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Best Cattle Crosses For Unassisted Calving
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<blockquote data-quote="rocfarm" data-source="post: 1766033" data-attributes="member: 42715"><p>You seem to be assuming that I would expect maternal traits to be highly consistent in the heifers of older cows and that I wouldn't cull replacements from the older cows based on maternal deficiencies. I wouldn't expect consistency and I would still expect to cull heavily. </p><p></p><p>I'm talking more on how calves seem to be prenatally affected by the cow in the womb as well as receive better postpartum nutrition and care from the older cow, which gives it a better chance of not being culled for reasons other than genetics, I think. And one doesn't just cull because of maternal traits. Weight gain, frame size, feed efficiency, confirmation that could affect longevity and others also come into play. These culling reasons are not necessarily maternal. </p><p></p><p>So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, given the choice and all other things equal (same look, birth dates, etc.) (although things usually aren't equal because calves from older cows tend to look better than calves out of first-calf heifers), I'd lean towards retaining the heifers out of the older cows in my herd because of the likelihood of having less developmental issues resulting from a suboptimal start to life. If I needed one replacement, I'd keep two or three heifers out of my older cows and cull one or two of these after their first calf. If I kept two, that's great. No need to raise replacements next year. </p><p></p><p>But if my older cows' heifers didn't look good and I had a first-calf heifer that dropped a beauty and was doing a gang-buster job, I'd be flexible.</p><p></p><p>So replacement maxim for ROC: </p><p></p><p>All other things being relatively equal: heavily favor replacements from older cows.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rocfarm, post: 1766033, member: 42715"] You seem to be assuming that I would expect maternal traits to be highly consistent in the heifers of older cows and that I wouldn’t cull replacements from the older cows based on maternal deficiencies. I wouldn’t expect consistency and I would still expect to cull heavily. I’m talking more on how calves seem to be prenatally affected by the cow in the womb as well as receive better postpartum nutrition and care from the older cow, which gives it a better chance of not being culled for reasons other than genetics, I think. And one doesn’t just cull because of maternal traits. Weight gain, frame size, feed efficiency, confirmation that could affect longevity and others also come into play. These culling reasons are not necessarily maternal. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that, given the choice and all other things equal (same look, birth dates, etc.) (although things usually aren’t equal because calves from older cows tend to look better than calves out of first-calf heifers), I’d lean towards retaining the heifers out of the older cows in my herd because of the likelihood of having less developmental issues resulting from a suboptimal start to life. If I needed one replacement, I’d keep two or three heifers out of my older cows and cull one or two of these after their first calf. If I kept two, that’s great. No need to raise replacements next year. But if my older cows’ heifers didn’t look good and I had a first-calf heifer that dropped a beauty and was doing a gang-buster job, I’d be flexible. So replacement maxim for ROC: All other things being relatively equal: heavily favor replacements from older cows. [/QUOTE]
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