choosing which bull to use for heifers

[rjk]

I have 2 bulls from a different bloodline than my bull. I bought some heifers that are Limousin and have Arrowhead breeding, and kept the two bulls from them. My bull has Hunts Hi Liter breeding and has been throwing some nice heifers. Since they have some qualities I like and want in my cows, I thought I would keep some and breed to one of the other bulls. One had a weining weight of 6oo pounds, bw of 70, and polled. The other had a weining weight of 700 pounds, bw of 78, and horned. I would rather have polled calves than horned, and only have one dehorned cow. The sire of these heifers is double polled and homo blk. My questions are what kind of odds do I have for horned calves from the horned bull, since the sire is polled? And if the smaller bull is used, how much chance do I have for small calves? I would like to have calves that are lower bw, but good growth potential, (guess I want it all). Since I am not full time and not always around the cows, I want the smaller bw calves. I would also like to avoid having calves that are smaller than the average at sale time, seems like that always hurts the price I get. I will probably replace my current bull in 2 or three years, and since the herd will be Limousin or mostly Limousin, I thought about an Angus bull. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks in advance for the advice.
Thanks,
Rick

 

[Baldie Maker]

Are your bulls registered? Do they Have epds? If you only know the birth weight of the bull it makes it hard for me to use him on heifers because i want to know his breeding..JMO

 

[Cattleman200]

On the horned calf issues the only way to be sure you get polled calves is to use a homozygous polled bull on your females and you wont have any horns. You might however have scurs on some from time to time.

Im with Baldie Maker on the BW issues. EPD`s and actual birthweights are the only tools you have to use for that decision unless you have a history of smaller calves out of one or the other of your bulls.


Circle H Ranch
http://www.chrlimousin.com

 

[rjk]

Thanks for the replies and sorry for not including the bw epd in the area. Both are registered and the bw epd on the smaller bull is 0.0, and the larger one is 1.3.

 

[CPL]

Also take into consideration the shoulder structure of the bull when selecting for a heifer bull.