Recent content by Cowboymom

The wive's tales you have heard about Herefords are just that. Before we came back to the ranch hubby worked for a couple of big commercial outfits and the traits you mentioned are not breed specific. I can't say for sure about udder burns and such from snow, never dealt with it. What I do...

Missed them, really? We band calves a whole lot bigger than that. We were the first one in our area to buy a bander and when we went to brandings, hubby would be asked to bring ours along. Now most places have ones of their own. The largest thing I have ever seen banded was a 1200 pound long...

Really like the hips on a couple of your females. I thought that CA was the only place in the country that fall calves? You have Herefords & Angus? If you have Horned Herefords, I might just need to come out and check out some of your bulls. We have started breeding some of our cows that our...

Not to be mean or spiteful but I don't think any amount of groceries will give him a longer hip or straighten out those legs. Being that he was free, feed him and see what he does. You can always band him and put him in the freezer~ Nothing ventured nothing gained. Glad you explained where...

I was told a long time ago by a very good cowman that you, "Breed for your cows and hope your bulls are good enough". What that means is that since you are keeping your own heifers for replacements, you want a bull that comes from a strong maternal herd. People will get all excited about one...

We have used Cattle Max for a couple of years now. I really like it. You can set up multiple herds, you don't even need to identify each individual animal for the commercial cows. They have a way to set it up according to fields. I used to use the old hand herd book method and then made up...

I guess I have a little jaded angle on this because I am third generation Horned Hereford breeder. However, we have run thousands of commercial cattle and the horned/polled debate has been something I have been asked and pondered on for a good portion of my life. Like it has been said, when...

Hope they don't have inheritance taxes in Canada. In this country, they would nail you for buying land under valued. Like DH said, capital gains will kill you, if they have them in Canada? We have paid inheritance taxes on the same ranch three times, the lawyers are still trying to figure out...

Glad to hear it, so do we. More purebred breeders should. It would improve vastly the quality of cattle of any breed. We have never sold a "herd" bull and don't really intend to. We just sell honest bulls to commercial cattlemen and stand behind them. It has worked for us for over 65 years...

I have seen that happen at more than one breed sale. I have always contended that breed sales were a great place for a commercial cattleman to pick up some good buys. Cattle that may be phenotypically correct, but for some reason aren't bred just right usually sell cheaper than they would at a...

That may be true, but as I always tell people when they remark on how much our land is worth. "You can't take dirt to the grocery store!" If you sell the land, you have all this money, then what do you do? Can't quit ranching until all you money is gone~LOL!

We had a bull buyer a couple of years ago that wanted only to buy bulls with the markers. We tested all our bulls and almost all of them at least one marker. We found out we had one herd sire that was homozygous for all the markers. That bull buyer only bought bulls from us with all the...

I really, really like his hip and hind end. He is a really nice bull and I don't say that very often. Too bad he doesn't have horns!LOL! The heifers are really nice. Good bone and muscle. I can't believe how far polled cattle have come in such a short time. (That is meant to be a...

I would cut him, you can get more money for him as a steer. Use that money and buy yourself a bull that isn't related, unless you have enough cows to breed him to. I don't really like his hip/hind end for a bull. But then, some people are front enders and some are hind enders. I happen to be a...

Horns are a recessive gene. Angus are suppose to be polled which is a dominant gene. So if you breed your cow to a horned bull, it should have polled calves. If you breed your polled bull to your angus cows and they are not homozygous polled, you can get horns if the bull has horned blood...