Has anybody ever raised highlander X for freezer beef

[Radicalrob01]

I was thinking of raising some highland cross for my freezer and to sell off whole animal for beef. I do not wish to get in to selling halves or cuts. Any good crosses for grass feed? Im not sure if I would go for larger heaveier in a two year to finish or maybe a smaller but earlier to finish.

[laughingllama75]

Yes, we have done several. We crossed highland cow with polled hereford bull, and the calves came out polled, longer hair with a white face every time. Thier rate of gain was good, about the same as the angus calves. Last one we had was 12 months and 1020# lived weight. I ended up selling him to someone who wanted to grass finish. We normally raised them for 22-24 months.

[Hexe]

We've had several Dexter/Highland crosses, we finish them grass fed and process at 18 months. They're usually about 440 lbs hanging weight.
We like them and my customers do as well.
Good Luck.

[Radicalrob01]

Doing some research I was think of starting out with 2 or 3 Simmental heifers and a Highland bull and then keep the heifers they produce and get a 2nd Highland bull. So my sim/lander F1 cross back to the highland breed with the 2nd bull. So I will sell all bull/steers of the F1 and all heifers,bulls/steers of the F1cross back as either breeders or beef.