Big Boy Jr.

[cowgirl8]

I hesitantly post anything here, but will anyway. This is a home grown bull. He was born looking like a herd bull. Weaned out huge. We give our bulls nothing special. They go to a 50 acre pasture and eat moderate hay until its time to work. When we decide to keep a bull calf, after he's weaned he gets chunked in the bull pasture. So, this is Big Boy Jr, he's around 14 months here. Went to work with his father last year. His father tore his ACL and was out of service early on, and Jr got all the cows bred. I like his calves better, none had contracted tendons like his fathers calves. We sold Big Boy to our daughter who bought him from us years ago as a yearling. We bought him back when she decided to go black hereford and used him one year, and got Jr out of him. He's mostly sim, but not full...cant even think of what else is in him, tad of angus, limo.. I tried to get a good picture, but he was busy checking cows. Got the herd of 32 cows bred, one left to calf any day now...

 

[TexasBred]

What can I say. I think you're looking for compliments instead of honest objective observations from a single picture.

You can do better.....much better !!!! No offense intended..just being brutally honest. :nod: BTW is this how they get "black herefords"??

 

[cowgirl8]

I can take it, even though yall think i cant. I figured i'll get a lot of very opinionated comments considering :lol2: . I just want to point out that the proof is in the pudding. You can spend thousands of dollars for a bull with papers, breeding and he's been fed to the tilt. You bring him home, he falls apart in a pasture setting and waste a year on him because his calves dont grow as good as his papers said they would. Our objective is....1. He gets the job done 2.A live calf 3. The calf grows fast 4. And the most important part, what he brings at the sale barn.
Just keep in mind, this is a 14 month old calf who bred 32 cows and they all calved with a month to go. He's never seen a bucket of feed. Grew to around 800 at weaning, grew on moderate hay to around 1200 during the winter. And all of his calves have been around the 80 pound size.. And, i can show you his first crop that's pretty impressive. Remember, i'm not raising show animals. There's a huge difference. We are growing cattle that are easy keepers, easy calvers, fast growers, black white face and bring a big price at the sale barn. And he's very gentle..

 

[branguscowgirl]

I think he looks pretty darn good for a 14 month, non fed, bull!!
It's not" comparing apples to apples" if your looking at him next to a registered, grain fed, 2 year old bull! This bull did his job at a little over a year old with very little expense. Owner is happy!

 

[cmf1]

Not a very good picture but if he adds money to your bottom line he is in the top 50% at least, of all bulls ever made.
Not all, probably not even most, papered bulls that cost thousands of dollars fall apart and waste calving years. Quite a few actually contribute a substantial amount of value to a herd. That's a dig that didn't need to be taken to support your success.
He does look pretty growthy.

 

[cowgirl8]

Some of what we are getting

this one less than a day old...around 100 pounds but the cow was almost all sim...

 

[cowgirl8]

Not a very good picture but if he adds money to your bottom line he is in the top 50% at least, of all bulls ever made.
Not all, probably not even most, papered bulls that cost thousands of dollars fall apart and waste calving years. Quite a few actually contribute a substantial amount of value to a herd. That's a dig that didn't need to be taken to support your success.
He does look pretty growthy.

Didnt mean to dig at all...I'm sure most are good...

 

[highgrit]

I am no pro but I have always found that cross bred bulls have larger calves. I myself wouldn't put a cross bred bull on heifers. And your calves do look like a box of crayons. And the reason for that is the bulls you use. I like my calves to all look alike as much as possible. Around here a group of calves that look alike will bring more money, and that's what I'm after.

 

[cmf1]

I don't trade at the sale barn, but I hear chrome hurts the end price.
Is that going to be an issue for you?
Calves look good.

 

[Nesikep]

He's not my style, (particularly the coloring on the calves), but that's not something I can hold against him... If he's got all the cows bred that's #1 of course, and he doesn't look bad to me by any means. I've kept 2 bulls so far, but not for myself.. One of them got all the new owners cows bred at about a year old, and he had to beat up a 5 year old longhorn to do it, so he must have been pretty keen on doing it. The other is about 13 months old now, and I'll be seeing him soon.. I think he was the better of the two, and I haven't castrated his full brother this year.. yet... he's only 10 days old so I want to see what he's going to look like first.

As for the calves looking all different, well, uniformity isn't something you get without intentionally going for it, and it may not all be because of the bull, if the cows are all sorts of crayons it takes a long time to get uniformity. I've been working on it for some time, and am most of the way there... I still have a couple with white hooves or white faces, and a smidge of roan here and there, but we've been working at it for the last 10 years, and figure we have 10 years to go still

 

[TexasBred]

I think he looks pretty darn good for a 14 month, non fed, bull!!
It's not" comparing apples to apples" if your looking at him next to a registered, grain fed, 2 year old bull! This bull did his job at a little over a year old with very little expense. Owner is happy!

