I am asking this question in all honesty, not to be a jerk so please understand. I have seen you guys post here year after year, AI's and ET's and bulls used from no where near your climate. At what point in your long program's existence are your bulls good enough for you to use? I do not mean one in a 5 gen pedigree either. Also what is your program? Maternal? Terminal? Everything to everybody? I am just trying to understand folks thought processes. I see you have some very nice cattle, I just do not understand why people won't start to use their own stuff.
I am going to try to answer without sounding like a jerk :D we were not raised in the cattle industry, Ronnie and I both had relatives that had some cows but we were not around the day to day operation. We actually met when he was 15 and I was 14 in 4-H, we married in 1979 and didn't purchase our first cow until April of 1992. So I wouldn't say our program is a long one, the first 10 years we were trying to learn as much as we could. We read every article we could fine went to every educational program we could go to and still didn't know squat. When we started we had 38 acres so were limited to the number of cows we could run, around 2001 we leased the 400 acres that is now our main farm. The farm was in rough shape, at this point we have almost got all the fences replaced. Since 1992 we have purchased a total of 6 bulls the first was from Twin Valley farms in Alabama about three hours from us he was Twin Valley Bando 4321 Registration # 12291005. I will be totally honest we purchased him because we liked the look of him and had learned just enough to make us want to have the Bando genetics in our herd. The second time we purchased a bull we went to Sweetwater Farm in Georgia, we purchased Sweetwater Jack 021 Registration # 13669430 outright and the farm manager made us an offer to partner with them on another bull Sweetwater Bob 0125 registration # 13905453. Jack was a nice bull and left us with some nice cows, but the Bob bull was the one that really made a difference within our herd. One of our friends in Alabama had a cow that we kept watching, no matter what they bred this cow to she worked we wanted to infuse her genetics into our herd. We kept trying to purchase a daughter but couldn't afford what they were asking. In January of 2007 we purchased a son out of Right Time and that cow. In August of 2008 we took a trip out west to see some of the cattle operations we had read so much about over the years. We visited Sinclair, Van Dyke and Coleman. We also visited every one of the AI studs located in Montana. At that point we had determined we needed to add more EXT and more 707 into our genetics. At Coleman Angus our favorite group of cows were all first calf heifers out of Wulff's EXT 6106 and Donna J311 what an awesome group of heifers. In October of 2009 when all the sale catalogs came out we received a dispersal catalog and what did I find but a flush brother to the five heifers we had seen at Coleman in Montana. We were able to purchase this bull just out of Dothan Alabama, and he has made a major impact on our herd. In March of 2010 we found the bull that we thought would add the 707 influence we wanted into our herd, yes he was in WY. we purchased him as a yearling, held him for a year and started using him the following breeding season. So since 1992 we have purchased 5 1/2 bulls (remember one was a joint owned so we used him every other breeding season) all of them were from Alabama or Georgia with the exception of the one bull purchased from Sinclair in WY. We have used one of the young bulls bred in our program on our heifers for the past 8 or 9 years. This year we will use two bulls that were bred in our program and the 9R9 bull. The only reason at this point we would purchase a bull would be to infuse a new genetic line, but to be honest don't see a need at this point to make any changes. We breed for balance, I refuse to chase any single EPD. I would say our herd is very maternal, we do use AI sires, when you have customers that tell you they are not going to buy a bull unless he is AI sired then I think you have to listen to what they are wanting. We will have three groups of cows this year the heifers will be bred by one of the young bulls we raised, the two and three year old group will be bred by a bull we raised and the third group will be covered by the Sinclair Rito 9R9 group.
As far as the ET work, when we purchase an embryo it is purchase to add a cow family into our herd. A number of the embryos we have purchased in the past few years are from old cows that are dead and gone. The cows we flush are ones that have stood the test of time and have earned their way into the donor pen. If we purchase a donor (which we have purchased 3) we are looking at the genetic make up of the cow and what she might add to our herd.
I hope that is the type of information you were looking for, I didn't think you were being a jerk at all. One thing I have found, is that your going to lose some frame size on cattle in our climate so when selecting bulls you have to take that into consideration.
gizmom
