Jersey+??

[Homesteader333]

I am planning to get a jersey cow/heifer in the future and I wanted to know what I could cross her with to get a nice calf that will be used for beef. The meat should have a great quality and a good quantity. I know that jerseys are quite small so the bull can't be too big. What are my best options and why? Thanks!

[floyd242]

My neighbor crosses his Jerseys with Murray Greys for meat. They are supposed to be really good on pasture.

[65284]

In my opinion Jersey beef is excellent, it's our beef of choice. Our Jerseys produce nice sized calves that make more than enough meat for our family of 3 with some left to sell.

[Ziptie]

We have been crossing ours with an Angus bull (AI). I guess this guy throws small calves. The calf looks fully Angus all black and has the short stubby face of a Angus.

Our cow has been really hard to settle and that is what finally took. Saying that we have some bottle Jersey calves and they are just as good eatin. Kinda of like the the smaller cattle. Not so much meat at once and easier to handle around the small homestead.

[haypoint]

I would suggest you use AI with a good Jersey. If you have a bull calf, castrate and enjoy excellent Jersey steer beef.
But, if you get a heifer, she'll be more valuable. You could sell her and buy a bigger full beef, like Angus, Hereford, and raise it for a larger quantity of beef than you'd get with any cross and great home raised quality beef.
Any cross with a Jersey is going to be small. Breed her to any larger breed and risk killing her at calving.

[collegeboundgal]

Depending on your location, unless you've got a papered, show, or "milk tested/measured" jersey cow, any calf crossed with a beef bull will be worth more money. Whether a steer or heifer, cross with meat bull, and you'll get more bang for your "beef"...

[Spamela]

I also have a jersey heifer I'm looking forward to breeding to a beef bull. I'm goona start out with a angus for easy calving and then go from there. Despite being small jerseys are easy calvers. A farm down the road who milks jerseys breeds them to herefords.... they look pretty good. And i agree. 90% of the time a beef cross is goona bring more money... sorry haypoint lol

[Ronney]

While I personally think that Jersey beef can't be beaten, that doesn't do me a lot of good when finishing cattle to sell to the works. I use an Angus bull as a terminal sire. Easy calving, small birthweight but rapid growth. Still good beef in the freezer but good money from the works.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[barnbilder]

Should be easy enough to find an angus bull to AI to with a low birthweight and good calving ease scores. Some of them are throwing near jersey sized calves. If you want to get rid of it at the sale barn, breed to an Angus. If you want a niche market you could breed her to a Dexter. Dexter/Jersey crosses could be very marketable. If you want the chance for another milker, go Jersey all the way. (Sexed semen is a vailable to insure a heifer, by the way.) If you want a steer for your freezer, it really doesn't matter, some will yield more though, just be sure she can have the calf. I wouldn't breed her to something known for 100 pound birthweights, or anything like that.

[idigbeets]

I'll third the... angus bull route.

[Otter]

Originally Posted by collegeboundgal

Depending on your location, unless you've got a papered, show, or "milk tested/measured" jersey cow, any calf crossed with a beef bull will be worth more money. Whether a steer or heifer, cross with meat bull, and you'll get more bang for your "beef"...

Originally Posted by Spamela

I also have a jersey heifer I'm looking forward to breeding to a beef bull. I'm goona start out with a angus for easy calving and then go from there. Despite being small jerseys are easy calvers. A farm down the road who milks jerseys breeds them to herefords.... they look pretty good. And i agree. 90% of the time a beef cross is goona bring more money... sorry haypoint lol

Spamela, where do you live?
Collegeboundgal, I love near enough to Springfield to look at sale ads and weanling Jersey heifers sell for 2x what beef heifers do, and beef/jersey cross fall somewhere in between, usually on the lower side.
Steer calves, yes, Jersey's are cheaper, but sexed semen is only like an extra $10 when you AI and Jersey Heifers are twice the price.

