AA PRF Wideload...

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Herefords.US":1prb641a said:
C'mon guys, where's your sense of "adventure"? Personally, I'd rather take a chance on pulling a calf with Wideload than breed a heifer to Legend or Progress. And I think it was OLF that reported having a 110 lb. Progress calf? Of course that's up north and apparently out of a big cow!

At least take a step up to Harland or Rib Eye and also get some "grow" in your calf.

Based on the photo, I agree with Keren on Red House:

Keren":1prb641a said:
He'd make a really beautiful heifer ...

I don't know anything about him, but I also like the looks of the K16 bull. I'm betting that he's not what you wanted EPD/performance wise though, RD-Sam?

George
I would hate to give Progress a bad reputation. That cow had a 118 lb. bull calf last year when bred to a BW 5 bull. She has a 120 lb calf without any problem. That's just her. Also, I have seen pretty good grow from Progress. I still like him for heifers.

Can someone clear this up for me? I know WW and YW EPDs are relative differences in a pounds. If a WW 80 bull produces a calf with a 650 lb weaning weight, then the same cow bred to a WW 50 bull should wean a 620 lb calf. Is that true about BW EPD? If a BW 8.0 bull produces huge calves, and a BW 1.0 bull produces small calves. Would the average difference in calf birth weights be 7 lbs? That doesn't seem like much to me. My bull calves this year will range from 90 lbs to 120 lbs.
 
OLF":29luux5w said:
Can someone clear this up for me? I know WW and YW EPDs are relative differences in a pounds. If a WW 80 bull produces a calf with a 650 lb weaning weight, then the same cow bred to a WW 50 bull should wean a 620 lb calf. Is that true about BW EPD? If a BW 8.0 bull produces huge calves, and a BW 1.0 bull produces small calves. Would the average difference in calf birth weights be 7 lbs? That doesn't seem like much to me. My bull calves this year will range from 90 lbs to 120 lbs.

From Star Lake website:
"BW (Birth Weight): Derived from the actual birth weight ranking within the contemporary group where the calf was born. The first BW EPD issued for a calf is the average of the dam and the sire, with an adjustment made from that number to reflect the actual birth weight of an individual as compared to its contemporary group average. An actual birth weight that is exceptionally higher or lower than the average of its contemporary group will change that individual's BW EPD accordingly. The BW EPD is primarily changed when progeny have been recorded from the subject animal and the accuracy becomes much higher. The birth weight is adjusted according to the age of dam. The BW EPD has no correlation to an actual birth weight (an 85 lb. calf can have a BW EPD of 4.5 or 5.5 or 6.5 or even a 2.5 in different herds). A lower number is desirable and indicates less expected birth weight."

OK, this kind of answers my question, but what does the BW EPD really tell me?
 
You might want to look at ABS line up Ribeye and Progress both work on heifers and you can sleep at night. Ribeye calves look good from the get go. Progress calves may look weak at first, but they catch up and look good by yearling time.


Jeff
 
OLF":15e0qpk9 said:
OK, this kind of answers my question, but what does the BW EPD really tell me?

The BW EPD tells you that a calf sired by a bull with a BW EPD of 3 would be EXPECTED to weigh three pounds more at birth than if you bred the same cow cow, under the same conditions, to a bull of the same breed with a BW EPD of 0. That's all it tells you.
 
Herefords.US":4gjtnq6f said:
C'mon guys, where's your sense of "adventure"? Personally, I'd rather take a chance on pulling a calf with Wideload than breed a heifer to Legend or Progress. And I think it was OLF that reported having a 110 lb. Progress calf? Of course that's up north and apparently out of a big cow!

At least take a step up to Harland or Rib Eye and also get some "grow" in your calf.

Based on the photo, I agree with Keren on Red House:

Keren":4gjtnq6f said:
He'd make a really beautiful heifer ...

I don't know anything about him, but I also like the looks of the K16 bull. I'm betting that he's not what you wanted EPD/performance wise though, RD-Sam?

