If I bred a Jersey to a Charolais

[Tango]

Theoretically, would she produce less milk and be less likely to get milk fever? The placenta would be 50% Charolais right? Would this help lower the risk for milk fever? Thanks.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

If you breed a jersey cow to a charolais bull you are possibly going to get a calf that you may have to pull. Smaller cow - bigger bull is not a good idea.

[Tango]

Okay. Thanks. How about replacing the Charolais with any other more appropriately-sized non-dairy bull? How about my original question?

[agmantoo]

Breed the Jersey to a red or black Angus and you will get the compromise you referenced along with minimum calving problems.

[pygmywombat]

The calf from a beef cross would be less likely to get milk fever and lower production, yes. Angus are the favored Jersey crosses.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Your Jersey cow would still have a chance, but milk fever is mostly affected by environment and feeding during the dry spell. We very rarely deal with milk fever cases and we have a herd of Jerseys and Jersey/Norwegian Red crosses. Even the few cases we have are not a huge deal. We treat them sub-Q and the cow is good to go.

The dam's body has a lot of say in how big the calf is going to be. Jerseys are known for their ease of calving as well.
The school ran a Hereford/Limousine bull with the open heifers (some not even two years old yet) and open dry cows. Haven't lost a heifer yet and the first ones to calve had just turned 2 years old. Out of about 18 head that have calved so far, two calves born dead (one had to be pulled) and two total pulled. Those were out of first freshening four eyar olds though. The issue there is they are too fat.

Angus is a popular choice.
We ran an Angus bull for clean up about five years ago. Only one dead calf there and it was out of a 21 month old first freshener (she didn't agree with us when we thought she shouldn't be bred that young). The cow was fine, the large bull calf was born dead. Only one we lost that year.

[quailkeeper]

I have a friend whose Jersey cow was bred by a brangus bull by accident. She not only lost a beautiful heifer calf that had to be pulled, her cow never recovered and had to be run thru the sale barn. I also vote for an angus bull. Their calf weights are similiar to Jersey calf weights. When I sold my cow I had her bred to an angus bull. The Jersey/angus cross heifers are very popular.

[Tango]

Alright thank you! The neighbor on the other side raises red angus There are some gorgeous bull calves over there right now which are going to a 4H type sale tomorrow. He wouldn't let me buy one of those since they're all consigned so I guess I'll wait until he weans the next ones.

[linn]

I agree with Agmantoo. If you breed your jersey to a black or red angus bull you will get a reasonable sized calf and a good milker if it is a heifer calf. I am milking a jersey/red angus cross. This is her second calf and I am getting about 4 gallons per day. Please do not consider breeding a jersey to a big boned breed. You might get lucky; but what is more likely is that you will either have to pull a calf or you might lose both cow and calf. You cannot watch your jersey 100 percent of the time and she might calve when you are not there to help her. We have had this happen several times with our beef cows and heifers running in the pasture, and believe me it makes you sick to find a nice heifer dead because she couldn't have her calf. You can always have your jersey Artificially Inseminated to an angus.

[MississippiSlim]

From what I rmember, charolais do end to cause some calving problems. I would look at the front shoulders and head of the bull. If he has small front shoulders/ head and you haven't had any problems with your beef cows calving it would work. As stated above though, I think an angus would be a great choice.

[myersfarm]

i have one of them crosses.....she is real big and she gives 4 1/2 gallons a day milking once a day...she has the best calfs but i also think she realy eats alot more then my jerseys do.......dont think i would want any more of them....if you want i have a picture of her with her new born calf...i milk jerseys and feed to dairy calfs also have 80 head angus.....i put the angus cross heifers in the beef herd and you should see the calfs those cows raise....john

[Cravenwas]

We have successfully bred our Jersey cows to Simmental bulls for the past 8 years. We always pick bulls with birth weights of 95lbs or less. They must be smooth through the head, neck and shoulder. We check birth weight, calving ease and maternal epd's. We have never had to assist with any of the births and the female offspring have all been bred back to Simmental with no problems. We have 6 generations of females from the one line. All heifers are bred as yearlings and calve out as 22 to 25 month olds.

[coso]

Brangus bulls are used on heifers in commercial operations for ease of calving over Angus. Might want to try that if you could find one available. Any beef bull you use is going to be more of a risk because they are larger framed then a Jersey. A lot of the calving trouble is genectic. If you could look at the EPD of the bull you are going to use it will tell you a lot about what he might throw. My .02.

[Trisha-MN]

We also have a Jersey X Angus, she is now 3 and is a sharp looking cow and her calves are very nice and grow well.

[Tango]

Thank you for the great responses. You've given me a lot to consider. Since my Jersey is already bred for next year I have more time to consider the risks and sizes of her next bull. Definitely will be beef, cause if its a bull it will be for the freezer for us.