A red-head I love:

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Funny how the show circuit dictates the stance of animals in sale catalogs which are being sold to people that are trying to buy working cattle by looking for what works for them out in the field and not in a show ring.



Congrats on the successful and productive flush, fertilization, and freeze. What are you asking for them?

Taking pictures is gruelling!!! But, the head up pose is the sought after "look" for all sale cattle pictures. Difficult to see the angle of the shoulder (post legged), the bulging shoulder (hard calver) when their head is down.
We are getting $1400 for package of 3 on the Redstone sired embryos. May be more for the Next Level sired ones.

 

[farmerjan]

Have watched some of the posing for dairy cattle pictures... yep... GRUELING work....

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We sold out on the embryos we wanted to sell. That was quick.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We put a Red Stone embryo in yesterday. Here's hoping she settles. Our biggest problem is we don't have "mediocre" cows to put the embryos IN. I finally just figured it's no different than if a great cow had a steer. We have 2 in our fall group that will get the embryos.

 

[Warren Allison]

We put a Red Stone embryo in yesterday. Here's hoping she settles. Our biggest problem is we don't have "mediocre" cows to put the embryos IN. I finally just figured it's no different than if a great cow had a steer. We have 2 in our fall group that will get the embryos.

Would it be worth your while, to get some cheaper commercial cows as recips? ( Of course right now, most any cow isn't all that cheap!) My friend Dan, that is the breeding manager for the big Charolais operation here, used Braunvieh/Brown Swiss cows for recips. Remember a couple of years ago, I got some in trade for training his QH? Now he has some of their daughters, that were sired by a Fleckveih bull he had in the tank, that he uses. I don't think he has ever used any of the Charolais for recips. Like you, the Charolais cows they have are like 5-figure cows, and I guess they figure that by flushing them, they can get more than one calf a year out of each cow. I guess they figured it didn't make much sense to flush a $12k cow, and put the embryo into a $10k cow, so that's why they used commercial cows. I suspect that all of your cows are like that...the one you use as a recip is about as valuable as the one you flushed.

Clay was telling me the other day, that Dan had talked to him about flushing the three red Charloais cows he has. Apparently, they are of top Charolais lineage. He could get to his goal of having a small red Charolais herd a lot quicker that way. Clay still has a black BM and a few Brangus he could use for recips, and he was taking about maybe using some of those Black Simm/Chiangus heifers , instead of Ai-ing all of them for steer calves as he had planned. It wouldn't cost him anything...Dan would do it for free, because Clay helps him with AI, flushing, etc anyway. He'd just lose the revenue from the steer calves the recips could have raised, is how I look at it.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

My land/farm is pretty maxed out with what I have, plus biosecurity - I would never bring a group of cows onto the farm. There are only 2 animals on the farm that were purchased - 1 came from David Rockefeller's wife's farm, Hudson Pines Farm and the other 1 came from a friend that has all my genetics and same health program. Stuck my hand up to help in get his animal moving in a sale and came home with her. Offspring of one of my cow families.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I've been thinking.. maybe for those who have genetics that would be difficult to impossible to replace. Flushing those lines for the sole purpose of an "Armageddon stash" in case of disease or wildfire or other disaster might not be a bad idea. The biggest reason Gardinier's made it through losing 500 cows was their donors weren't involved. Frozen embryos would still be usable for repopulation after say Hoof and Mouth goes through. Just a random thought.

 

[Warren Allison]

My land/farm is pretty maxed out with what I have, plus biosecurity - I would never bring a group of cows onto the farm. There are only 2 animals on the farm that were purchased - 1 came from David Rockefeller's wife's farm, Hudson Pines Farm and the other 1 came from a friend that has all my genetics and same health program. Stuck my hand up to help in get his animal moving in a sale and came home with her. Offspring of one of my cow families.

I kind of figured you'd be tight on space, to keep a commercial cow, but thought I'd ask anyway.

 

[Katpau]

It is interesting to hear the different opinions on that "head up" look. I have always wondered why show cattle were always made to look so unattractive in photos. To me it is just the opposite of a flattering look. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[farmerjan]

Speaking of not bringing in outside cattle etc... and I get why you do what you do.... but out of curiosity... what ever became of that angus bull calf you put on your cow???? In your freezer???? Did she breed back and is going to calve again?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Yes, that Angus steer was fed out along side my steers.
We had 2 steers butchered on 10/29.
He was born 9-2 1100# live wt, 738# HCW, 64%
Ours was born 9-1 1300# live wt, 832# HCW, 64%
Butcher raved about muscling & marbling on both carcasses.
I kept half of the 1300# steer, sold the Angus steer - so can't compare meat. I would guess they would have been very comparable in tenderness & marbling. The Angus steer had more visable outside fat than my Simmental. I should have taken pics.
Cow bred back and gave me a beautiful heifer calf on 9/6/24.
Jan, you have a GREAT memory!!!

 

[TwoByrdsMG]

I've been thinking.. maybe for those who have genetics that would be difficult to impossible to replace. Flushing those lines for the sole purpose of an "Armageddon stash" in case of disease or wildfire or other disaster might not be a bad idea. The biggest reason Gardinier's made it through losing 500 cows was their donors weren't involved. Frozen embryos would still be usable for repopulation after say Hoof and Mouth goes through. Just a random thought.

I call it genetic caching, we have been doing it with our Murray greys. Trans Ova has been pretty fabulous for us too.

We sell enough to cover the expenses and keep the rest. Some of the Trans Ova facilities can also do sexed heifer or sexed bull embryos.

 

[Farm Family]

This is our fall heifer we showed all summer, SV Sexy Lady. We flushed her to Red Stone. She was just a year old and she did great. We got 13 good embryos. We are flushing her tomorrow with Next Level. I stole the collage from my nephew's FB page. She is a Mack AF daughter - a sire I purchase semen out of Colorado from an individual. Been using him for many years.
This heifer is out of a cow that was 13 years old when she calved - and now at 14, she has a red bull calf going to Colorado.
View attachment 51363

A red head and a Simmental I could love too!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Some people PAY another farm to implant their cows and raise the calves. I have seen way too many calves look like a piece of sh$t because they have non-milking cows on pizz poor management. Hudson Pines Farm (Rockefeller) came here once and said he had a trailer full of ET heifers he just picked up from a farm they hired. Said he was going directly to a sale barn with the whole load.

 

[Travlr]

Some people PAY another farm to implant their cows and raise the calves. I have seen way too many calves look like a piece of sh$t because they have non-milking cows on pizz poor management. Hudson Pines Farm (Rockefeller) came here once and said he had a trailer full of ET heifers he just picked up from a farm they hired. Said he was going directly to a sale barn with the whole load.

If those calves have been abused and look like crap they are still carrying the genetics they were bred for. As long as they can produce a calf and raise it I'd be trying to improve them and give them a chance. I've seen some pretty garbage cows raise an exceptional looking calf. Maybe there is a line to be crossed but it's hard to throw away invested money.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We just put an embryo in a cow this am. Well, our vet did!