You are aware that there are numerous options available if you want to add some cattle to your farm. The Belgian blue cow is a breed you should look into if you want to raise cattle primarily for meat.
They produce excellent meat, but it doesn’t necessarily make them the best cattle for you. To help you learn everything there is to know about these enormous animals, cow-faqs.com created this thorough guide.
Belgian Blue Cattle Origins
The Belgian blue cow originated in Belgium, as its name suggests. These cattle are double-muscled, crossbred animals that originally appeared in the 1950s. It is therefore one of the more recent breeds of cattle, and only in the past 50 to 60 years has it attained considerable popularity.
Through artificial insemination, Professor Hanset created the first Belgian blue cow, and after farmers noticed the distinctive traits of the progeny, populations of Belgian blue cow swiftly spread.
Characteristics
The Belgian Blue is a big creature with a rounded silhouette and noticeable muscles. There is a lot of muscle in the shoulder, back, loin, and rump. The skin is fine, the back is straight, the rump is sloping, the tail set is noticeable. It walks effortlessly on little yet powerful legs.
They can be white, blue roan, black, or any combination of those colors; certain genotypes also have red.
The temperament of the breed is renowned for being calm.
An adult bull weighs between 1100 and 1250 kg and is between 1.45 and 1.50 meters tall at the withers. Animals weighing more than 1300 kg are by no means unusual. Cows can grow to a height of 1.40 meters and weigh between 850 and 900 kilograms.
The breed’s natural progression is toward muscle. They begin to develop that extreme muscle at 4 to 6 weeks old; they do not have it at birth.
The magnificent “double muscling” that is characteristic of Belgian blue cow is well known. The carcass yield of Belgian blue cow is superior to all other cattle breeds (up to 80%). It raises carcass yield from 5 to 7% in crossbreeding operations with other dairy or beef breeds as compared to the mother line.
A gene that reduces the development of myostatin, a protein that often restricts muscle growth at a certain point, has been found in Belgian Blues, according to extensive research. One copy of this gene, which is often transmitted via crossbreeding and increases the carcass weight of the offspring of a crossbreeding program, is present in pure Belgian Blues, who have two copies of this gene.
The Belgian Blue carcase consequently yields a high yield of marketable meat with a boning out percentage above 85%.
Uses
The Belgian blue cow is nearly solely utilized for the production of meat, despite the fact that cattle typically have two uses: milk production and meat. In order to increase your profit margin, it follows that if you are raising them, you are probably raising them for slaughter.
There are better options available if you’re seeking for a dairy cow because Belgian blue cow can be challenging to milk.
Appearance & Varieties
Despite having the word “blue” in their name, Belgian blue cow are not necessarily blue in color. Belgian Blue Cattle have a white basis, and these spots, which give them their “blue” appellation, can be bluish-gray.
However, some Belgian blue cow are completely white or have gray dots without any blue; they occasionally lack the distinctive gray-blue markings.
Therefore, even if you manage to locate a Belgian Blue cow nearby, you’re likely to be unsatisfied if you’re driving by a farm hunting for blue cattle.
Statistics
The Belgian Blue is exceptional among contemporary beef breeds for its:
- Effortless Calving
- a brief gestational period
- good structure and mobility
- Excellent disposition Extreme muscle development
- substantial conformity
- maturity and size
- capacity for developing young flesh
- Cross-breed calving facility with high food efficiency
The average age of the first calf is 32 months, with 75% of cows birthing between 28 and 35 months of age. Calving in two-year-old cows has also proved successful. It takes 23 months on average, with 75% falling between 22 and 24 months.
Comparative
When the Belgian Blue and Charolais were compared in Europe, the Belgian Blue came out on top in terms of muscularity, milk production, and daily gain. At sexual maturity, the Belgian Blue animals were similarly older.
In the cattle breeding industry, there is a widespread misunderstanding that the Belgium Blue has a bad calving history and that many calves are delivered via Caesarean section. This only happens in pedigree breeding, which is primarily done in Belgium, on stud farms when purebred calves are born to purebred calves.
The Belgium Blue is a terminal sire for meat production in other countries. The results indicate that this breed is easier to calve when utilized as a terminal sire as compared to breeds like Simmental, Charolais, and even calves born to Friesian cows mated to Friesian bulls.
The findings of experiments carried out in Belgium demonstrate that the Belgian Blue’s carcass traits were expressed in the crossbreds, whose commercial worth was subsequently much increased. The finding explains the increasing interest in Belgian Blues as terminal sires, as well as the breed’s carcass characteristics and growth potential.
Meat
The USDA conducted a thorough three-year softness test on Belgian Blue crossbred cattle at the Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska, using the industry-recognized Warner-Brazner shear test. With comparable tenderness and flavor on the sensory panel, the Belgian blue cow exhibited a lower shear value (12.8 against 12.9 compared to the Hereford-Angus current average). Additionally, Belgian blue cow saw a 53% drop in fat cover, with a.21 inch cover compared to a.45 inch cover. Online for the new standards is Belgian Blue. Additionally, the Belgian Blue carcass had 14.2 more ribeye area and 16% less marbling than the typical carcass.
Distribution
The Belgian Blue beef breed is becoming more and more well-known worldwide, and is now present in Europe, Brazil, America, Canada, and New Zealand.
Final Thoughts
Cattle are a significant investment, so there are many factors to take into account when growing them. So be sure you understand what you’re getting into and that you can provide for all of the calf’s care needs before you bring it home.
However, there are worse cattle to raise for meat production if you’re serious than the high-yielding Belgian blue cow.
