Another heifer, opinions?

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Alan

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A comment about having barn blindness, got me thinking about this heifer, your thoughts? I want the bad with the good. Only thing I will say is she is fine on the back feet, meaning she is not down on her heels. She just came through ditch and seemed to be standing that way for a second.... or a click of the shutter.

Thanks, Alan

IMG_1129.jpg


IMG_1126.jpg
 
Looks like her head is to big for her body, maybe she isnt as big a she should be for her age.
 
Alan...I like the dark red. I don't like the white running up her leg. I can tell she has good show genes. I won't comment on her structure.
 
I hate to be mean. Truth is, that is 1 bad looking critter.
She is a runt, stunted looking.
 
Thanks for the opinions to this point. As I said I can take the bad just fine.... I feel like it helps my eye, or bias eyes. :D . Her head is one thing I really don't like, the length of her nose is just out of porportion (sp). She is no way a runt, she is probably around 1000 to 1100 lbs at this point and will be a bigger framed cow. I will say she is 100 to 150 lbs under weight, just coming out of winter and a heifer wintered with matured cows. I'm not going to defend her, just looking for opinions. Edited; I'm hoping she will mature into her head, she's 23 months now with another year or so of growth.... :?

Thanks again,
Alan
 
Alan, Guess it because I got nothing to compare her to. Especially the second pic. Makes her look like the head out grew her body. Looking to me like she will go 775-800 pounds, and at least 2 years old.
Just my opinion from looking at a couple photos.
 
I may off 100 lbs or so on the weight, but she is as tall as most of my cows, had the highest adg, for heifer calves, in the herd her calving year, her adj YW was 545lbs out of a 1st time heifer. As I said she is 100 lbs or so under weight and we're working on that. My only point without defending her too much is she is in no way a runt..... if she was a horse I would say she is very much out of balance and looks like a akward teenager.

Please keep your thoughts coming!

Alan

here's mom in the background (the calf is not hers). The heifer is her first calf;

IMG_1082.jpg
 
The cow looks to be a good brood cow. The calf has some sort of a bad stomach problem.
Now that is the LAST mean thing I'm going to say. I promise. :oops:
 
mnmtranching":3qe6jlex said:
The calf has some sort of a bad stomach problem. Now that is the LAST mean thing I'm going to say. I promise. :oops:

Yea, I had a bunch like that last year.... I think the problem was too much grass and milk last year. :tiphat: I can take the mean, don't worry about it..... I'll just kick my dog (just kidding peta folks) :D

Alan
 
mnmtranching":39sgjnsa said:
The cow looks to be a good brood cow. The calf has some sort of a bad stomach problem.
Now that is the LAST mean thing I'm going to say. I promise. :oops:
don't stop your on a roll :p the heifer looks like a younger version of her maw too me.. you obviously liked her.... the blood lines i assume
 
is she open or bred? If she is open, when do you plan on breeding her? My critique would be the feet, look like too long of toes and the pasterns look weak. It may just be the picture though.
 
I'd like to know if she was bred or not also? I don't think she'll win to many beauty contests but if she's about to calve, like she should be at 23 months of age, I'd darn sure keep her and give her a try. She reminds me of a cow I have that I almost sold six years ago for being ugly. I still have that cow and she's still ugly but she brings in one of the top calves every year.
 
is she perfect ?
no
can she raise a good calf make money ?
that is what's most important to me.

would like to see more rearend
 
Alan, who is she out of? I would say the bull definitely did not compliment the cow in this case. You've posted better cattle before. The thing that I don't like about her is overall she just looks frail. How bad has your winter been? Has she had access to hay and mineral. If there is really obvious reason why she is under weight then I'd call her very hard keeping, which you'd expect with her phenotype. I'll say this with caution because I am on a wide screen, but she looks fairly long, but I'd like to see her a little bit deeper. I wouldn't say she's shallow bodied, but could definitely be better. She could also stand to be thicker in her loin and needs to carry more muscle in her rear quarter. Another thing would be to give her a deeper, wider chest floor so that she could have more room for her heart and lungs and increase her longevity.