But listen, if either of you know where Jersey heifers are bringing less money than beef heifers, hook me up. Seriously. I can't touch one for less than $600 dollars for a 5 hour drive in any direction, and if I see one advertised as cheap as $600, I better have started driving 3 hours ago because she will be gone by the time I get there. Mostly a 5 month old jersey goes for about a grand. Non-black beef heifer the same weight I can get for $3-400. Jersey heifer bottle calves have been selling recently at the sale barn for $350 or more. I almost fell over, I don't care what kind it is, it's a sale barn calf! But people are buying.

I'd AI to a good Jersey, use sexed semen for a 90+% chance of a heifer. It's like printing your own money.

[Spamela]

I live in the middle of wisconsin. In february I bought a breedable 3 month old jersey heifer for $200. Beef and beef cross calves are going for $500 newborn.

[haypoint]

Cattle prices have been crazy for the past year or so, so I won't say "impossible" for a Jersey/Angus cross calf bringing anything close to $500. A good quality Jersey heifer, from a top Jersey AI bull, should hit that mark.
If you bought a poor quality Jersey, you won't have much to add to the breed by staying with Jersey.
Because of the normally small birth weight of a jersey, you are limited to breeds that share that trait. Hereford, Angus, Jersey, Dexter. But even within that small group, you must still select for low birth weight.

[tommyanunnaki]

You can use any beef breed. My main selection factor would be based on low birth weight and something really beefy. If you're just going to be eating it then I don't think that the breed really matters.

You may even want to breed her to a Jersey bull. I would think that a nice registered Jersey heifer would have to be worth at least TWO feeder calves in a trade situation. If you have a bull calf you just eat him yourself.

There are a lot of different ways to go. My family used to AI our Jersey cow to whatever Polled Hereford bull that our herefords were getting and we would veal that calf. The calves were always born just fine. They tasted great. It was just what was easiest. We bred her once to a Jersey bull and got a nice heifer calf out of her that was used as a replacement animal.

[Spamela]

I just remembered reading an article awhile back about a jersey dairy farm that did sexed jersey semen for however many replacement heifers they wanted and bred the rest to limousin.

Found it

http://www.dairyherd.com/dairy-herd/...176318731.html

On this cross they reported out 98.8% unassisted calving

[Spamela]

Originally Posted by haypoint

Cattle prices have been crazy for the past year or so, so I won't say "impossible" for a Jersey/Angus cross calf bringing anything close to $500. A good quality Jersey heifer, from a top Jersey AI bull, should hit that mark.
If you bought a poor quality Jersey, you won't have much to add to the breed by staying with Jersey.
Because of the normally small birth weight of a jersey, you are limited to breeds that share that trait. Hereford, Angus, Jersey, Dexter. But even within that small group, you must still select for low birth weight.

I grew up on a dairy farm. Dad is still milking cows. In high school FFA I got 3rd place in state for dairy judging. So believe me she is one good looking animal. I would say better than my dad's jerseys who have been AI bred for the last 20+ years. Her dad was also a straw. And i bought her for $200

So I guess it just depends on where you live.

[haypoint]

Originally Posted by Spamela

I grew up on a dairy farm. Dad is still milking cows. In high school FFA I got 3rd place in state for dairy judging. So believe me she is one good looking animal. I would say better than my dad's jerseys who have been AI bred for the last 20+ years. Her dad was also a straw. And i bought her for $200

So I guess it just depends on where you live.

Everyone should know that cattle prices, all over the country, are at all time high prices. When were you in FFA? A lot has happened in a few years. What was true a decade ago, isn't relevant today.
Also, as far as crossing with limousine, do what you want but be aware the average birth weight for a Jersey is around 50 pounds and the average birth weight of a limousine is about 77 pounds.
There is no way I'd risk that with my Jersey heifer.

[Otter]

Spamela, if you want to make a nice chunk of change, buy every one you can get for that price and haul them here. No joke. I will email you the local auction report to show what wet-naveled bottle calves go for, and it's more than that.

Just be sure to sell me one without too much mark-up.

[Spamela]

Originally Posted by haypoint

Everyone should know that cattle prices, all over the country, are at all time high prices. When were you in FFA? A lot has happened in a few years. What was true a decade ago, isn't relevant today.
Also, as far as crossing with limousine, do what you want but be aware the average birth weight for a Jersey is around 50 pounds and the average birth weight of a limousine is about 77 pounds.
There is no way I'd risk that with my Jersey heifer.

