belgian blue bull for angus x cow?

PANADOL

a lot of my charlious calves are coming out an of white colour , iam told this is not liked by the buyers for export etc nonsence in my book anyway my local AI man reccomends a belgian blue bull for the black cows as the calves will be worth more than the off white charolious? has anybody tried the belgian blue on the black angus x cows ?

leg wax

angus cows will not have the double muscle gene so the majority of calves will be r grade and no advantage to you and your pocket if you are aiming for export market change the cow first, others on here may not agree.

reilig

I had the same problem with my black cows - all calves coming a mousey brown colour. This is off putting to export buyers and no matter what people tell you, you will end up getting less per head for the same weight animals than if they were white or yellow(LMX).

This is my third season using BB on black cows - some of the cows are AA and some are LMX. BB ensures an average of at least €100 per head extra come selling time. It doesn't really matter if they are not double muscle - the exporters just like the colour.

An example from last february/March when I sold 7 BB heifers - all off black cows. They averaged €400 with their weight. The best was 355kg and made €1010. The worst was 285kg and made €650. She was off an AA cow. A chaorlais calf off the same cow would not have made that sort of money.

IMO BB is the best solution for black cows. There are some great easy calving BB bulls out there at the moment too!!

yellow50HX

just a point to note when crossing BB's and Lmx is to make sure not to use BB cows. the calves are great but getting them out of the cow is the problem. BB cows are a nightmare espically if the bull has the double muscle gene too, be ready to call your vet for sectioning

mattthetrasher

the bbs might make more per kg but iwould have concerns for dlwg using aa and bb together ch or sm more weight farmer buyers are outbidding exporters for 12 mths or more now

redzerologhlen

I dont think angus cows are good enough to breed export calves no matter what way that you go about it. Exporters want muscle and you are not going to get it with angus cows. Dont mean to sound harsh but that just seems to be the way it is.

bogman_bass

if you are willing to finish them then I think the angus/blue cross is a good one. the easy finishing of the angus gives you the ability to finish blue offspring off grass, somethin g thats hard to do with the continental/blue cross