1940's Holsteins

[CKC1586]

Found some old pictures of my Grandfather's Holsteins. Interesting contraption he has on that big ol bull!

 

[3waycross]

Good pics. Based on the size of that bull that "contraption" looks like a real good idea. :shock:

 

[CKC1586]

Good pics. Based on the size of that bull that "contraption" looks like a real good idea. :shock:

I know! My Grandpa wasn't a very big guy but that bull sure looks to be huge! I have never seen anything like that thing, wonder what it was?

 

[bigbull338]

it was used to control mean/rank bulls.but i dont know what its called.reminds me of a nose twitch that they use on mean horses.

 

[novaman]

Is it just me or does that bull look really long? He is even angled away from the camera yet still shows a lot of length. I didn't realize cattle were that big back then. I always figured it was more modern breeding and feeding methods that shot the size upwards.

 

[alisonb]

I stand to be corrected but those animals were probably still the old original Dutch Friesians and they were huge and had a lot of black (well much more black than white) markings. I think it was around the forties that they started improving on Friesian genetics and the Holstein was born.
Great find .

 

[hillsdown]

My husbands grandfather had quite a substantial dairy in Holland and the Holstein Friesians looked very much like that as well. With the importation of semen and now embryos North America changed the direction of the Holsteins and are responsible for what the breed is now, world wide. Good or bad ;-) .

Thanks for posting these pics CKC, were you successful getting individual ones made yet ?

That bull is HUGE, you see the odd one here once and a while that is close to that size but not to many people still even run a clean up bull anymore let alone a main breeding bull. Even the Hutterites are AI'ing , on the QT of course.

I will ask hubby about that contraption , I am sure he has seen it before .

 

[CKC1586]

HD, those pictures are pretty fragile and I don't think I want to attempt to get them off of the black page they are stuck to. I need to find someone around here that knows how to handle these types of things. I have a couple more boxes that need to be gone thru, I am hoping they have some pictures of the Herefords. From what I have been told Grandpa and Grandma hand milked and my Dad always said that Grandma was the better milker. They sold the dairy cows and Grandpa got into the registered Herefords. He had some beautiful animals. The dairy thing was way before I was born but I do remember those Herefords! My Dad had dairy cows until I graduated from high school. He had 255 acres did cash crops, had 15 milk cows and sold to Sealtest, had 20 brood sows and raised feeders from them, Mom had chickens and sold the eggs. They raised a family of five quite well!

 

[TexasBred]

The bull looks like he's much closer to the camera than your grandad...a little distortion maybe....but still he's as long as a Cadillac. The cows don't look much different than todays holsteins. Really enjoy looking at old pics like those. Post some more if you can.

 

[ANAZAZI]

That bull is HUGE, you see the odd one here once and a while that is close to that size but not to many people still even run a clean up bull anymore let alone a main breeding bull. Even the Hutterites are AI'ing , on the QT of course.
.

QT?

 

[3waycross]

That bull is HUGE, you see the odd one here once and a while that is close to that size but not to many people still even run a clean up bull anymore let alone a main breeding bull. Even the Hutterites are AI'ing , on the QT of course.
.

QT?

It means secretly!

 

[CKC1586]

Hope to get some time this weekend to go thru some more pictures, wish me luck on finding more of the cattle!!!

 

[GMN]

Found some old pictures of my Grandfather's Holsteins. Interesting contraption he has on that big ol bull!

If your Grand Dad was 6 feet tall the bull is taller than that, thatis the biggest bull i have seen-but nice too, except I would think it would have been too big to breed dairy cows, unless they were on the large size too.

GMN

 

[novaman]

except I would think it would have been too big to breed dairy cows, unless they were on the large size too.

GMN

You would be surprised. I have seen 2000+ pound bulls breeding heifer calves before. Probably a 1500 pound difference and there seemed to be no problem getting them bred as when I gave the heifers lute and dex I had some aborted calves squirt out a few days later.

 

[CKC1586]

Found some old pictures of my Grandfather's Holsteins. Interesting contraption he has on that big ol bull!

If your Grand Dad was 6 feet tall the bull is taller than that, thatis the biggest bull i have seen-but nice too, except I would think it would have been too big to breed dairy cows, unless they were on the large size too.

GMN

Grandpa was a little guy, maybe 5'8" in shoes and wiry. My Dad always said that Grandpa was a banty rooster. Dad had some really big bulls before he went to strictly AI. Them Holstein bulls are nasty.