Belgian Blue Cattle

I've had a few commercial cattle and am running a nurse cow-calf program with my brother. After doing some talking we decided that we'd start holding back some of our better heifers and look for a good bull prospect to essentially make our own cattle so we don't have to buy all of those bottle calves to put on our nurse cows.
Most of the stock around here are your basic or more common breeds: Angus, Charolais, Brangus, Hereford, Black Simmental (*I make a point to call them black, I know they are good cattle but I like the traditional hide better), Brahman, Baldy and etc. Each breed has its own following and breeders who'll swear up and down that they are the BEST breed ever to put four hooves on the ground, I've just been nodding my head- tipping my hat and going about my merry way when I talk to someone who gets on their breed's soapbox and tells me the same information I can find on Oklahoma State's website.
After going back and forth on the idea for a few years we decided that we'd like to get a Belgian Blue bull. I'm not one to judge a breed as much as I will judge a bull, but most of what I have read concerning the cut out benefits of using a Belgian Blue as a terminal sire have impressed me. I have looked a pictures of these cattle from breeders the world over, some are grotesque in their muscling but there are some sleeker ones that are averaging about 2300lbs mature weight that look appealing.
I wouldn't use a Belgian Blue on heifers until it was proven that he threw lightweight calves but I doubt many mature cows would have any difficulty calving. I know that the other breeds are easier to acquire and that black hided cattle bring more at most sale barns but I am more interested in the additional 7-10% of cut out that this breed is said to bring to the table with a 50% cross.

A pair of questions now:

1.) Has anyone had any experience with this breed? I understand the difficulties with some of the breeds' heifers and cows given their sometimes extreme rumps, but given the focus that has been placed on lower birth weight calves in the 75-85lb range, I am eyeing a bull for use in a commercial program.

2.) Does anyone know where I can find a good weaned bull calf? My brother is still in Afghanistan and talking back and forth he has been having me do most of the searching, his only request is that the bull be closer to a White or Blue than a predominantly black one. I don't personally care but in his words, "I don't want a Belgian Blue that looks like a d@mn Holstein!"

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

In my AI business, I have bred about a dozen cows with BB semen. About half were Holstein/Holstein crosses, and the rest were primarily beef crossbreds. The farmer who had me do this is now deceased, but he told me that the calves were HUGE, and that he only saved a couple of them, and I believe he also said he lost a couple cows. Of course, we only used one bull, and this was a dozen or so years ago, so there are likely bulls out there that are easier calvers than the one we used. I'd opt for finding some semen from a bull that's a proven easy calver. Losing a cow or calf during these extreme high prices is prohibitively expensive. Good luck!

I spent the last few days talking with breeders and looking for a weaned bull calf. I thought about going the AI route but I after losing $700 trying to AI some sows I had a few years back, the whole process lost favor with me. Well, one breeder told me about his bulls and made them sound great, I looked at pictures and they were nice but didn't fit all of my criteria. I asked about any bulls that weren't weaned and he said he had a really nice one that'd be weaned in a few months, with a birth weight of 110lbs! I told him that one was darn near born ready for service!

I got to talking with a breeder in NC and we started talking about birth weights. He told me that at first everyone wanted to go for the more extreme muscling and the calves tended to be too heavy. Then the breeders began selecting for lighter weight calves but they went too far and had light weight calves BUT these became heifers that had narrow pelvises and had trouble calving! He told me that his calve between 75-85lbs with the average being 82.5. That isn't a little calf but is a one that my cows can handle.
I intended to wait a bit longer to get a bull BUT went ahead and pulled the trigger on a deal. I'm going to pick him up sometime towards the latter part of next week and will post a few pictures.

Don't give up on AI. AI for swine and cattle are entirely different processes. We are having great success with cattle. I have been involved with over 4000 head this year with no complaints. Not sure where you could get BB semen though.

There is an AI class that Mississippi State University is going to offer this fall, I will try and get to it and maybe my opinion will change.
Since I'll be getting this bull, I have looked for places to collect and store semen. He looks nice and I expect him to pull his own weight and contribute in a big way, otherwise I'll buy two extra freezers.

M.L. McKnight said:

I got to talking with a breeder in NC and we started talking about birth weights. He told me that at first everyone wanted to go for the more extreme muscling and the calves tended to be too heavy. Then the breeders began selecting for lighter weight calves but they went too far and had light weight calves BUT these became heifers that had narrow pelvises and had trouble calving! He told me that his calve between 75-85lbs with the average being 82.5. That isn't a little calf but is a one that my cows can handle.
I intended to wait a bit longer to get a bull BUT went ahead and pulled the trigger on a deal. I'm going to pick him up sometime towards the latter part of next week and will post a few pictures.

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That is a concern in any breed and even in any species--breeding for smaller frame sizes and you end up going so far that heifers and even mature cows have trouble having even a small or medium size calf. In beef cattle, we have seen the move toward smaller frame sizes over the last few decades and sometimes it has come bac to bite us in the butt just like you stated.
BBs are certainly an interesting breed, but from "most" of what I have heard and read, they are comparitively docile for their size and weight.
Good luck-looking forward to the pics.

This is Rueben. He is a full blood, born 12/4/2013.

Straight line on top, short sheathed, has the 3 bull essentials-------butt-guts-and nuts-he ought to work for ya!!

I'm hoping he works out, so far so good. He might see a little light service in the Spring but he's mainly a future investment at the moment. I am in the market for Gelbvieh and Balancer heifers, I believe that cross will make for some nice calves. The only trouble is the pickins are pretty slim around these parts so I'll probably have to go to Kansas to find some quality stock.
I want Gelbvieh and Balancer stock but if it comes down to it I will stick with the best commercial beef heifers I can find locally or go the cheap route and use some longhorns. I saw some Belgian Blue x Longhorn steers and those rascals were mighty impressive, a BB x Gelbvieh would be a lot more impressive but that might just be a goal that I'll have to keep working towards until I find them.
With beef prices being so high some people seem to have forgotten what a cull is and that is hurting the quality of the breeding stock out there.