I'm looking at getting a couple of angus-holstein cross heifer calves in a few months.

Just wondering if anyone had any experience with this cross, and if I might find some pics of some?

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 31, 2002

Answers

Used to work on a dairy farm that had a motley crew of breeds in the herd. Even had a few angus! The milk seemed to be ok. The udder is very weird compared to a dairy breed, with long narrow quarters and long fat teats. But I suspect you would have less problem with udder edema and loss of suspension in later years. You also will probably have better than average pasturing ability in those cows, than you would have in pure Holstein, as Angus can maintain body condition on pretty poor pasture. However, keep in mind that Angus tend to be more wild natured. They are harder to work with than Herefords, for instance. But then, Holsteins are so laid-back that these cross- breeds may be easy to handle. I would pay close attention to personality right now, before you buy. Look for intelligence, curiosity, and trust.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.

I have no problem with mine for wildness. The few times they break out they come to the house & bug me to put them back in. I find Holstiens very hard on fences. The black male calves are gentler than the white male calves for me. Not that I trust either...

My problem is breeding - if the gal favors a little boned Angus, and has big boned Holstien calf it gets a little tough once in a while.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 31, 2002.

Tracy, are you talking about having them for beef or to milk? I have had several half and halfs in my dairy herd. They milk all right and their udder depends on which half they took after. I've had ones like daffodyllady describes and ones that had udders like a pretty decent Holstein. For looks, they much more resemble an Angus than anything else. Very blocky, broad cows. The crosses are nearly always solid black, too. For beef because the body type resembles the Angus closely they do very well.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), January 31, 2002.

It's not unusual for them to have a bit of white around the eyes and chest from my experience.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 31, 2002.

They would be both for milk and meat....I plan to milk the cows and/or use them for nurse cows, and then breed them back to an Angus bull every year (cause I can breed them for free :))

The babies we will raise to butcher.

This cross was suggested to me by a local rancher. He has a dairyman buddy who has these crosses....he said the Mexican workers usually take them (because they don't keep them in the herd) but that he was sure he could wrangle a few for me. He said they milk pretty good, and that we'd have something nicer to butcher than a full Holstein. Also, Black cattle sell for more $ in the ring if we ever had to get rid of any babies that way.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 31, 2002.

I have a 10 month old angus/holstein cross heifer. She resembles an angus and I plan to bred her to an angus, and use her babies for beef. I must say that if I had a chance I would have chosen a hereford cross instead. Indeed she has a fiery side to her, although raised as a bottle baby she did throw my husband across the barn the other day as he was attempting to tie her up for her grain. She is sweet on occasion but she can be a pistol. Good Luck!

-- cara lewis (moomaine@hotmail.com), January 31, 2002.

Thanks for the info Cara.

Don't want to do a hereford though, here you can count on non-black cattle going for as much as 20 cents a pound less at the sales :(

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 31, 2002.

Tracy, you can still do a Hereford and breed it to an Angus. The black is dominant and you will get a Black animal with a white face, or Black Baldy as it is called.

-- David A. (mncscott@ak.net), January 31, 2002.

Yes, quite true David. But since I have free access to a nice Angus bull, that is most likely what we will use--too good of a deal to pass up :)

The black baldies do bring good prices....any other colors, even solid reds, just don't do as well. Dunno why.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 31, 2002.

We have had a Holstein-Angus cross milk cow and of all our dairy animals she was my favorite. We got her as a bred heifer and she was straight from a herd, it didn't take long for her to cozy up to us and I NEVER thought of her as wild. She had an udder very much like a Holstein and her milk was delicious, with more than enough cream!! We always bred her back to an Angus bull because that was what we had access to and she threw wonderful calves. Fortunately we almost always got a bull calf but when we didn't we were always able to sell her calf as a bred heifer for about $800(this was back in the 70's) at fair time. We could have sold our steers, too, but we preferred to eat them. We didn't show our animals, just posted on the bulletin board. I just don't see how you could go wrong. Oh, and our cow was black with two front legs white with a white chest and belly, her name was Josie.

-- Artie Ann Karns (rokarns@arkansas.net), February 01, 2002.

Hi Tracy,

Sounds like a good plan. My father was a Holstein dairyman and had one of the top herds in Ohio for awhile. However...

Depending on Your needs/wants You may want to consider an Angus/Jersey cross. Gene Logsdon talks about this cross's benefits compared to a Angus/Holstein cross in several of his books. I 'think' A/H gives gallons more milk than A/J, but the butterfat content will be much less. You're also dealing with a bigger animal which may not fit Your farm as efficiently as a smaller A/J. Gene also found A/J does better as a nurse cow, if I remember correctly. And the black is still dominant in the A/J cross.

Either way, I've heard lots of positive comment on Angus/dairy crosses and Angus breeders seem to pursue the crossbred market for thier bulls.

Best of luck!!! Ran

-- Randle Gay (rangay@hotmail.com), February 02, 2002.

Thanks Ran...no can do on the Jersey/Angus cross, I have to go with what they have :) Sounds like it would be an interesting cross though!

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), February 02, 2002.