1st calf Simmi breeding help?

[Gators Rule]

I'm in the process of breeding a double bred Dream On heifer and I'm interested in your thoughts. I'm going to breed her AI to a Simmi or SimAngus or possibly Angus. I want to steer clear of Dream On.


CE Brth Wean Year MC
EPD 11.1 0.7 58.9 83.1. 6.9


Your thoughts?

 

[jd720]

We have had good luck with Grandmaster on heifers. He is available from Select Sires and no Dream On in his pedigree.

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Stetson worked well with on our Dream On pedigree heifers, Select Sires also has him. I'm intrigued with the Supremacy bull at Cattle Visions. Looks like he has the phenotype to work nicely with the Dream On matings. There are several outcrosses available now to the Dream On's. I think the New Direction bull is being used a lot.

 

[Gators Rule]

What do Yall think about Nichols Manifest t79?

http://www.accelgen.com/catalog/semen-b ... ifest-t79/

 

[bse]

Manifest will do a good job for you, he is a cow maker not a show maker, so just depends on what you may be trying to do. I used him some when he first came out liked his calves alot but got away from the Sims. Still know where theres several of them in all stages of production seem to milk well and make broody type cows.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

It depends on your end goals.

We love our Beef Maker calves, and used him on an angus heifer and got a 50 pound calf.
Grandmaster we love, never touched a calf out of him
Frontier is a nice half blood, carried by ABS. Have not used him but plan to.
Lots of good options out there. I would also use Upgrade heifer sexed on her, we have over here.

 

[Gators Rule]

incidentally, while I was looking at my current semen tank inventory and researching current EPD's....I found out that Fat Butt died several months ago. Never saw why, but it was posted on the owner's site.

 

[Lucky_P]

Just never could get on the Grandmaster bandwagon. He's below my arbitrary cutoff for CE to use on heifers, MCE is dismal, and his WW epd and Docility scores are so low there's no way my wife would let me use him even if I wanted to.

We're using several Hooks Shear Force 38K sons/grandsons... Beef Maker is on my 'want-to' list, but don't know if I'll ever get to use him here.
Have been using Triple C Bettis for the last couple of years as our 'heifer bull' - Good CE/BW, good WW, MCE, REA, Doc, has all the tenderness markers, high API/TI.
Bettis calves (with exception of one big boy) have been tiny - but have also lacked much in the way of growth. Strange, as those sired by his full-sib, Singletary, really mashed the scale at weaning.
WS All In W111 is now getting the call as the bull we're using on all SM & SHxAN heifers.

 

[Son of Butch]

I'm in the process of breeding a double bred Dream On heifer and I'm interested in your thoughts. I'm going to breed her AI to a Simmi or SimAngus or possibly Angus. I want to steer clear of Dream On.

CE Brth Wean Year MC
EPD 11.1 0.7 58.9 83.1. 6.9

Your thoughts?

I vote Angus for her 1st calf.... go for a good F1 replacement heifer.
I would suggest Connealy Mentor sexed semen available from Select Sires.
http://www.selectsiresbeef.com/index.ph ... age?bid=57

 

[Lucky_P]

SoButch,
I had a high recommendation for Connealy Mentor recently, from a trusted friend who's a long-time Angus breeder. Was really high on him for making good cows - and siring good feet.

 

[Son of Butch]

Lucky P's comment locks it for me.
If she were mine... sexed Mentor semen the 1st year to produce your own f1 sim-angus female.
I would forget about any Sim-Angus sire [why use a f1 bull on a purebred to produce an f2?]
Then next year you can breed her to any Simmental bull you want.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

incidentally, while I was looking at my current semen tank inventory and researching current EPD's....I found out that Fat Butt died several months ago. Never saw why, but it was posted on the owner's site.

He was put down over a year ago if I remember correctly. His owner was heartbroken. He IS NOT heifer safe.
Contrary to what others have said, I would use a simmental bull over an angus any day. But I know my cattle, and know the bulls avaiable out there from major bull studs. Bettis is a good one, as Lucky mentioned. There are a bunch out there, too many to mention.
As far as Grandmaster, there is a lot there that has gone on politically. I HAVE used him, and will continue to use Grandmaster on heifers. I used him before his epd profile took a dive. I have proof, and have yet to touch a calf sired by him, and I ONlY use him on heifers. They are some of the best tempered calves we have ever raised, and most go on to make show heifers because they look good. HOWEVER, they do stall out after they hit their yearling mark. Our oldest Grandmaster is 3, and she is finally catching up to the other cows her age size wise. So he has his faults. I can now only use him on cows that have good EPD's because his numbers will drag the cow down, which stinks.
I do not have a single straw of Angus semen in my tank, so I can not speak from that angle.

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

To me Manifest was always on my border line, in which to use on heifers. I like trying to stick with sires whom have a CE score 10.0 or higher, and a BW epd of 2.0 or lower. I think Manifest is like a 9. something with close to a 2.0 BW. I think he sires a good carcass and some nice milking daughters. There is a lot of Shear Force sons that should work fine with the heifer. Bettis was my first choice of his sons but I was really disappointed in their growth and style. I 've seen some I really like but mine was just plain. Stetson I really liked, calves were born small and grew nicely and ours had a better phenotype really attractive. I've had a itch to try Shear Envy another Shear Force son on some heifers but haven't went through with it yet.
I got my registration papers back today on my red purebred Simmental heifers, and one of them has a Dream On pedigree. Therefore, I'm interested with everyone's thoughts here as well. I haven't decided to whether breed them for red calves or black calves. I'll probably end up going with a Heterozygous Black Bull that is Homozygous Polled and just take what I get red or black. I'm thinking possibly Westfall Voyager but I got plenty bulls to look at and many planned mating's numbers to crunch before I make an order.