Hopefully all the calf buyers will be happy as well. There is a reason not all weaned calves bring the same price. "Quality".

 

[highgrit]

Nesikep, a Angus or Charolais bull will throw calves that look alike the majority of the time. And the majority of the calves will be polled also. A bull will make a huge difference. IMO

 

[Nesikep]

I know that when we went with our first shorthorn bull, we really made a big step backward as he threw all sorts of roan and white. That being said, we are aiming for all gold/red cows now, and I think I'll end up with a Gelbvieh/Saler as my mainstay in bulls, possibility of Limo and RED shorthorns is there as well. I don't think Chars are good for uniformity, primarily because of the color dilution, though they do make nice calves. My biggest problem is I can't find a Saler breeder for 600 miles. I do like polled... save another procedure at calving time, and you're bound to botch the job or miss one or two, and that really doesn't look nice. I have a group of young cows now that I can really say "I'd like a whole herd of these", they're all frame 5-6, which is good for me, all red with good udders, hooves, and temperaments, and match my climate well. I must not be the only one who likes them, as I am usually within a cent or two of top price at the sale for the weight range.

The bulls certainly make a big difference, but even a prize bull isn't going to make your herd uniform unless he matches well what you already have

 

[double v]

calves are looking good you will do well, not a bad bull for developing him yourself. :cboy:

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

If your bull bred 32 cows in 30 days and those calves are on the ground then he must be at least 23-24 months old by now. Got any current photos?

Also, is it really a good management to expect a 14 month old bull to cover that many cows?

 

[cowgirl8]

If your bull bred 32 cows in 30 days and those calves are on the ground then he must be at least 23-24 months old by now. Got any current photos?

Also, is it really a good management to expect a 14 month old bull to cover that many cows?

We lost a bull during the winter, then one of our new bulls damaged his penis and was out the rest of the season and then Big Boy Sr pulled his ACL after a couple weeks into the season. We hurried and bought a new bull, but put him on the big herd. The old cow herd, where Jr was with his father, we planned to just take another bull over then and leave them on the old cows a little longer but never did. Jr was working those cows and was easily big enough. Looks like in 2 herds, we'll have 100% calving. In the big herd, it looks like we missed 2 out of 80...so, not bad.
I've been told several times that we dont have uniformity. Let me ask this. Everyone here has their own breed of cattle they like in all colors and sizes. You put your calves in a trailer and take them to the sale. They are then all mixed up and sold. Everyone here claims to get on the average the high end per pound. Why is it not good business for me to have some of this and some of that? I'm going to say the majority of the calves we sell will be black, black w/f but we do have some reds and greys mixed in. Just depends on the year, but as long as they look growthy, they sell as good as any other.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I like your calves! They look really good cowgirl!

 

[cowgirl8]

I am no pro but I have always found that cross bred bulls have larger calves. I myself wouldn't put a cross bred bull on heifers. And your calves do look like a box of crayons. And the reason for that is the bulls you use. I like my calves to all look alike as much as possible. Around here a group of calves that look alike will bring more money, and that's what I'm after.

We only put LBW registered angus on our heifers. The picture of the calves i've shown here out of this bull are all black, and black with white sim markings. Although a few in this herd are red (2 reds 1 grey out of 32), why after the picture i posted are they a box of crayons?

 

[cowgirl8]

I don't trade at the sale barn, but I hear chrome hurts the end price.
Is that going to be an issue for you?
Calves look good.

What i believe to be true is, buyers look for angus and a large % of black in a calf. If they see that large % of black angus calf is mixed with a larger breed, say sim, they are going to get a calf that can be certified angus and with the sim cross he will be bigger. Its the main reason they converted sim to black. We always get prime price for our, what i call, Cha ching with bling... a solid black is just a cha ching, the sound i hear when they hit the ground.

 

[Black and Good]

I don't trade at the sale barn, but I hear chrome hurts the end price.
Is that going to be an issue for you?
Calves look good.

What i believe to be true is, buyers look for angus and a large % of black in a calf. If they see that large % of black angus calf is mixed with a larger breed, say sim, they are going to get a calf that can be certified angus and with the sim cross he will be bigger. Its the main reason they converted sim to black. We always get prime price for our, what i call, Cha ching with bling... a solid black is just a cha ching, the sound i hear when they hit the ground.

I agree cept for the chrome part, I think most order buyers know they can't go wrong for their customers if they buy black, black white faced or black blazed faced cross bred calves. Its an easy way for them to look good to their customers. But, I also think they are always on the look out for calves that show Red angus or Red angus cross. And they know that most cross bred calves are going to gain. Around here the straight English, English cross, English Continental cross all sell the best for going to the feedlots. JMHO B&G