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I'll echo the out in the pasture comments. We have nice open country at our place and I still may not check cows for 2-4 days during calving season. I don't have time, and barring the odd "goofy" occurrence I can't justify spending the time doing something the cows should do themselves. Also...

If you do the COI calculations, aunt x nephew, uncle x niece, grandsire to grandaughter crosses all "crunch" pretty hard on the common ancestor, but it doesn't approach the level of a half-sib or parent to off-spring cross. I know of some people that won't linebreed on females, only males. (I...

VanC, I do agree with you on the consistency thing. I do want consistent quality. I don't NEED every steak to be the same. I'll tell you this, a steak in Texas is different than a steak in Ontario. They're both good, but they are different. How'd the ribeyes turn out?

Just 10%? You might want to look at some different bulls.

I don't want to see the beef industry go down that road. The variances are what is going to keep the national cow-herd adaptable, and provides a HUGE pool of genetics that we can draw from. We develop F1's that work well here, and produce feeder calves that work in this part of the world, but...

You're right CB. I'm not fooling myself in to thinking that I couldn't buy replacement cheaper than I can produce them. I AM trying to make genetic gains, and I would argue that that is a much more difficult thing to do with purchased commercial replacements than with retained heifers...

Amen. :tiphat:

I'm in Ontario, and we calve in May. We only do winter calving when buying bred heifers or cows, then they are held back to calve with the rest of the herd. Don't put stalls in. That cow needs to get to her calf, not the other way 'round or you're going to have a bunch of dead calves. It's...

I've got one of those. The Matriarch never missed, and I lost one of her Granddaughters as a 4 year old because she was a killer. Still raised a phenomenal calf, but she wasn't staying here. This is a purebred cow family, but when bred to produce F1s, they don't miss either. We had an old...

I disagree. In the past I'd be prepared to pull every calf, but you can find growthy, easy-calving Simmental sires now. I would also add that a lot of the Angus momma cows out there are just as big and extreme as their continental counter-parts in some parts of the country nowadays.

I could make some smart-ass comments, but no you've pretty well got if figured. I will say that you can get another premium (around here) by moving to a ML vaccination protocol for the cowherd and calves. Probably averages 5 cents per pound on 5-weights. That is irrespective of breed or...

Crappy way to spend a Friday night. Just curious why you took her to the vet instead of had the vet come to you? We have ours come to us, and we're only 8 miles from the clinic. Glad you were able to save the heifer, it's a real long night when you lose them all. Hope the rest of calving...

There are genetic tendencies.... select for calf vigor and it usually goes away. We had one bull that was notorious for throwing dumb calves; as soon as we went back through the calving book and figured it out he was gone in a hurry. Dun is right about the selenium, especially if the grass...

If she was able to develop enough to breed as a heifer here, get through her first winter pregnant and calve with no problems she's got a better than 75% chance of being a good one. Good management isn't nearly as important as consistent management. Our heifers get run with the cows.... if...

You got me Steve. We aren't buying too many replacements in. Besides the obvious of your replacement costs being higher because of the uncertainty of what you are purchasing, there is a cash-flow consideration too. So "as fast as we can" really means "as fast as my cows will let me." I'd...

Good question. I think as a herd evolves the answer changes. We focus on fertility, structure (feet and legs, sound udders, and adequate rib capacity are my favorite things to pick on) and WW performance first. Those are the traits that affect our profitability the most. Fertility seems to...

I guess I should clarify myself a bit. We have retained two bulls for our own use. One was out of a cow we purchased, bred to an AI sire that has worked extremely well for us. The other was out of my best cow. We purchase bulls and utilize AI, always identifying genetics that are as close to...

Same deal here. I can understand the reasons for calving in the winter. Seedstock producers need bulls with more maturity to provide their commercial customers. I understand the argument about calves being able to utilize the grass better, but our costs are always higher with winter calving...

I read through the herd management thread, and it was a super discussion. I wanted to add some thoughts, but they didn't really fit wholly in that topic. To answer the original question about retaining vs purchasing females, we (almost) exclusively retain our own. I will purchase replacements...

Amen.