DiamondSCattleCo
Well-known member
After checking my weights over, my crossing to Shorthorn bulls has done most of what I wanted: Better average weight gain per day and very good feed conversion.
However, on about 1/3 of my commercial animals (mostly the Brit/Brit crosses), the Simm cross still worked the best, so I went shopping for a Simm bull today. The breeder that I normally buy from downsized last year and sold all his bulls already, so that leaves me with a couple other breeder choices.
One of these breeders uses nothing but Fleckvieh stock, but I've never looked closely at Fleck stuff before. From the little bit of reading I've done tonight, I understand they are generally easier fleshing than larger framed Simm stock. The big non-polled heads scare me a bit, as my critters are smaller framed (1200 lb avg). Two of the bulls I'll be looking at have 90-100 lb birthweights, which my ladies can normally handle, but I've never bred to non-polled animal before either.
So I guess I'm looking for is someone who can give me some generalizations on Flecks, preferably someone whose used both in the past. Calving ease, fleshing, etc... Any particular bloodlines to be watching for? These are terminal cross animals, so heifer retention is not a priority. I'm looking for pure performance without having to pull every last calf.
Rod
However, on about 1/3 of my commercial animals (mostly the Brit/Brit crosses), the Simm cross still worked the best, so I went shopping for a Simm bull today. The breeder that I normally buy from downsized last year and sold all his bulls already, so that leaves me with a couple other breeder choices.
One of these breeders uses nothing but Fleckvieh stock, but I've never looked closely at Fleck stuff before. From the little bit of reading I've done tonight, I understand they are generally easier fleshing than larger framed Simm stock. The big non-polled heads scare me a bit, as my critters are smaller framed (1200 lb avg). Two of the bulls I'll be looking at have 90-100 lb birthweights, which my ladies can normally handle, but I've never bred to non-polled animal before either.
So I guess I'm looking for is someone who can give me some generalizations on Flecks, preferably someone whose used both in the past. Calving ease, fleshing, etc... Any particular bloodlines to be watching for? These are terminal cross animals, so heifer retention is not a priority. I'm looking for pure performance without having to pull every last calf.
Rod