Buying Bred Heifers

[bojack]

I have read a few responses from people saying they will not bred heifers again. What if they are guaranteed bred to a low birthweight bull?

 

[Beefy]

i would buy heifers that are guaranteed bred to a low birth weight bull from someone i know and trust. BUT first, what are the breeds? i still wouldnt want an angus heifer bred to a low bw charolais bull for example.

 

[bigbull338]

ive bought alot of bred heifersover the yrs.an i dont take the aucteneers or the owners word.as to what or if their bred to a low bw bull.i always watch them an keep the OBchains ready.no 1 will gurentee that you might not have to pull a calf.scott

 

[sidney411]

I've never bought any bred heifers but when we 1st got started we bought some 3 and 4 yr old bred cows. Out of 14, 2 did not calve. I was disapointed and couldn't track down the guy we bought them from, as he had moved and left no forwarding information.

 

[TheBullLady]

I wouldn't buy bred heifers from the auction barn, primarily because you don't know what she's bred to, but I've bought bred heifers from registered sales. They are generally backed up by a breed association, and by breeders that want to make sure you're happy with your purchase!

 

[C HOLLAND]

bojack, If you are not to far from Dothan Alabama (Dothan Livestock Auction), They will be selling some bred heifers from Southern Cattle Co on the 15th of Oct. They (SCC) always have good quality at the sales. They are listed on the internet and the farm is located in Maianna Fla.
here is their link

http://www.southerncattlecompany.com/

I want to go then, but will be at a Sim bull sale that weekend.

 

[stocky]

I have bought some bred heifers from the sale barn. You never know for sure what you will get. What the auctioneer says means nothing as we have discussed on another thread. The key to buying at the sales barn is to buy them enough cheaper than it would cost you if you bought them at the farm to withstand some false information. 2 weeks ago, I bought 16 heifers that will weigh around 1100-1200 lbs that are black white faced and are supposed to start freshening Feb 15. 2 of them are springing now, so I know the Feb 15 isnt a fact. However, I paid 1,000 each for them and they are big and fancy and should have brought around 1200-1250, so I thought they were worth taking a chance on. Many other times I have bought some heifers that were good herd prospects but were too cheap that day and things have gone well, but I paid considerably less than current market for them. Heifers are always a risk and take extra care

 

[Farmhand]

Guarantees at a sale barn are as good as divorce papers. Only good for toilet paper. The only good way to know what your getting is to know the operation of the person selling them. Know what breeds they run and what breed of bull they use. If the guarentee matches what you know of them then you should be ok.

 

[dun]

I think generally the prejudice isn;t so much against buying bred heifers as much is that people don;t want to take any chances with calving any heifers. Heifers incidence of calving difficulties is higher then a second calver or older cow and people don;t like to take the chance of loosing their investment.

dun

 

[Beefy]

i also think that in most instances on here, people are mostly discouraging others who are new to cattle from buying bred heifers. i wouldnt recommend anyone new to cattle to buy bred heifers but seasoned cattlemen (in general) know what to expect and what to look for and what to do if trouble should arise. like Dun just said, calving difficulty is A LOT higher in heifers.

 

[BC]

Along the same lines as Dun was speaking, I don't even like to keep heifers for replacements, BUT I do to keep or expand my numbers. I do not like calving out first calf heifers, but they are probably a cattleman's second best investment behind a good bull.

 

[NewCowboy]

Along the same lines as Dun was speaking, I don't even like to keep heifers for replacements, BUT I do to keep or expand my numbers. I do not like calving out first calf heifers, but they are probably a cattleman's second best investment behind a good bull.

My parents kept three heifers that are now 18 months old and have just been put with the younger bull. They also have kept 8 new heifers that are only 6-9 months old. They have a pretty old herd and are skittish about buying anything at the stockyard. I guess we will have a time watching this unfold in the future....as they have not kept many of their own heifers over the years. The problem I forsee is keeping the right heifers/cows with the right bull. Tagging will be extremely important. Has anyone ever had a bull breed with a heifer/cow that is it's offspring by accident???? What complications does that bring? I know, more dumb questions. :cboy:

 

[Bama]

Although i don't like to do it Father daughter is O.K. Father grand-daughter is more of a problem. Both cases pass on both more good traits and also bad traits. If you have a bad trait your trying to breed out, this will only make it worse. If it works out to your advantage call it line breeding if it goes bad call it in-breeding. ;-)

 

[J]

Although i don't like to do it Father daughter is O.K. Father grand-daughter is more of a problem. Both cases pass on both more good traits and also bad traits. If you have a bad trait your trying to breed out, this will only make it worse. If it works out to your advantage call it line breeding if it goes bad call it in-breeding. ;-)

My grandfather had a father daughter calf one time. She out performed every other calf on the place for about 6-8 months then went down hill from there. She got all goofy looking and skinny. Brother and I were told to go catch and haul her to the sale. We couldn't even rope her on horseback because she could run like a damn deer. Finally got a loop on her, drug her in the trailer and never saw her again. We sure didn't like dropping her off at the sale barn because we new we weere going to get a good ribbing over her.

 

[Rod]

I would have to see the bulls calves as well as their dams. Bred heifers can be a train-wreck... I promise you.

 

[NewCowboy]

Although i don't like to do it Father daughter is O.K. Father grand-daughter is more of a problem. Both cases pass on both more good traits and also bad traits. If you have a bad trait your trying to breed out, this will only make it worse. If it works out to your advantage call it line breeding if it goes bad call it in-breeding. ;-)

We have a great big black angus DOCILE bull. He has proven to give great calves. We also have a really great HUGE cow that always has HUGE calves and always get a great $$$ return. So, you are saying that this cow's calf can be bred back to the father?? And still be ok. Where can I find more information on this subject? Would love to have more like her and we only have two like this in our herd. Any information on this "in-line breeding" versus "in-breeding" :shock: would be helpful. Very interesting subject to me.

 

[tg]

Do a serch on this site for in-breeding

 

[Scotty]

I wouldn't buy any bred heifers without knowing the full history. Just because one is low BW doesn't always make it a heifer bull. I sell bulls. I will not garantee any but my reg. bulls. People come buy amd see he is blk and say" thats the one I want." :roll: Got me some heifers. No matter how hard I try to tell them.


Scotty

 

[dph]

As far as breeding and keeping track of bulls, I think we might do it the same as a lot of people. One bull breeds heifers, if he is a new bull, he is realted to none of them and could be used two years there. One bull breeds 2nd calf heifers, you buy him opposite the heifer bull, can use him two years without any related cows or heifers under him. Then they get kicked out into the large pasture, one bull goes out each year and a new one comes in. Bred by comittee. Yes you could be breeding a daughter back, but it isn't something we worry about after that or notice. We keep track of the cows, and if she has been having solid calves and all of the sudden there is a sub-par one, we give her another chance. If all she has produced is sub-par, cya.

 

[Wilson_Cattle_Company]

Dad and I just bought 10 registered black angus bred heifers bred to Gardens Matrix
CED= +13 w/ acc. of .49
BW= -2.0 w/ acc. of .77
WW= +32 w. acc. of .76
YW= -.1 w/ acc. of .64
SC= -.12 w/ acc. of .60

Power Design sired these heifers I am talking about. Power Design is AAA 3 star calving ease rated.

They should calf out nice I hope.

Bought from near rancher. Dad and I don't do sales. :shock: I think sales are an easy way to end up with a boat load of problems real quick. That just me.