Angus Heifers, let em have it

[critterair2]

Bought 5 Purebred Angus Heifers a few weeks ago. Yearling weights were 830-890lbs. Plan to AI them in two weeks. Birthdates were all in March. Biggest one was #152, at 49 weeks she was 890lbs. Now to get rid of those darn flies.

 

[luckefarm]

look great!!! well put together with nice body condition and seem very sound. can you tell us there blood lines

 

[funky 4-Her]

They look great. Bet you'll get some good lookin calves outta them.

 

[*Cowgirl*]

What are you breeding to?

 

[critterair2]

Still looking for semen, haven't made up my mind yet. It will be to Reg. Angus bull Like to use a bull with a Zero BW or a neg

 

[Angus In Texas]

With Angus, as long as you keep the BW EPD below 3 you should be fine..... even with heifers. I highly recommend Riverbend Mile High 3718. He has worked very well for us. Now that all depends on the breeding of the heifers.

 

[texast]

Those are nice looking Angus Heifers they should do you well.

 

[bigbull338]

you bought 5 top heifers thats for sure.an their goodlooking well made heifers to boot.

 

[Aero]

Still looking for semen, haven't made up my mind yet. It will be to Reg. Angus bull Like to use a bull with a Zero BW or a neg

a more useful EPD to focus would be CED. Find a bull with +10 CED and Acc over .90.

 

[MTNCREEKFARMS]

Critterair2 those are some very fine looking heifers. You should be very proud!

 

[jscunn]

Another criteria since we live down south should be hair. Find a bull sires slick haired cattle. Most show bulls should now be off your list. Those hairy calves will melt in the summer heat down here. Good luck, nice heifers. Can you tell us alittle about their pedigrees??

 

[cowgirl_telly_369]

All 5 of them look great.

 

[critterair2]

Hey Doc...what do you think?

 

[HOSS]

I think they look horrible, horrible horrible. I cannot believe that anybody would raise such sloppy looking heifers. I think they look so bad that you do not need them in your pasture. I will volunteer to come down and load em' up and move em' out to my place so that people won't think ill of you.

Seriously........nice looking bunch. I would be happy to have them in my pasture any time.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

Still looking for semen, haven't made up my mind yet. It will be to Reg. Angus bull Like to use a bull with a Zero BW or a neg

a more useful EPD to focus would be CED. Find a bull with +10 CED and Acc over .90.

critterair2-

SOCKO looking heifers from these pictures! Uniform, consistent phenotype, straight legs, good toplines - just a darned good package of herd builders. You used good judgement!

I also agree with Aero regarding +10 CED and ACC over .90. To concentrate your selection protocols on JUST Zero BW or less would be doing "Single Trait Selection", and with Angus you don't need to go that low on BW. If you do that, your Milk EPD will probably be too high (+30 - or more :shock: ) and that leads to lack of body muscularity (Funnel Butts), lowered Fertility, and low uREA, and your Angus don't need that trend in Phenotype OR Genetics. Single trait genetic selection is NEVER desirable in itself. This is also why "eyeballing" individual bulls or females (Phenotype only 'judging') is NOT the way to be successful in selecting seedstock. It requires a combination of EPD's (Genotype) of some consequence (not necessarily using EVERY EPD in the book), Phenotype ('eyeballing'), Functional traits, and ancestral production records. Use every tool at your disposal. That is their purpose.

I also like Mile High as a bull to use for them! WOW! You would be in the "Tall Cotton" Angus business pretty quick with those Genetics!

. . . .and one last suggestion. Use a bull that will not get your replacement heifers weighing over 1250 lbs at six years of age. Your PROFIT factor will convince you it would be a wise decision - that is if you are planning to have a Maternal based herd instead of a Terminal based one. If you are geared up for a Terminal program and are going for Feedlot weights and profit - use crossbred bulls for your heifers. AND concentrate on Calving Ease traits with high Accuracy bulls.

DOC HARRIS

 

[critterair2]

Thanks everyone for the friendly post. Makes one feel good when it appears as though we made some good choices. The heifers were bought from a angus ranch in central florida, Stardust bloodlines, very nice folks there. Next step to get em bred, and start researching everything else. All the paperwork that comes with it, ultrasounds etc... lots to learn but we're trying. We're not going to have the largest herd by any means, hopefully 25 or so. But thats also 25 calves to raise, bulls maybe longer. Def. want to get to the point where we are a well known, high quality breeder. Thanks for all the tips, gonna make a call on Highlander tomorrow. Time to bring em in heat and get r done.

 

[3waycross]

Good luck on the breeding.That is sure one nice set of heifers.

 

[critterair2]

We made a decision on a bull, we're going to use Connealy Danny 5398, seems as though there have been execellent opinions of his daddy, seems as thou not alot have used him yet, we'll see how it turns out.

http://bullbarn.com/angblkepd.asp?ID=1259

Some of you have questioned the pedigrees of these heifers,
Two of them are from, RES New Design 638 878 128, one from VDAR Rito 2820, two from Stardust Sleep Easy 4202-04 who's sire was GAR Sleep Easy 1009

 

[DOC HARRIS]

critteriar2-

Connealy Danny 5398 is a good representative of a bull to compliment your heifers! His CED and CEM is just right, as is his Production, Maternal, Carcass and Ultrasound numbers. His BW is okay at -1.9 - I would like to see it at around +1.5 - +2.0, but, there again, it is axiomatic that he be balanced with the females to whom he will be bred. His %IMF and REA are well balanced considering they are antagonistic traits. Your time spent studying and comparing was well invested!

DOC HARRIS

 

[rkm]

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