Crossbreeding

Well if you want to keep the conversation about crossbreeding, then don't be making unsubstantiated claims of farmers shooting calves, and how that's going to damage our reputation. That's what they call an oxymoron.

Some farmers are vehemently opposed to cross breeding and I respect their choice. But undermining the industry by making flippant claims of animal abuse when we have one of the best reputations for calf care in the world that we should all be taking a lot of pride in is damn irresponsible. So either report this "farmer" or accept that cross breeding has merits for some farmers and that's their choice.
As a matter of interest is there an outlet for the calves or will you keep them on yourself @bruceythom
 
As a matter of interest is there an outlet for the calves or will you keep them on yourself @bruceythom

I've been moving them on to farmers who raise them for bull beef. They get them FOC. All calves treated the same so they would all be vaccinated for Rotavirus Coronavirus and would have had 3.5 litres of colostrum brixed over 25.
 
Well if you want to keep the conversation about crossbreeding, then don't be making unsubstantiated claims of farmers shooting calves, and how that's going to damage our reputation. That's what they call an oxymoron.

Some farmers are vehemently opposed to cross breeding and I respect their choice. But undermining the industry by making flippant claims of animal abuse when we have one of the best reputations for calf care in the world that we should all be taking a lot of pride in is damn irresponsible. So either report this "farmer" or accept that cross breeding has merits for some farmers and that's their choice.
That farmer was visited by the department one day last year because his mortality rate was so high so theres no need for me to report them. I wouldn't be reporting that farmer anyway even if the department hadn't done anything it's none of my business what other farmers do.
As I've mentioned above a couple of times I have nothing against crossbreeding. Yes crossbreeding does have its merits I'll admit that and as I've also said everyone has a system that suits them. Crossbreeding isn't for me as I rear my own bull calves to beef. I prefer to have an animal that will milk as good as any crossbred animal if not better and will produce beef. Crossbred animals are one trick ponies and if that suits certain peoples system then great but it doesn't suit everyone. The point I'm trying to make is that friesian cows can achieve what you're achieving with crossbred cows and might even leave a little more at the end of their life when they're hanging up.
 
Well if you want to keep the conversation about crossbreeding, then don't be making unsubstantiated claims of farmers shooting calves, and how that's going to damage our reputation. That's what they call an oxymoron.

Some farmers are vehemently opposed to cross breeding and I respect their choice. But undermining the industry by making flippant claims of animal abuse when we have one of the best reputations for calf care in the world that we should all be taking a lot of pride in is damn irresponsible. So either report this "farmer" or accept that cross breeding has merits for some farmers and that's their choice.
Lad really? Why did the co ops make such a stance on the hole thing
 
That farmer was visited by the department one day last year because his mortality rate was so high so theres no need for me to report them. I wouldn't be reporting that farmer anyway even if the department hadn't done anything it's none of my business what other farmers do.
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. Your statement basically says you are OK with shooting day-old claves. I have nothing else to say on this and won't be drawn into an argument.
 
Turning a blind eye to issues such as this is not as simple as you make out. If practices such as this become public knowledge it will have a negative effect on markets and will ultimately affect your pocket
 
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. Your statement basically says you are OK with shooting day-old claves. I have nothing else to say on this and won't be drawn into an argument.
I'm not going to go interfering in another man's business what goes on inside his gate is his own business not mine. If you read back over the posts you'll see where I said all calves born on my farm are treated the same regardless of them being a bull or a heifer.
 
Are they high maintenance cows then DC95 and Fiat 450 like what I mean do ye have to feed them a certain diet maize beet etc .. I get what ye are saying about the crossbreeding but where is the difference so ...
 
Milk through the late calvers through the winter here on baled silage and 4kg of meal. Wouldn't call that high maintenance. The high EBI friesians will respond to feed and reward you in the tank.
In 2018 during the drought had to feed heavy all year and cows rewarded the high level of meal they got with milk in the tank. Had at least a quarter of the herd doing over 10,000 litres that year and done 550kg solids. I know the meal bill was crazy that year but they still left a nice profit.
Never had to feed a special diet in normal circumstances usually just grass and and adjust your meal levels to grass available.
 
I've been moving them on to farmers who raise them for bull beef. They get them FOC. All calves treated the same so they would all be vaccinated for Rotavirus Coronavirus and would have had 3.5 litres of colostrum brixed over 25.

Are you able to catch a lad the second time with them. ? Would want to be mad to take them even free
 
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Are they high maintenance cows then DC95 and Fiat 450 like what I mean do ye have to feed them a certain diet maize beet etc .. I get what ye are saying about the crossbreeding but where is the difference so ...
Maintenance is got more to do with size of the animal rather than what they eat.
 
Are you able to catch a lad the second time with them. ? Would want to be mad to take them even free
Yea, 3 years running now. Same people are buying Friesans and beef breeds. They are happy to take them.
Question is, would you be any more mad taking them for free vs paying big money for continental calves?? :scratchhead:
Probably traditional breeds best bang for buck.
 
Yea, 3 years running now. Same people are buying Friesans and beef breeds. They are happy to take them.
Question is, would you be any more mad taking them for free vs paying big money for continental calves?? :scratchhead:
Probably traditional breeds best bang for buck.

