Recent content by RVF

A very good post. I have often been asked, which is more important conformation or EPD's. My answer is whichever is the poorest. In simplest terms, a beautiful cow that does on milk and rebreed on grass is of no use to me and likewise a cow with perfect EPD's that can not walk due to...

Try running a ground wire around the pipe for a eye opening experience for any snake or other animal that toughs the two wires.

Saskbound, you are alot closer to stockyards than you thing, Heartland in Regina is probably 1 to 1.5 hours from your farm. I know there are a is alot of cattle come out of the Strasbourgh area, so you should be able to find some neighbours with cattle - you should not be too lonely. You are...

Quarters in Saskatchewan are 160 acres (1/2 mile by 1/2 mile). Saskbound, I thought I should add some numbers for you to think about. I would budget as follows Grass seed costs approximately $40 per acre and seeding will be $15 per acre. You have 6 quarters, assuming 150 acres workable your...

Saskbound, I just happen to live in Saskatchewan, so I may be able to help. The short answer is truely what are you wanting to do. Right now the price of commercial cattle is very low and it is therefore a good time to get in. The number of cattle you are needing, your ability to make money...

Approximately 5% of bull calves remain intact for bulls the rest are steered and go to the auction. 90% of the heifer calves are retained as breeding stock and most are either put into the herd or sold as bred females. Approximately 2 or 3 animals are shown every year and they usually end up...

For your situation, I like the sound of the panels as bigbull suggested. Electric will work really good (it is all I use). Since you will be dealing with frozen ground (electric do not work well on frozen ground), you would need to run atleast 2 wires - one at knee height and one at hip...

If I did the math correct, there is a 1% chance that a heterozygous polled bull will give all polled calves when mated to horned cows. Dun I am not sure what you mean by this. gender is contolled by a single gene pair, just like polled/horn and every cow has a 50% change of a bull calf and a...

1982vett, I agree with I luv herfrds. A yearling bull in good conditon should be expected to breed 18 heifers no problem. So that should not be the problem. I have always used, and will continue to use yearling bulls on up to 20 head.

For me it just comes around to the economics of the situation. I do not know how to AI, but have a technician close. Last time I used him he was $40 per head. I am sure he is more now with the price of gas. Semen costs a minimum of $20 and the bulls I use usually cost in the $50 range...

If you get a deal done with Semex, let me know. I may be interested in some. The will probably help me get to where I am going.

Deisel, I had a Hereford cow who was 2000 lbs at weaning and she looked alot like BRG's cow, but bigger. If you want to see 1800 lb cattle just come to East Central Saskatchewan and watch some bred cow sales and cull cow sales. It is not uncommon to see 1800 lb tan cattle. Anything under 1000...

Keeper. Any heifer out of a 15 year old cow that looks like that is a keeper.

Bigbull388, I like your logic, unfortunately it does not work that way. The bulls sperm determine the sex of the calf through what are called the X and Y chromosome. All females have 2 X chromosome while all males have an X and a Y. If the sperm has an X chromosome then the calf will be a...

When replacing gates, feeders, the smashed and bent up ones at an auction sale sell for more than the new ones in the store with the paint still on. All I can figure is that people think the cows will not hit the bent up ones, because they are alreay pre-bent. :banana: