Heifer Bull Selection
- Thread starter DCortes
- Start date
He's the head of the Chisolm Trail Angus Sale in our area and good friends with our previous breeder, who was retiring. He took the time to go through all our current and previous bulls registrations, EPD's, etc. and since our first purchase, spent time here and is familiar with the herd. The quintessential Good Ol' Boy. No fancy website, just good bulls, good cattle, good farming. One of the first bulls we bought from him was struck by lightning all of 3 weeks after we got him. Gut punch! I loved that bull! Called him to see if he had a replacement and he delivered another bull 3 days later. And refused to accept the check I handed him. Said he guarantees his bulls for a year. Clearly, an act of nature had nothing to do with the bulls fertility, but he been my breeder ever since.
And BTW, my heifers are pelvic measured at 11 months (when they get their BANGS and magnets) and turned out with the bull at 15 months, so they should theoretically start calving at 24 months.
And the "fourth half" of the equation is the heifers lineage (some just grow 'em big!) and weather. Extreme cold in the 3rd trimester can result in larger calves.
Regarding proper presentation or not, I was told by an experienced cow man to make sure the heavy breds, especially heifers, get their exercise. Plenty of movement helps them get the calf positioned correctly.
If he was right, heifers kept in a small lot the last month or two of gestation would have a higher chance at problems with calf position.
Like I said, something I was told in the beginning and have listened to. Grain of salt maybe.
If he was right, heifers kept in a small lot the last month or two of gestation would have a higher chance at problems with calf position.
Like I said, something I was told in the beginning and have listened to. Grain of salt maybe.
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Ebenezer
Well-known member
Great post. Tie this into Simme's comments and you have "the answer".
crossbreed
Well-known member
Your post caught my eye with the magnets. Do you use magnets on all your cows? I remember dad doing that to our dairy cows but never thought about it for beef
she does. I ought to start doing it. Plenty of metal here.
SBMF 2015
Well-known member
Yep, we magnetize every replacement hfr and every bull we buy. Cheap insurance.
Yes. This ranch was established in 1879 and there is a lot of buried barbed wire, debris, etc. that over time, eventually surfaces. Plus, we've been hit twice by tornadoes. It simply isn't possible to pick up all the debris, even with my big magnets on rollers. After losing 4 cows to hardware within the first few years we took ownership, every cow, bull and retained heifer gets one. That said, absolutely no guarantee because "hardware" is subjective and can be caused by a shard of glass (thank you, booze cruisers that toss your bottles in my pasture), PVC pipe, honey locust thorns, etc. But it's my best defense and relatively inexpensive. This is a pic of a magnet postmortem (not my cow). Cattle are indiscriminate eaters!
Gonna have to disagree. Don't forget the dam! Yeah, I look at the bulls EPD's but I expect mama to raise a fine calf. I currently have 7 cows that were sired by my highest ever CED bull. Johnson was CED +16, but his CEM was +15. He threw an average 60-65 lb. calf, which was great for my heifers. But he eventually got too big for my heifers, and I used him on my main herd for a couple years before I sold him. You've seen enough pics of my cows and calves. Not many dinks;)
SBMF 2015
Well-known member
My dad doesn't cuss. I was probably 12-13 picking up empty beer bottles with him in our pasture was the first time I ever heard the term "Cock Suckers"
It must have stuck with me cause that was 30 years ago and I still remember like yesterday.
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Travlr
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Not sure how you mean you disagree. It's not a matter of "dinks"... but of producing capable cows.
The heifers I retained from Johnson are now 5–6-year-old cows. They've proven themselves capable.
Edit to add: I also have retained some of the heifers from aforementioned cows
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Travlr
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Okay, so you have good cows and they are producing good cows. That's great. I only hedge my bets by saving heifers from older cows. My considering first calves from heifers as terminal, for me, is a personal preference. No doubt some would be fine, but I don't want to find out five years later that the retained heifer's dam failed to breed, and that her sister didn't breed a year later. Just two ways of doing things.
Don't you have registered stock?
DCortes
Active member
Did you ever breed a calving ease bull to your older cows? I understand your point that heifers need to prove themselves before you can start keeping their progeny. But if you only used calving ease bulls on heifers, then you never give those bulls a chance to make a cow.
On a side note. I got a catalog on the mail yesterday. I won't out the breeder, but was surprised to see among the offerings a March 2023 cow, due to calve in October. Apparently the reason she missed getting bred in the spring is she was being flushed 3 times. The hardest thing to see was the picture of the cow. I have seen rescue horses with more muscle than this "donor" heifer.
DCortes
Active member
Wagyu?
Reckon that's how they make heifer bulls?
I wish. It was a malnourished wagyu looking registered angus. I get why people complain about EPDs. Breeding cattle in a computer will get you to dark places if you don't stick the head out the window every once in a while to take a good look at what your are producing.
I wish I could understand them more. I'm ignorant to them there facts.
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Travlr
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I just don't go for extremes to begin with. What I consider a heifer bull would probably be at the top end for BW for a lot of people. So I'd use what I considered a heifer bull as a clean up bull on heifers and cows. And the only reason I kept that bull instead of another was because my customers expected the heifers they bought to be bred to a heifer bull.
Before I went into selling replacements I never used a light BW bull or worried about it.