I was just trying to point out that I know what to look for in cattle and what makes a good cow a decade ago is still true today so I'm not sure what you mean so maybe some specifics? And like I said I am still involved in cattle, I still help with my dad's dairy farm and buy all his bull calves and raise them. So I know what is "relevent" today. Don't assume someone bought "poor quality" when you haven't seen the calf and don't assume someone doesn't know what they are talking about.

I know you are passionate about keeping jerseys "pure" I have seen your other posts on the subject. So I am not trying to change your mind. The person who asked this question wanted to know about a cross for great quanity and good quality meat. I responded to that. They did not ask what would make the best replacement heifer.

I was just sharing that they crossed limos with jerseys THOUSANDS of times and had a 98.8% unassisted calving. I agree I wouldn't do it with a heifer either, but a cow with a history of easy calving, absolutley.

You don't live too far from me so I am baffled by where you have seen $500 newborn jerseys, I've never seen an add for one that high, and they don't keep a record of newborn jerseys heifers at the salebarn, just holsteins and those are going for less than bulls. You can find tons of jersey cows going for 800-1200 and even less so I don't understand why anyone would pay 500 for a newborn. I am in the middle of dairy country so I am sure that is why they are cheaper here than down south, but I am not sure why it would be so much more expensive up in the UP

Just out of curiousity, how many jerseys do you milk?

Anyway I didn't join this forum to argue so this will be my last post on this topic. Sorry to everyone else about this rant lol I didn't mean to get in a sqwable with anyone.

[haypoint]

Originally Posted by Spamela

I was just trying to point out that I know what to look for in cattle and what makes a good cow a decade ago is still true today so I'm not sure what you mean so maybe some specifics? And like I said I am still involved in cattle, I still help with my dad's dairy farm and buy all his bull calves and raise them. So I know what is "relevent" today. Don't assume someone bought "poor quality" when you haven't seen the calf and don't assume someone doesn't know what they are talking about.

I know you are passionate about keeping jerseys "pure" I have seen your other posts on the subject. So I am not trying to change your mind. The person who asked this question wanted to know about a cross for great quanity and good quality meat. I responded to that. They did not ask what would make the best replacement heifer.

I was just sharing that they crossed limos with jerseys THOUSANDS of times and had a 98.8% unassisted calving. I agree I wouldn't do it with a heifer either, but a cow with a history of easy calving, absolutley.

You don't live too far from me so I am baffled by where you have seen $500 newborn jerseys, I've never seen an add for one that high, and they don't keep a record of newborn jerseys heifers at the salebarn, just holsteins and those are going for less than bulls. You can find tons of jersey cows going for 800-1200 and even less so I don't understand why anyone would pay 500 for a newborn. I am in the middle of dairy country so I am sure that is why they are cheaper here than down south, but I am not sure why it would be so much more expensive up in the UP

Just out of curiousity, how many jerseys do you milk?

Anyway I didn't join this forum to argue so this will be my last post on this topic. Sorry to everyone else about this rant lol I didn't mean to get in a sqwable with anyone.

Written communication is difficult way to get a message across. I wasn't arguing with you. You claim to have bought a high quality Jersey Heifer for $200 some years ago. I was trying to point out that what was true, price wise, is very different today. I doubt you could buy much quality for $200 today.

Encouraging the crossing of limos onto Jersey, dismissing the 50% increase in birth weight is troubling to me. Adding later that you would not do it with a Jersey heifer might get overlooked.

Owning a breeding age Jersey and wanting to fill the freezer with beef can be accomplished in a couple ways. Your suggestion of finding a low birth weight beef breed could result in a beefier Jersey calf. Small, but better muscled than pure Jersey. I was trying to introduce an other option. Check the sale barn prices for your area. Perhaps a 5 month old Jersey Heifer could be sold and a pair of week old beef cross steers purchased. If you end up with a Jersey bull calf, perhaps you could buy another, fairly cheap, to raise together.