Rearing a good friesan at 40 a head or probably a better bet is good types. Beef farming is very questionable no matter what way you do it. But anyone around here who brought home those free calves only ever done it once.

Maybe your right to just focus on the cows and forget about beef. There is no incentive in this country to have beef cattle. I used to think if everyone got into cows that the arse would fall out of it but It hasn't yet.
 
Rearing a good friesan at 40 a head or probably a better bet is good types. Beef farming is very questionable no matter what way you do it. But anyone around here who brought home those free calves only ever done it once.

Maybe your right to just focus on the cows and forget about beef. There is no incentive in this country to have beef cattle. I used to think if everyone got into cows that the arse would fall out of it but It hasn't yet.
Was talking to a butcher today and every day is Christmas for him. People are cooking more at home and avoiding the queues in supermarkets. Butcher beef is a lot better quality anyway imo. If people saw the cattle the Irish supermarkets take they'd buy in butchers.
 
Rearing a good friesan at 40 a head or probably a better bet is good types. Beef farming is very questionable no matter what way you do it. But anyone around here who brought home those free calves only ever done it once.

Maybe your right to just focus on the cows and forget about beef. There is no incentive in this country to have beef cattle. I used to think if everyone got into cows that the arse would fall out of it but It hasn't yet.

Yea, you're probably right.

The expansion we have seen here is starting to tail off so we are likely to see more dairy bred beef stock appearing.

A bit more coherence would benefit both sectors.
 
After close on 20 years crossbreeding with Jersey and hol/fr semen we have gone solely high ebi friesan since 2015.
We noticed in our dg especially that the guys with the high ebi herds of friesans were surpassing our herd performance and have kept it up, good few in the DG doing over 550 kg consistently with around 1t fed.
Last year we did 490 kgs solids @ 3.87p and 4.72 bf with a herd av lactation of 2.9.
The goal would be to do 570 kgs at 3.9p and 4.7 bf with a mature herd av 5 lactations
I think it's very doable. Our % have increased since weve gone solely friesan ebi. Our herd is young and the litres will come with maturity.
Cow size, solids and fertility take generations to get right in cows if you're going to breed them yourself. We still place big emphasis on this and its paying off i think.
Our cows are a little bit bigger of late but we're up .4kgs ms per cow per day so far this year. If they keep it up they'll produce well this year.

I think with the gains ebi has made in the last 10 years podge that you would be mad to go crossbreeding
 
After close on 20 years crossbreeding with Jersey and hol/fr semen we have gone solely high ebi friesan since 2015.
We noticed in our dg especially that the guys with the high ebi herds of friesans were surpassing our herd performance and have kept it up, good few in the DG doing over 550 kg consistently with around 1t fed.
Last year we did 490 kgs solids @ 3.87p and 4.72 bf with a herd av lactation of 2.9.
The goal would be to do 570 kgs at 3.9p and 4.7 bf with a mature herd av 5 lactations
I think it's very doable. Our % have increased since weve gone solely friesan ebi. Our herd is young and the litres will come with maturity.
Cow size, solids and fertility take generations to get right in cows if you're going to breed them yourself. We still place big emphasis on this and its paying off i think.
Our cows are a little bit bigger of late but we're up .4kgs ms per cow per day so far this year. If they keep it up they'll produce well this year.

I think with the gains ebi has made in the last 10 years podge that you would be mad to go crossbreeding

There is no substitute for EBI in my opinion. The main reason we went crossbreeding was to increase the herd solids as quickly as possible, we set a target of +30 kgs milk solids, this wasn't achievable using FRs unless we went for really milky cows which won't last in our herd herd.
The trick is to have a high EBI crossbred herd......:cool1::cool1:
 
with the gains ebi has made in the last 10 years podge that you would be mad to go crossbreeding

And 2bh Podge I don't think crossbreeding will ever be the silver bullet your expecting, regardless of what cow type you have I think you still need to simplify your current setup, and really push hard on targets like 6wk calving rate, Calving interval, submission rate etc. Crossbreeding can help you achieve these targets abit quicker, however the most of the work here is in changes in management etc.
 
Yes Tim I agree 100% . On the subject of calving and submission rates what do most of ye use for identifying cows in heat (tail paint collars) etc and find best ?..
 
Using tail paint on cows and scratch cards on heifers. Looked into the collars and monitoring systems but couldn't justify the price of them.
Tailpainting the cows twice a week and checking scratch cards 3-4 times a day on heifers
 
Tail paint on the cows for 3wks max, bull with the heifers, I found trying to spot heats in the heifers a disaster. After 3wks the bull goes in with the cows and I swap around the bulls between heifers/cows every few days. This year I'll need to either get a 3rd bull, or I could be tempted to use fixed time on the heifers.
 
I was thinking of crossbreeding some of my cows with Norwegian red to improve health and things like that a bit would it be a good or bad idea any 1 any experience with them ?
 
Podge, just by reading some of your post it sounds as if yee have some underlying health issues with the cows.
We have aswell molibnium copper sulpher and extremely hi iron .Water has been tested and the iron content leaves it unfit for iron consumption.we are in the process of getting an iron filtration system.
We also have " thiamolibnate poisoning " it's a combination of molibnium iron and sulphur reacting together in the rumen.
It's not going to be solved over night but il will let you know.

Have you done any forage mineral analysis bloods or water samples.

No breeding or crossbreeding can sort these issues
 
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