Are you a breeder?

[gabbyellepaige]

Of club calves?
I would really like to become a breeder, but with going to college for the next 4 years,
no land to call my own, and just a busy schedule I highly doubt I'll have anytime to go show and get my name out there
to become a successful club calf breeder.
If you are a club calf breeder I would really like it if you told me your story.
How you became a club calf breeder,
what obstacles you've had to overcome, what do you breed and why, how successful would you say you are, and just things of that nature.
Thank you c:

 

[VCC]

What are you majoring in College? I would take the time in college to learn as much as I could about managing your cows, take an AI class, find a club calf operation and see if you can spend some time working there while in college. If you want to start building a herd I would start by developing a solid cow herd. You need some good cows before you start thinking about breeding good calves. Most club cows are Angus based, with Main, Sim, and Char influence. I know by some of your post you have some cows now, I would work on getting a good base, keep the good heifers cull hard and sell the steers as market steers, in the 4 or 5 years it takes to finish college you should have a nice set of cows developed to start breeding club calves. And if you decide to go a different direction you will still have functional cows that can work in any situation, commercial, breeder (as recips) or club.

Do your homework, find out which bulls out there a making club calf cows and breed accordingly. Start small and take your time, you have plenty of it ahead of you.

I do it for a hobby, if I was going to get into it for a profession I would concentrate on breeding replacements to sell to the club calf producers. If you are concentrating on showsteers you need replacements that can raise a calf.
It seems that heifers average more $'s than steers in the long run.

 

[gabbyellepaige]

What are you majoring in College?

I'm majoring in education minoring in animal science.

I would take the time in college to learn as much as I could about managing your cows, take an AI class, find a club calf operation and see if you can spend some time working there while in college. If you want to start building a herd I would start by developing a solid cow herd. You need some good cows before you start thinking about breeding good calves. Most club cows are Angus based, with Main, Sim, and Char influence. I know by some of your post you have some cows now, I would work on getting a good base, keep the good heifers cull hard and sell the steers as market steers, in the 4 or 5 years it takes to finish college you should have a nice set of cows developed to start breeding club calves. And if you decide to go a different direction you will still have functional cows that can work in any situation, commercial, breeder (as recips) or club.

I only have 2 heifers right now, what I'm thinking is I'll breed those and show their calves at my state fair and some other shows around winter, of every year. Just to get my name out there. I want to be a Charolais breeder and I know a CharolaisxAngus makes a mean steer so I'll probably throw some Angus genetics in there somewhere. If it doesn't work out I'll always have a tax exemption and a little extra money from the sell barn.

Do your homework, find out which bulls out there a making club calf cows and breed accordingly. Start small and take your time, you have plenty of it ahead of you.

I do it for a hobby, if I was going to get into it for a profession I would concentrate on breeding replacements to sell to the club calf producers. If you are concentrating on showsteers you need replacements that can raise a calf.
It seems that heifers average more $'s than steers in the long run.

 

[sackshowcattle]

My parents helped me buy my herd when I was 15. I have ran the herd for 18 years now. I was in the same boat as you and this is how it worked for me. I did everything while in high school. In college I had to come home on the weekends and farm for dad all summer for feed in the winter and to off set my parents time to take care of them during the school year. After school was out saved up enough to buy my own place and while saving had to work for dad when not working to help put up the feed to feed them. While I was in college I picked bulls to make replacements and sold the bottom end and all steers at the sale barn. Some of the better calves have been sold to friends or kids in the area to show. I ended up running it more like a commercial operation and now its proving to be the best move. I have sound functional cattle that can survive on pasture and hay in winter and decent BW on the cows. They are high percentage maines that can be crossed with top club calf bulls. I dont have and shouldn't have a lot of the calving and structure problems that a lot of the clubby world has due to multiple generations of crossed up messes or the problem with the small gene pool of most bulls going back to a select few genetics.