 850

2aubrac 370kg 840

If I had sucklers it would be charolois or limousine

And like was said a aubrac off a fr or frx could come mousey brown, the calf buyers may penalize that, even tho a small Angus is a hard sell in march too.

A neighbor here keeps one of both to finish breeding his dairy herd and favours the aubrac but he finishes all his calves.

If I was starting as a breeder I probably would go Angus as an 18 month bull in May will sell well. Good luck with them anyway

Suckler farmer

We have been using Aubrac on our sucker herd for the last few years. Cows are mostly lim x dairy calving at 2 years. I agree with most of what’s being said.

Aubrac have a very high health status. Calves up and sucking in no time. Very hardy. Cows very fertile.

Big drawback is sometimes they’re not a good seller in the mart. They’re ideal for home finishing as they weigh great, finish young and grade really well

Cattlepen

They die well. Good carcass weights

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666758#Comment_121666758

Can vouch for that. Home bred suckler bullock (out of a plain limo Angus cross cow) 25 months hung on Tuesday 397 kg at u-3=. Live weight going into the trailer was 684kg leaving a killout of 58%. Hard numbers beat colour any day. Only on ration since mid November.

Cattlepen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666817#Comment_121666817

There you go. Well done. The cow it came out of is the right kinda cow to cross them with too

morethanlikely

Anyone who judges commercial cattle by colour is a messer and won't be in business too long. Factory dont care about colour. Aubrac generally take the colour of the dam for what it's worth.

I've used them for 5 years here, easy calving, hardy newborns, look worryingly small until they can empty 2/3 quarters on cow regularly after a week or 10 days and then the muscle builds at a serious rate.

Wouldn't have them on too small a cow as any heifers calves particularly tend to be a bit stumpy.

I keep them till 18 months and sell in mart. Meal only for 4 month winter. 1.5kg/day. Cows are BBX PTX. Main reason for me having them is ease of calving as I work full-time off farm.

Bullocks should be ave 630kg+(300kg) heifers 580kg+(270kg) ave. @18 months (@5month weaning)

Gudstock

Colour almost always matters in the ring, 100% if selling weanlings/young cattle, no matter how good they are if the colour is off you're taking a hit. Might not be as bad for almost finished cattle when buyers are solely interested in weight, grade expected, days to finish, factory price vs light cattle being bought for sale again via live shipping orders and spec (colour critical) or putting together for part time farmer buyers etc who want say 30 golden charolais or red limos or whatever.

If you're crossing on BBx or PTx I'm guessing they're dairy X stock so probably out a very good cross in that you are getting Aubrac F94L/F94L myostatin crossed on an animal with a single nt821 gene so getting that thru some of the stock along with milk so a good muscle cross with plenty milk and frame most of the time. But for me Aubrac does not work if selling weanlings is your game.

morethanlikely

Everywhere is different i suppose, but if you were to not give a bid on a weanling in the marts around me because you didnt like the colour you'd keep it to yourself because you'd be laughed out of the place. Sure if thats the case there'd be just as likely lads who didnt like black & white BB or mousey chars or red fresians. Pure nonsense but there's probably a farmer or 2 that might think like that but wont make any diff when selling weanlings, you cant have each guys favourite colour!

No shortage of experienced buyers around every ring and online and every aspect of the animal that influences the end product to be sold to the factory is judged. and colour is not one of them. 1 or 2 messers wont impact price. If you were selling a few weeks old sucks you might get a few lads with no experience confusing Abracs with Jersey, but their knowledge on cattle would be seriously suspect to make that mistake.

There's little or no dairy influence in my stock, the cross would a mix of char and lim with 50% PT 50% BB. Dairy influence doesnt work for me with mastitus shortening cows stay too much due to flies from forestry.