thirstyman
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2012
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
Greetings!
I'm new to the boards, but have been a lurker for a month or two. A little background on me - I was raised on a large commerical ranch in middle Tennessee - at one time it was around 3600 acres, now it is around 600 usable acres. We have scaled back dramatically - approximately a dozen brood head left due to a family members declining health. Our hay has always been top quality. As you can imagine, we have lots of extra land and we cut it for hay now - one dairy farm that we sell to had it tested and told us that it came back at 11% protein. I have been asked to help get things running again and to help oversee the cattle operations. All of the remaining cows (except one and she is being sold shortly - having bag issues) are solid calfers that have not had any problems having a calf and all of the calves wean at 475lbs+ (by eye - we dont use tape or scales). They are mostly black angus or baldy looking things - but the genetics are american mongrel (over the years we have used angus bulls, beefmaster bulls, chi bulls, limosuin bulls, lots of polled hereford bulls, and most of the cows were either originally black angus or hereford). In the past, we generally sold as weaners and averaged over 500lbs a calf.
We sold over 200 brood head over a 16 month period two or three years ago because of health issues of a family member. These remaining cows are supposedly the best we had left. Honestly, they are good looking, pasture fed only - with hay during the winter, however, they will not win any shows. We will feed some treats to keep them coming into the bard, but rarely do we supplement with anything beyond minerals and salt. No implants, only vaccines and worming. They could use a little length for my eye, but I am happy eating their offspring as it now stands.
We have slaughtered plenty of beef over the years for our own freezers and have had good luck in the tenderness and quality of the meat. It is my goal to ramp up production (slowly and methodically) and at the same time to increase genetics. If we can get all the cows calfing close together and produce a more uniform product, we were thinking of selling on the grid and some freezer beef on the side. I know enough about these boards to not ask any questions about pricing on the freezer beef. :lol2:
Here is my thought process. I believe the best way to start quickly moving the genetics is to use AI with a cover bull (we have a nice black angus bull right now, but he is not as long as I would like and his tail bone is a little higher than the rest of his back). I have been researching through google and various breed associations and thought my best first run or two should be with an angus bull - high calving score, low birthweight that grows off quickly (since we will have 4 heifers in the first batch) with good marbling and REA and then look in another season or two into crossing back to a continental bull as terminal (maybe a limi? we have had good luck with them in past) for most of the cattle while still trying to produce some heifers for retaining out of select cows with an Angus bull or a polled hereford.
I will not be doing the AI - we have a friend who runs a dairy farm who has offered to come do the AI for us if we can synch them. I'll talk with the vet about those mechanics - if anyone has any specific suggestions, I'm like a brahman - all ears!
my question to you - any thoughts/flaws sitting out there? and does anyone have any favorite AI sires that they would recommend that are good for heifers and cows.... Thanks in advance
I'm new to the boards, but have been a lurker for a month or two. A little background on me - I was raised on a large commerical ranch in middle Tennessee - at one time it was around 3600 acres, now it is around 600 usable acres. We have scaled back dramatically - approximately a dozen brood head left due to a family members declining health. Our hay has always been top quality. As you can imagine, we have lots of extra land and we cut it for hay now - one dairy farm that we sell to had it tested and told us that it came back at 11% protein. I have been asked to help get things running again and to help oversee the cattle operations. All of the remaining cows (except one and she is being sold shortly - having bag issues) are solid calfers that have not had any problems having a calf and all of the calves wean at 475lbs+ (by eye - we dont use tape or scales). They are mostly black angus or baldy looking things - but the genetics are american mongrel (over the years we have used angus bulls, beefmaster bulls, chi bulls, limosuin bulls, lots of polled hereford bulls, and most of the cows were either originally black angus or hereford). In the past, we generally sold as weaners and averaged over 500lbs a calf.
We sold over 200 brood head over a 16 month period two or three years ago because of health issues of a family member. These remaining cows are supposedly the best we had left. Honestly, they are good looking, pasture fed only - with hay during the winter, however, they will not win any shows. We will feed some treats to keep them coming into the bard, but rarely do we supplement with anything beyond minerals and salt. No implants, only vaccines and worming. They could use a little length for my eye, but I am happy eating their offspring as it now stands.
We have slaughtered plenty of beef over the years for our own freezers and have had good luck in the tenderness and quality of the meat. It is my goal to ramp up production (slowly and methodically) and at the same time to increase genetics. If we can get all the cows calfing close together and produce a more uniform product, we were thinking of selling on the grid and some freezer beef on the side. I know enough about these boards to not ask any questions about pricing on the freezer beef. :lol2:
Here is my thought process. I believe the best way to start quickly moving the genetics is to use AI with a cover bull (we have a nice black angus bull right now, but he is not as long as I would like and his tail bone is a little higher than the rest of his back). I have been researching through google and various breed associations and thought my best first run or two should be with an angus bull - high calving score, low birthweight that grows off quickly (since we will have 4 heifers in the first batch) with good marbling and REA and then look in another season or two into crossing back to a continental bull as terminal (maybe a limi? we have had good luck with them in past) for most of the cattle while still trying to produce some heifers for retaining out of select cows with an Angus bull or a polled hereford.
I will not be doing the AI - we have a friend who runs a dairy farm who has offered to come do the AI for us if we can synch them. I'll talk with the vet about those mechanics - if anyone has any specific suggestions, I'm like a brahman - all ears!
my question to you - any thoughts/flaws sitting out there? and does anyone have any favorite AI sires that they would recommend that are good for heifers and cows.... Thanks in advance