permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

> Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:45:40 -0500
> From: "Lucky.Pittman" <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>
> Subject: [grazersedge] RE: Normande/Fleckvieh/RX3
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> >===== Original Message From grazersedge@yahoogroups.com =====
> >Does that mean she sleeps in your lap or that she is always fetching
> >stuff?  What do you think about them as a possible milk putter inner
> >for a low milking beef strain?  Any meat on their bones, or are the
> >like Jerseys and Holsteins in that respect?
>
> If you're trying to improve milk production in low-milking beef cattle 
> without
> sacrificing carcass traits, why not try using something like a good
> Fleckvieh(Austrian/German strain of Simmental) - originally, they were
> dual-purpose cattle with selection for milk production, but they maintained a
> more moderate frame and heavier muscling than did the Swiss & French types
> that were in the initial U.S. importations.  Good dispositions, and if you
> choose wisely, many have good calving ease scores(I've used 'em on Holstein
> heifers and small-frame Angus cows with no problems), maternal calving ease,
> as well as good weaning and yearling weights.
>
> Many of the breed sire summaries, and most of the AI catalogs list EPDs for
> important traits such as calving ease, maternal calving ease(a measure of how
> easily a bull's daughter's calve out as first-timers), milk, weaning &
> yearling weights.  Haven't looked at 'across-breed' EPDs in quite a while, 
> but
> the breed EPDs apply primarily to the breed itself - for instance, a 
> Simmental
> bull with a zero or negative milk EPD will still probably put a whole lot 
> more
> milking capacity into his daughters than will one of the higher milk bulls 
> in,
> say, the Polled Hereford breed(and a he** of a lot more than any Chianina!).
>
> Not knocking Normande, but Simmental, Braunvieh(beef strain Brown Swiss),
> Maine-Anjou and others have been in the country for 30+ years in beef herds,
> and I think they're pretty much a proven entity in beef crossbreeding.  And,
> for those folks who've just got to have black, most of them are available in
> that color.
>
> I've been wanting, for years, to get hold of some RX3 genetics, but they're
> just not available in my area.
> The RX3 was a composite beef breed, originally developed by Pioneer genetics,
> from a base of 1/4 Hereford, 1/4 Red Holstein, and 1/2 Red Angus.  Polled
> animals, good milk, good carcass traits, good mothering ability; selected
> mainly for production traits, most are solid red, but there probably are some
> old brockle-faced cows still around in some herds.  There's still a small
> group of RX3 breeders out in the midwest, but none around here.
>
> My $.02
>
> Lucky
>
>
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Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM