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Kenny Osborne Article
November 26, 1999
I bought a Romagnola bull from Cherokee Hills Romagnola about a
year and a half ago and bred him to a mixed herd of cattle.In this herd
were several Brahmastein (Brahma x Holstein) cows with a very small
frame, weighing about 700-800 pounds. Before we put the Romagnola bull
in with our cows, we had a Beefmaster bull running with them. When the
cows started calving around the end of February, we lost the first eight
calves in a row. They were all out of the Beefmaster bull, and we
figured the calves died because they were slow to start in the cold and
didn’t get up and nurse. They had no vigor about them. The next group
to calve were out of the Romagnola bull, and they dropped in the same
weather conditions as the first eight. In this next group were about
twenty calves that all hit the ground about the same time, all
unassisted, and we didn’t lose one of them. They were small at birth,
weighing around 40-60 pounds, and we thought they were mighty puny. But
they were up following their mothers within an hour, and within two
weeks, you could see them growing like weeds right before your eyes! The
next group had another thirty-three calves that were also out of the
Romagnola bull, and they all lived and were unassisted at birth. The
same story repeated itself with this group. That is, they were the same
small calves that exploded a about two to three weeks of age. Out
of 53 calves we did not lose a one, and they were exceptionally gentle
and easy to handle.
Then the drought hit, and the grass dried up and our fields looked like
a parking lot. Some of the grass never came back. The calves kept
growing and all we gave the cows was plain grass hay and a little eared
corn about twice a week. We weaned the first group of twenty calves
without steering the 13 bulls in the group, and sold them at the local
sale barn. The thirteen bulls averaged 90 cents/pound and the heifers
averaged 83 cents/pound, weighing between 700 and 750 pounds. These
calves had no creep and they were weighing in the 700 weight at 6 ½ - 7
months of age. This amazed us! They did better that just about anything
else sold that day, including Charolais and Simmetal calves, and the
buyers didn’t even know what they were! Our second group of 33 calves
will wean off averaging around 750-850 pounds, and many will be as big
as their mothers at 8-81/2 months of age.
I was always amazed when I would look at advertisements for this breed
or that, and they would have a cow-calf pair pictured. The calf was
always shown l/2 to 2/3 the size of the cow.
But I’m not impressed anymore after seeing some of my calves as
big or bigger than their mothers at weaning. A few are even taller! No
one believed me when I told them, so I took a picture of one of the bull
calves standing beside his 800 pound mother in my holding pen. The only
way I could get the two to stand still was to throw a little shell corn
in a feed trough. The calf weighs about 850 pounds at around eight
months of age. I know the buyers are looking at that growth potential
and the lean muscle on these calves. We can make money selling calves
like these.
I am 100% satisfied with the Romagnola cross and would not go back with
another bull after seeing this calf crop. We highly recommend you try
one and see if you don’t get the same results. Kenny Osborne
Bloomfield, Ky. 502-252-5046.
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