Black Baldy Bulls (sw)

[cowboyup]

sw,
When I went by the college station yesterday I saw what appeared to be a black baldy bull and wondered if you knew the story and or results.

Has anybody else used black baldy bulls and what kind of results have you seen?

[sw]

I don't know what you saw, could be a black Simmental, they have been doing that genetics study with the Simmental Assoc. for the last five years, it was all AI but maybe now they are cleaning up with some of them. If you know Pete Olind, stop in on your way by and ask him what is going on, he will tell you what you need to know.

[cowboyup]

I don't know Pete.

He sure didn't look like any black simmental that I have ever seen but he sure could be.

Just got me curious when I saw him and then my mind went wondering if anybody ran black baldy bulls. I guess I've never run across any out on the range.

[Badlands]

At Red Bluff or the Towne Farm?


They have been doing the pheromone research at Towne Farm, and kept back some Black Baldie commercial calves as bulls for that project.

Just a guess, but that might be what you might have seen.

Badlands

[Angus Cattle Shower]

We run a red baldie bull, but not a black baldie. He's a supa-baldie (simm/angus.)

[cowboyup]

[Denny]

I have some cows that are sired by a black baldy bull they were nice calves and are great cows.It should work just fine hell all the other (BLACK) breeds are angus and whatever mixed anyhow just as well use a hereford angus cross.They are busy promoteing every other composite anyhow.We ai'ed a super good Shorthorn cow to a Horned hereford bull hopeing for a bull calf to use on some straight black cows.Could'nt be anyworse than breeding some 4 way crossed cows to a Sim/Angus or whatever else there is..

[Oldtimer]

It has always surprised me that some of the Hereford breeders don't breed a few of their cows, especially the heifers, to some angus bulls and sell the baldy bulls and heifers...I always thought since the hereford/angus makes such a good cow- why not try the bulls too...

Thirty years ago we used some hereford/simmental cross bulls for a few years..Really produced some nice big calves and when the baldy heifers sired by them were kept for cows they were great...Only disadvantages I found was some high birthweights and calving problems and horns....Sometimes I think that growth heterosis sets in before they are born......

[Badlands]

Right on, Oldtimer, I've thought the same thing many times. Everybody likes a baldie cow, but not as many want to buy a Hereford bull. Of course, I don't see you Angus guys breeding to Hereford bulls.

As I thought about it some more, I would bet that the bull you saw was one of the ones I described.

I say this because when I was at MSU, we Wintered all the bulls at Red Bluff.

Badlands

[Jason]

The biggest problem with crossbred or composite bulls is they sire 2 or more sets of calves. By that I mean an Angus/Simm will sire some Angus type calves and some Simm type calves.

The odds are reduced somewhat if the cows are the same composite, but then they can throw 3 types, 1/4 simm type, 1/4 angus type and 1/2 angus/simm cross types.

Using Angus/Hereford bulls, they seem to either throw Black calves (so just use an Angus bull) or they throw Hereford looking calves, some which are black with the featherneck.

Using composites actually loses your hybrid boost in many instances.

Another factor involved is that composite bulls are often from the poorer cows of a breed that can't compete in a purebred situation. I have seen Angus cows that wouldn't raise a 600 pound Angus calf, but the owner has a market for those crossbred bulls so he breeds her Simmental. The calf weans at over 700 and sells for good money. The buyer never went back, he got lots of little calves and a few big Simmental type calves.

[Northern Rancher]

Well if you use purebred Angus bulls they'll all be black-will they all be good not always. Will they be more even hanging onthe rail-maybe-maybe not. A good stockman who uses Xbred bulls can raise pretty darn uniform calves. However if you are planning on using Xbreds you might as well raise them yourself out of your best commercial cows-they're adapted to your management or lack of it in my case. I've seen some xbred herds were like peas in a pod and some purebred herds that had a dog from every town. It's not so much genetics you use but how you use them. There's a place for purebred and crossbred bulls in the beef business it's up to you to decide if it's your place.

[John SD]

I might regret it but this year I saved a Hereford-sired bull calf from one of my black bronchial-faced baldy cows.

His mama is just a nice mannered solid cow that goes about her business. She has a perfect, well balanced udder with small black teats.

He is deep red, horned, (now dehorned) and has near perfect traditional Hereford markings. He also has lots of red pigment around his eyes and scrotum.

I plan on using him on my younger black and baldy cows this summer. I'll know by this time in 2009 how my experiment turns out!