Azriel
Loving the herd life
I like to plan ahead, and have 2 heifer calves that i will be breeding next summer. They are Charolais/Angus mix. One is bigger, larger frame like the Charolais, and the other smaller more like the Angus. I've been trying to decide what to breed them to, and will be doing AI, so have several choices. #1 in importantance to me is calving ease, so low birth weight. I've been looking at Dexter, but would perfer no horns, so also been looking at Lowline. I don't really care about color, so I've looked at Shorthorn, but from what I've read birth weight is about 85#- I thought Shorthorn were smaller, is that big or not? Also been looking at Red Angus, but what is considered low birth weight, I was thinking 50# or so, but I guess I don't know what a 50# calf versus a 85# calf looks like.
This year I bred my heifer(Brown Swiss/ Shorthorn) to a Jersey both for low birth weight and because I'm hoping she will have a heifer so I have my future milk cow, but I don't want to keep breeding all my heifers to a Jersey just for low birth weight, altho what people want for Jersey/Jersey mixes around here, maybe thats not such a bad idea if you could guarantee you would only get heifers. Any thoughts or advice welcome
This year I bred my heifer(Brown Swiss/ Shorthorn) to a Jersey both for low birth weight and because I'm hoping she will have a heifer so I have my future milk cow, but I don't want to keep breeding all my heifers to a Jersey just for low birth weight, altho what people want for Jersey/Jersey mixes around here, maybe thats not such a bad idea if you could guarantee you would only get heifers. Any thoughts or advice welcome