there is something else that really irks me.
let's consider this a brief lesson. let's call it something that will make it easy for some of you beginners and hobbyists to remember. cattle production 101 should be easy enough for all of you to remember. after all, learning about cattle production is why many of us are gathered here together on the beginners forum. now, within cattle production 101 we will have what i shall refer to as the m&m principle.
this m&m principle is of the utmost importance and i chose to call it that because some of you probably make more informed choices about your candy than you do your breeding decisions. so, if it helps you to become better cattle producers, think of candy. more importantly, think m&m's.
this principle is proven true by many of you on a daily basis. the pictures that you post both here and on the breeds forum are a testimony to the validity of this principle. i suspect that your checks from the auction barn would lend added validity to this principle.
beginners and hobbyists need to buy good bulls too. commercial cattlemen can fudge to some extent within the cowherd. quality in phenotype can be overlooked to some degree in the brood cow to be sure that we have a cowherd that is adapted environmentally to our area. in other words, in a commercial operation, the ugly little cow that works for us can still be profitable. she doesn't have to be a front pasture type of cow to earn her keep for a commercial operator.
not so with bull selection. bulls must be selected that will complement those cows to produce offspring to fit a market. either a market for feeder calves or replacement females. (keeping in mind that one of the markets for replacement females might just be the market that we make within our own herd for those replacements.)
in either case, feeder cattle or replacements, the bull is of the utmost importance. bull selection allows us to run the type of low input females that work in our environments and still produce a calf that will excel in the market that we have previously determined. with this in mind, bull selection should be accorded much more thought so that he will complement all that we have within the cowherd. the bull has to complement both the pretty cow and the ugly cow. working at selecting for this complement is what helps us to achieve that goal of producing something to fit that predetermined market.
it's clear to me that some of you aren't aware of that relationship. it's clear that some of you think that freshening a cow is all it takes to be a big time cattle producer. I see some pictures here this morning that really makes me think some of you buy bulls off of the packers truck. that really irks me.
maybe you think you get a bargain? not in the long run. not for yourself and surely not for the rest of us who are serious about producing cattle. all of you must remember that feeder cattle of poor genotype are oftentimes poorly performing cattle. those poorly performing cattle take capital out of the cattle industry. that is why your poor breeding decisions become my business too.
let's conclude for the day by reviewing the m&m principle:
mongrels & mutts beget mongrels & mutts
