HOSS
Well-known member
I am looking at buying a couple of 19 month old bred heifers from a cattleman that has a pretty good reputation as a straight shooter and a good reputation in the area for producing good replacement heifers. I went and looked at them yesterday and as far as commercial stock goes I would put them at well above average. They are about 4 months bred to a really nice BA bull that is an AI bull out of Bon View Bando 1394. The bull was on-site and was well above average phenotypically. The one worry I have is his BW EPD of +3 which is higher than I have typically used on heifers. His CED is +5 which is breed average for BA bulls. He does have impressive performance epd's with WW being +59 and YW at +101. He does not appear to be built like a hard calver and I think his actual BW was about 80 pounds.
The heifers were sired by B/R Destination 727-928 who has a BW epd of +3 also. Of course the dams are all commercial cows with no epd's.
The heifers should mature out at about 1300 pounds so they seem to have adequate frame. I can get them for about 850.00 each which isn't a bad deal around these parts. My question is....how worried should I be about these heifers calving on their own? Would ya'll take a chance on the purchase since the quality is high or pass in favor of heifers bred to a low BW bull?
The heifers were sired by B/R Destination 727-928 who has a BW epd of +3 also. Of course the dams are all commercial cows with no epd's.
The heifers should mature out at about 1300 pounds so they seem to have adequate frame. I can get them for about 850.00 each which isn't a bad deal around these parts. My question is....how worried should I be about these heifers calving on their own? Would ya'll take a chance on the purchase since the quality is high or pass in favor of heifers bred to a low BW bull?