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I’m just thinking he is going to have a hard time of putting together enough older cows that meet his initial criteria. I would really just look at production records and feet, udders, and dispositions on the first cows and not even look at epds.

It is very easy to get kicked out of the certified angus beef program with too big of ribeye. Quality grade without excessive back fat is where the money is on the grid. Starting with old cows is definitely the way to go. They will actually have lower fall out rates than heifers in most cases. I...

I had a mustang that was a cat killing machine. He would chase and stomp them.

Cows have a general dislike for dogs, it’s very similar to horses and cats. You shouldn’t really have the dog out around the cattle. Be ready for her to be mean when she calves, keep your kids away.

He’s unproven, very unproven if you look at the accuracies. I doubt the bull has an actual birth weight, weaning weight, or yearling weight turned in on him. If his CED and BW verified I would feel fine with him on heifers. Angus are a calving ease breed, but unproven bulls are just that when it...

What would be more useful to look at is CED(calving ease direct), as 1.5 pounds heavier than the average really doesn’t matter, what really matter is calf shape and how many large calves (weigh distribution of calves) you get which should be better reflected by CED.

There is always a market for good replacement heifers, and bred heifers. There may not be more money in the bred heifers this year, but that’s usually not the case. What breed or cross of cattle people want is area specific, also what people want them bred to is area specific, and can usually be...

I think it all starts with a plan and goals. Do you want to be an elite seedstock producer, or a multiplier. Some people down talk multipliers, but it can be very lucrative. The elite seedstock producer takes a different path and is harder to establish. Their is much more work per animal in a...

“The same can be said within a breed. In the US, angus is the big breed with lots of choices on bulls. You can look at the genetics and select a mating that goes a ways back in the gene pool without common ancestors.” If you know angus pedigrees well enough you can identify some major...

Synchronize and timed AI, then a few days later put estrotect patches on them and see if they come back into heat. I wouldn’t expect more than 60% success on each breeding, it’s not all the person AIing it’s semen quality also.

Like I said here it is necessary to combine heifer calf fleshing ability as it has been shown (in a university study) to correlate with cow fleshing ability. Easy fleshing heifer calves=easy fleshing cows, cows with higher bcs eat less, especially if it’s cold outside. All that being said, if...

This is what I meant to say. I edited within last few sentences.

The original poster said she lives in central ND and, winter cows on silage, chopped alfalfa/grass or cover crop. With free choice hay available. So I told her the frame size the current cattle industry is built for. I have no problem with smaller cattle elsewhere, but focus should not be making...

Good questions, I’m familiar with the area. I have farms in NW Minnesota and spend some time around there. I have watched sales and fed out cattle from there too. While little data is turned in on the dmi epd, most of the data is coming from unbiased sources, and well structured tests. Dmi has...

I wouldn’t worry about getting too high on YH epd as long as your MH isn’t getting much above .8, once you get over 7 frame with cows you get a lot more stifle injuries. A 700 lb steer is going to bring more per pound than an 800 lb steer all things being equal. But, we’re not talking 100 lbs...

It is the best estimation of feed intake available, when you couple dmi with selection for growth you basically make cattle that gain on less feed. I don’t think calves have a switch, and that after they are weaned they eat a proportionately different amount (high intake calves before weaning...

Yes it is possible to keep maternal traits and bulk up your calves. This is how you do it. 1. Select bulls from sires with 0.5 or lower dmi or if they are tested themselves try to keep them under 0.5, preferably 0 or less when used on heifers. Select for higher WW and YW while maintaining the...

If you chase WW and YW epds you will end up with large cows that eat a lot. I would suggest looking at the DMI epd ( still getting more accurate as it is largely genomic based) you can use it along with the growth epds to add performance with feed efficiency. That being said most of the big WW...