I understand the need to keep the commerical cows that raise heavy calves or whatever, but if you are trying to build a herd of registered cattle that excel in phenotype I don't see how she is going to help you reach that goal. Just my very unexpert opinion.
 
She looks like a typical highway calf without a feed bucket....

Who is she out of?
 
CPL":1vts3wla said:
Alan, who is she out of? I would say the bull definitely did not compliment the cow in this case. You've posted better cattle before. The thing that I don't like about her is overall she just looks frail. How bad has your winter been? Has she had access to hay and mineral. If there is really obvious reason why she is under weight then I'd call her very hard keeping, which you'd expect with her phenotype. I'll say this with caution because I am on a wide screen, but she looks fairly long, but I'd like to see her a little bit deeper. I wouldn't say she's shallow bodied, but could definitely be better. She could also stand to be thicker in her loin and needs to carry more muscle in her rear quarter. Another thing would be to give her a deeper, wider chest floor so that she could have more room for her heart and lungs and increase her longevity.

I understand the need to keep the commerical cows that raise heavy calves or whatever, but if you are trying to build a herd of registered cattle that excel in phenotype I don't see how she is going to help you reach that goal. Just my very unexpert opinion.

I forgot to mention that to me she appears somewhat sickle hocked in both pictures.
 
Ned Jr.":3l4qiklk said:
I'd like to know if she was bred or not also? I don't think she'll win to many beauty contests but if she's about to calve, like she should be at 23 months of age, I'd darn sure keep her and give her a try. She reminds me of a cow I have that I almost sold six years ago for being ugly. I still have that cow and she's still ugly but she brings in one of the top calves every year.

Ned, CPL, and even the mean guy :D and of course the rest that responded,

Thanks to all for the replies, yes she is bred, hoping to 242. I agree that she is ugly, just trying to put my finger on it. I went down and had a good luck at her last night after the reponses.

Again she is an ugly heifer. Here's my problem, her dam has had the best heifer calves in the herd the last two years (she's only had two calves to date) and the 3rd highest ADG in the herd, beaten by two M326 bull calves. The cow is a Call 100 daughter, the heifer has no claim to fame other than Call 100 grand daughter. I think the pics don't show her head accuratley, but don't get me wrong I don't like it at all, as I stated before.

Here's my thoughts, as stated she is really what I would call out of balance, could change with age. For the third time, ugly head. I don't like her legs, she going to be a big cow...guessing 1300 to 1400lbs. When I compare to others in my herd she seems to have a bit of depth, but the vision gets lost with her long legs... if that makes sense. Not much rib or hip...hoping that will change, as stated we had a tough winter (for us) 2 feet of snow on the ground that hung around for almost two months, freezing temps during most for that period (worst winter here weather since 1940). And as happens with heifers in the herd with mature cows they have to grab a bite between shoves.

So to sum it up, she looks like cr@p but is out of probably my best or one of the top two producing cows to date. As I said just trying to put my finger on what it is about her.....maybe just my (blind) hopes of being a good cow that gives me calves at 600lb + at 205. BTW I kept the Call 100 cows heifer from last year, out of a Mr Karat son, looks like she has the same head as her sister??? thanks mom.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again,
Alan
 
HerefordSire":3hem5xft said:
Who is is the HereforeSire of the bred heifer Alan?

Like I said he was a no name bull, he was a son of a Ned and Jan Ward bull, but his dam had nothing in her close background. He was just the first bull I bought when I got into cattle, I had him for 5 years and she is out of his last calf crop. The only bull I recognize in his background is Wrangler 832, 4 gens back, he had decent EPD's not great.

Alan
 
Alan":2d0z0exo said:
HerefordSire":2d0z0exo said:
Who is is the HereforeSire of the bred heifer Alan?

Like I said he was a no name bull, he was a son of a Ned and Jan Ward bull, but his dam had nothing in her close background. He was just the first bull I bought when I got into cattle, I had him for 5 years and she is out of his last calf crop. The only bull I recognize in his background is Wrangler 832, 4 gens back, he had decent EPD's not great.

Alan

There is something I like about your heifer other than dark red color. I can't put my finger on it though. It may be one of those that matures a little later and ends up suprising you with a great bull calf. I would keep her as long as you have the space.
 

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