Gelbvieh Cattle Breed – Everything You Need to Know

The Gelbvieh is a medium to large sized cattle with a quiet calm and even temperament. They are easy to handle and even easier to manage as they are excellent foragers and enjoy grazing out on the range. They are a good tri-factor purpose breed giving milk and meat and were used as a draft animal to pull wagons, carts, and plows. These beautiful cattle are a good choice for any farmer looking for a family cow or a herd for their farm.

GELBVIEH BREED OF CATTLE QUICK PROFILE OVERVIEW
Golden rich red or black in color they are good dual-purpose breed to have around the farm with their quiet and docile nature that they tend to pass off onto their offspring.
Country of Origin:	Germany
Other Names:	German Yellow
Main Purpose:	Milk, meat, and draft
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Can be used for	Breed, Meat, Milk, Draft
Ideal Climate:	Heat, Cold, Most Climates
Conservation Status:	Not listed by the *ALC Status/Rarity: Not at risk
Health Issues?	No known health issues
Good Starter Cattle?	Novice to intermediate Cattle farmer/keeper level
Cattle Associations:	The British Gelbvieh Cattle Society, American Gelbvieh Association, Canadian Gelbvieh Cattle Association, Australian Gelbvieh Association, New Zealand Gelbvieh Association and South African Gelbvieh Association
Cattle Clubs:	Please refer to The British Gelbvieh Cattle Society, American Gelbvieh Association, Canadian Gelbvieh Cattle Association, Australian Gelbvieh Association, New Zealand Gelbvieh Association and South African Gelbvieh Association for more information on the Gelbvieh cattle breed
Where to buy them?	>Please refer to The British Gelbvieh Cattle Society, American Gelbvieh Association, Canadian Gelbvieh Cattle Association, Australian Gelbvieh Association, New Zealand Gelbvieh Association and South African Gelbvieh Association for more information on the Gelbvieh cattle breed
Child Friendly?	Livestock should not be left unattended around unsupervised children
General Information:	The world Gelbvieh translates into “Yellow cattle” as the cattle’s coat was originally a pure golden brown or honey color. Today their coats can be yellow, reddish or black. Once they were used as a triple purpose breed as draft cattle for pulling wagons, carts, and plows. They were prized for their meat and milk but today they are primarily used in beef production. They are quite a large breed with bull being known to weigh up to 1 ton in weight and cows as heavy as 750 kgs. They have a strong skin pigmentation with helps keep them safe from sun damage. As they have quite thick coats, they are somewhat parasite resistant to that of parasites such as ticks. They have a unique system in which if bitten by a tick blood flow is restricted to that area and the tick dies off due to lack of blood for feeding. Their bloodlines are kept quite pure as only animals must be mostly as in 88% or higher Gelbvieh blood to be registered as a Gelbvieh. Any less percentage have to be labeled as “percentage Gelbvieh”. The Gelbvieh cow has the earliest puberty as compared to most other breeds and second only to the early puberty of the Jersey cow.
Note: *ALC stands for American Livestock Conservancy

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Gelvieh cows have the typical cow blockish physique but have more defined body muscle than most other cow breeds and well-defined udders which are protected by their skin pigmentation which limits sun burn damage to them. They have relatively short to medium length legs in comparison to their bodies and a small heart shaped face with a straight profile. The bulls have similar characteristics to the females but are stockier and muscular and their head a little rounder than the females. Both the males and females have a small tight and sometimes no dewlap.

Size:

Medium to large

CATTLE ⇒	COW	BULL
Breed Color:	Reddish gold, pure golden brown, and black	Reddish gold, pure golden brown, and black
Breed Weight:	600 to 750 kgs	900 to 1000 kgs
Breed Height:	Unclear	Unclear
Horns:	Polled	Polled
Temperament:	Docile, quite, calm and easy to handle	Docile, quite, calm and easy to handle
Matures at age:	6 to 8 months or 9 + months	6 to 8 months or 9 + months
Puberty Age:	6 to 15 months	9 to 1o months
Breeding Age:	13 to 15 months	1 year
Breeding Traits:	See Cow breeding & Milking Info	Cover 25 to 30 Cows in 1 season

COW BREEDING & MILKING INFORMATION
Most Cattle produce milk but not all of them are used in the dairy Cattle capacity for their milk. Cows only calve once a year and should have 12 to 14-month inter-calving cycle. They are excellent mothers with great maternal instincts and will protect their young with vigor. They are fertile, long-lived and can calve up into their late teens.
Breeding Period/cycle:	Usually lasts 6 to 24 hours Most ave. 12 to 16 hours Cows usually come on heat every 21 days.
Estrous cycle:	Ave. 17 days to 24 days Heifer – usually ave. 20 days Cows – usually ave. 21 days
Gestation Period:	Usually, around 279 to 287 days but most gestation is 283 days. Cows that are carrying bull calf’s their gestation period is usually a little longer than cows that are carrying heifer calves.
No. Calves/Litter:	1 calf at a time. Cows rarely have twins or triplets, but it can happen
Lactation Period:	Cows lactation period can last for up to about 10 months (305) days.
Milking From:	1 to 6 weeks after Calving
Drying off Period:	The cow should have a 12 to 14-month inter-calving cycle. Drying off period for around 60 days before she can calve again.
Milk Quality:	Good, Quantity: 9525 kgs per Lactation
Milk Ideal for:	Calves, cheese, drinking, ice-cream, and other dairy products
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CATTLE MEAT PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Gelbvieh has really good meat quality and they are relatively fast growers. They can produce champion carcasses, especially when crossed with other British breeds. They have the largest ribeye-muscle area per 100 kg than any other cattle breed giving higher cutout yields. They have a lean meat and their yearlings are potentially a good source of high-quality tender and lean young beef.

Meat Production?

N/A

CATTLE ⇒	VEAL	BEEF
Ave. Maturity Age:	6 to 8 months	9 months up to 4 years

CATTLE SKIN PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Most meat Cattle will have a skin by-product, and these are usually used in some form or just as a hide. They have not been specifically bred for their hides, but their solid girth and excellent hide quality make leather a good by-product for leather goods from this breed.

Skin Production?

No, Quality: Good

Skin is used to Produce:

Calf/cow skin leather products such as shoes, car seats, fine leather coats, gloves, handbags, belts, furniture, rugs, etc.

CATTLE ⇒	CALF	ADULT
Age they Produce from:	6 to 8 months for Calf skin	1 to 2 years old for Normal leather

HISTORY

The Gelbvieh is one of the oldest breeds of German Cattle and was first found in three Francionian districts of Bavaria. Systematic stud breeding work to improve the breed started in 1850 and through pure breeding, they developed the “red-yellow” Franconian cattle. These cattle were developed from various strains of such as the Celtic-German Landrace and the Heil-Brown Landrace cattle amongst a few others.

The Gelbvieh became a popular draft animal in the 1800s as well as a slaughter animal.

There have a been a few associations founded around the breed with The Breed Society for Yellow Franciani Cattle for Middle and Upper Franconia Cattle in Nurnberg founded in 1897. In 1899 The Breed Society for Gelbvieh was founded in Lower Franconia and based in Wurzburg.

In the 1960s Red Danish cattle were included in the breeds herd book this was in an effort to improve the breeds milk production. In 1969 Leness Hall, the director of International Marketing for Carnation Genetics saw the Gelbvieh cattle for the first time. It was he who worked towards getting the Gelbvieh semen to the United States of America. He was finally able to bring in 43000 units to the United States in 1971 which was the same year the American Gelbvieh Association was begun.