Will Holstein Bull Kill a Brown Swiss Heifer?

[jode]

I have a approx. 2 year old Brown Swiss heifer. I am looking at trading some stuff for a ~14 month old Holstein bull to breed her. My question is, will this result in a dead mama cow when the calf gets stuck?

Any thoughts welcome.

[francismilker]

Unless you have the birthweight information on any specific bull, you don't know what you're gonna end up with. Most folks say to use a jersey bull on milk heifers and an angus bull on beef heifers. But anymore, genetics have been crossed up so much you don't know what you're getting for birthweights on Angus.

As far as I've ever known, Holsteins have a reputation and history of having high birthweight calves. You might also look at the frame size of and weight of the brown swiss cow.

[tyusclan]

Brown Swiss and Holstein are very similar in size. Unless the birth weight EPD on the bull is very high, you shouldn't have a problem. If she's already 2, then that'll make her nearly 3 before the calf comes. I'd breed them and never look back. There's always a chance of having an overly large calf and having to pull it, but I don't think the odds of that happening are very high.

[sammyd]

I think the whole size vs breed thing has been blown out of porportion. I have bred and been involved with the decision on what to breed many animals and very rarely has there been a problem with size. In 35+ years of being on and around holsteins I have only twice had to use the dreaded calf pulling jack.
Your heifer is way old and should be capable of handling a birth by the time she freshens.
She's a swiss which is a large animal.
Holstiens do not all throw "giant" calves. It's a myth perpetuated by the off breed producers to keep their breeds alive by using their semen on holstein heifers.

[DaleK]

If he's going to cause calving problems on your BS, he'll cause them on Holsteins too. I wouldn't worry about it too much, we switched to Holsteins gradually by starting with purebred Ayrshires crossed to AI Holstein bulls and didn't have any more problems than when we were using Ayrshire bulls, later used Holsteins on Jerseys and Jersey crosses with no more problems either.