George

I certainly like the looks of K16, but you are right, I would like to see a little better EPD, if he had an EPD like Red House, that would be ideal. That is a young picture of Red House, I would like to see a mature picture, you might really be surprised, of course I could be surprised as well. :lol2: I was interested in Red House for some of the traits, I wasn't saying he was perfect, it was a long term plan if I used him.
 
RD-Sam":2qx4nh44 said:
Herefords.US":2qx4nh44 said:
C'mon guys, where's your sense of "adventure"? Personally, I'd rather take a chance on pulling a calf with Wideload than breed a heifer to Legend or Progress. And I think it was OLF that reported having a 110 lb. Progress calf? Of course that's up north and apparently out of a big cow!

At least take a step up to Harland or Rib Eye and also get some "grow" in your calf.

Based on the photo, I agree with Keren on Red House:

Keren":2qx4nh44 said:
He'd make a really beautiful heifer ...

I don't know anything about him, but I also like the looks of the K16 bull. I'm betting that he's not what you wanted EPD/performance wise though, RD-Sam?

George

I certainly like the looks of K16, but you are right, I would like to see a little better EPD, if he had an EPD like Red House, that would be ideal. That is a young picture of Red House, I would like to see a mature picture, you might really be surprised, of course I could be surprised as well. :lol2: I was interested in Red House for some of the traits, I wasn't saying he was perfect, it was a long term plan if I used him.

Feltons Domino 774 sired quite a few better bulls than Red House, look at Feltons Ozzie, Feltons Magnum 434 to name but two.
 
One picture of Ozzie looks really good, another he looks horrible. His Genestar doesn't look good at all. I had considered using Magnum 434, he is on my list for semen to purchase. In fact that is what I am doing, working out a plan and trying to decide which semen to purchase.
 
For Heifers...I see two undervalued options based upon bulls I feel will lead Herefords in a couple of years. I will post about one here now and the other in a little while. You have already mentioned one of them. If the accuracy percentages were higher, I would think the semen price could be higher. Most of the experienced breeders will probably tell you to leave this one alone because of the accuracy percentages. This is where I disagree with the experience.

REA appears to be the only major weakness to me on paper. Other than that, the probability of well balanced progeny with superior performance is expected.



In the KCS operation and contemporary group, he performed exceptional and has nice gonad size. Notice even though he is below average in FAT ratio and on the chart, he is still positive in the FAT EPD indicating he could be easy doing and provide lean carcasses at the same time.

View attachment 2
You may need to click on this one to enlarge so you can see the data good.

View attachment 1
 
HerefordSire":lb7784l4 said:
For Heifers...I see two undervalued options based upon bulls I feel will lead Herefords in a couple of years. I will post about one here now and the other in a little while. You have already mentioned one of them. If the accuracy percentages were higher, I would think the semen price could be higher. Most of the experienced breeders will probably tell you to leave this one alone because of the accuracy percentages. This is where I disagree with the experience.

REA appears to be the only major weakness to me on paper. Other than that, the probability of well balanced progeny with superior performance is expected.



In the KCS operation and contemporary group, he performed exceptional and has nice gonad size. Notice even though he is below average in FAT ratio and on the chart, he is still positive in the FAT EPD indicating he could be easy doing and provide lean carcasses at the same time.

View attachment 2
You may need to click on this one to enlarge so you can see the data good.

View attachment 1

Despite what some may think, I think he should make some nice cows. The thing is, if you want certain traits, you have to breed to them, otherwise you may never get them. He is also line bred on 774, so if he was bred to a heifer or cow with 774 close up in the ped, you would likely get more of the 774 in the breeding. I'm likely to buy semen and figure out a good time to use it at some stage.
 
RD-Sam":ldqer33l said:
HerefordSire":ldqer33l said:
RD-Sam":ldqer33l said:
What are your opinions of this bull? Would you use him with a heifer? http://www.lagrandranch.com/hereford/si ... eload.html

Now to answer your question. I don't like him at all. No on the heifers.

What is it that you don't like? That bull looks almost flawless to me, wish he had a better EPD, but I think it's good enough.

U.S. Semen: $50/Straw, $100/Certificate

I could buy a nice private Jet instead.
 
At least it isn't as bad as $500 per straw. :lol2:
 

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