Building the Herd

[randiliana]

Here is how....

You start with a cow, a good one she is 7 years old now

First year you breed her Black Angus (5 year old)

Next breed her Gelbveih (4 year old)

Then try out Shorthorn (first calf heifer)

Now take the Angus x one and breed back to Shorthorn (first calf heifer)

And the Gelbveih x one and breed he back to Red Angus(first calf heifer)

Out of 90 cows to calve this one cow has 5 that trace directly back to her. She had 2 bull calves mixed in there, one was the son's 4-H calf and the other we left as a bull. He was a good enough calf, just not good enough to keep as a bull. He's now castrated.

 

[Angus Cowman]

looks like it has worked

 

[LoveMoo11]

A little confusing but seems like it worked in the long run!

 

[bigbull338]

you have found a good way to build up your herd.

 

[3waycross]

The key is starting with a good cow and you sure enuf have done that. The Shorthorn/Gelbvieh cross is one of my favorites, good milkers, good dispositions, good mommas and they won't kill you for taggin a calf.

Nice cattle as always :tiphat:

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Nice feminine cattle.
I sure would like to see more muscling in them.

 

[dieselbeef]

great idea if yer havin hiefers but i havent had a hiefer in 3yrs. ive had about 12 bulls. and ive had 2 different bulls breeding em..i aint complaining ya know..just sayin

 

[3waycross]

great idea if yer havin hiefers but i havent had a hiefer in 3yrs. ive had about 12 bulls. and ive had 2 different bulls breeding em..i aint complaining ya know..just sayin

Well at least you don't have to worry about your bulls breeding their own daughters. I'd like to see some bull calves for a change. Every heifer i have sold has cost me 40 to 50 bucks over a steer the same weight. Count your blessings and buy your replacement heifers, it may be cheaper in the long run anyway.

 

[dieselbeef]

yeah thats true..thats the way its been....but ya never know what yer gittin so its kinda a crap shoot. i buy em young enuff to get em cheap and its hard to tell when theyre 6-8 mons old how theyre gonna calf

 

[randiliana]

Thanks for the comments guys.

3way, I like that Shorthorn/Gelbveih cross too, but she is an abberation in our herd. Used the gelbveih a couple years for terminal on some of our bottom end cows. He decided he'd rather be in with the 'top' girls and that is how we ended up with that one.

Jeanne, thank you. We are working on that muscling thing. IT isn't the easiest thing to improve, although I would say that our cows are better than a lot in the country.

Diesel, with over a 100 head we should be getting some heifers every year ;-) . This cow has thrown more heifers than her fair share though. I wouldn't mind a few more boys than girls but we always seem to run a few more heifers than bull calves.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I had an old "monarch" cow that was 18 years old when we shipped her (she went anestrus). She had had 12 heifers & 5 bulls.
We now have 24 head in our herd that are decendents of her. That's more than 1/3 of my breeding age herd. And we have sold MANY of her decendents as our top cattle. Wish we had taken pics of her - she still looked like a young 5-7 year old cow when we shipped her. Great big round feet, great udder (still tight attachments, all 4 quarters defined), biggest round barrel of any cow in herd. She was one of those SUPER cows that should have been flushed.

 

[jcarkie]

gelbvieh would help muscling and make great cows. i have a 12 year old gelbx cow about 1200 lbs, only had 2 heifers one will calve next month and one born jan 2nd. her steer last year weaned at 7 1/2 months 670. i like keeping my own heifers and building a herd then you can trace back from good cows. i like havin great grandmas, grandmas, moms,and daughters