~ Cow & Calf PHOTOS

[CowCop]

~
I took a few photos, in the rain yesterday, of several cows and calves before my camera got wet and shut down.

Thought I would share them with you all and hope others are inspired to post theirs as well.

All calved unassisted.

Here is a 5 week old Simmental son of BH Right Time 520E
His bw was 109 lbs
His mom had 12 heifers in a row ( one set of twins )
When I A.I.'d her, I was 100% positive I was going to get a nice replacement heifer. Will try again for next year.

An Angus sired heifer calf, also 5 weeks old, out of a medium framed Simmental 1st calf heifer. bw 89 lbs

Another Simmental 1st calf heifer with her unusual colored heifer calf.
bw 84 lbs
An example of a Simmental that calved at exactly 20 months of age. She was the right weight last year when we turned the bull out and she was bred on the first day~!

The black Angus bull that ws used produced 95% ALL black and black brocklefaced calves, 3 red calves and my unusual Duct Tape colored one.


Here is a photo of a Black SimmAngus heifer (left ) and a Herf/Angus heifer that is only 7 days younger.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

All very nice, cowcop. I really like the first "little" guy -- did he come out with a feed bag strapped on? :lol:

Regarding the third calf pictured -- looks just like one I got years ago out of a part Simmie cow & sired by a black bull -- I considered mine to be essentially a rat-tail -- his fur almost reminded me of a sheep more than a bovine. Looks like yours may have some of that fuzzy, sheep-like fur on the sides too.

 

[CowCop]

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Naw... no sheep hair.......she is just wet and ruffled up.
Everyone was stunned when her mom brought her up to the barnyard after delivery. A very weird color. She was born a distinct silver blue and now she changes color with the weather. People back up their vehicles to look at her when she is near the boundary fences.

She looks like a braunvieh in this photo:

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Beautiful calf in the first picture. Wish we had some of your mud.

Colin

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

CowCop - great Right Time bull calf.
Now, I'd like to think that the Simmental made the difference between those two crossbred heifers, but there there must be more to it than that. That's a major difference.
Right now, I'm getting jeolous of your rain - well - not really - but we reallly could use some rain. Keeps missing us. Last year we had a record breaking amount of rain for the month of May. This year we may break the record again - for the least amount!!! Plus cold.
Hay fields should be ready to cut - only a few inches tall. Some people are cutting anyway hoping for it to come back for 2nd & 3rd cuttings.

 

[sidney411]

Nice pics as always - I always enjoy your pics! Thanks! I really like that 1st pic of the bull calf. I am also surprized at the difference in size of the calves born a week apart. Are the mothers in the same condition?

 

[CowCop]

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The Right Time calf is growing like gang busters.
I will try to get some photos of him next to the other steer calves born the same day.

The Simmental dam of the black SimAngus was a 4 year old cow.
Her last heifer calf was in the 85 lb range. This black heifer was 95 lbs and much taller at this age than the previous one. ( who happens to be the Simm 1st calf heifer who had the duct tape gray calf )

The Hereford mom of the smaller heifer is about 12 years old-and shorter than the rest of the Herefords in the herd. She looks like a "Hippo" so that's what we call her...affectionately of course...( not ) The calf's bw was 70 lbs. This boss cow weans more than half her weight every year and is our official "pitbull" in the pastures~!!

Colin, I would be happy to ship you some of our mud, if you will send us some of your SUNSHINE~!!!

 

[jt]

very nice calves... i especially like the way those 2 calves are just standing there and looking at you..

jt

 

[CowCop]

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What is especially amazing is that the Angus bull we used the last 2 summers, "stamped" most of his calves with a "Harry Potter" lightning bolt. Really.

Usually over the right eye, same place as Harry.

It's a great conversation piece when little kids come up to see all the calves. We had a Harry Potter calf on exhibit at the county fair last year and did a fundraiser for the local animal shelter with "Kiss Harry Potter for a Dollar." Complete with large white owl as a prop. We were mobbed with crowds.

The event got the farm alot of great PR, taught lots of kids about cow care, enabled the animal shelter to spay alot more cats and helped sell our bull to a man who can't wait to start getting his own "Harry" calves.

Here is the "original" Harry Potter calf :

Really, how COULD we name him anything else....

 

[L Weir]

We have a Righttime calf that looks similar to your. I'm glad to see there are spotted Simmentals still out there being used. Nice Calves.

 

[CowCop]

We have a Righttime calf that looks similar to your. I'm glad to see there are spotted Simmentals still out there being used. Nice Calves.

Would love to see a photo of that Right Time calf~!!

And some photos of your traditional colored Simmentals as well.

Not many left to be seen, they lost their identity when they went black.

 

[Chuckie]

CowCop, Nice cattle!! I really like your little bull and your duct tape colored heifer. All of your cattle look good.

 

[L Weir]

I don't have a digital camera. It may take awhile with the other camera, but I'll work on it. [/quote]

 

[4-H fanatic]

~

What is especially amazing is that the Angus bull we used the last 2 summers, "stamped" most of his calves with a "Harry Potter" lightning bolt. Really.

Usually over the right eye, same place as Harry.

It's a great conversation piece when little kids come up to see all the calves. We had a Harry Potter calf on exhibit at the county fair last year and did a fundraiser for the local animal shelter with "Kiss Harry Potter for a Dollar." Complete with large white owl as a prop. We were mobbed with crowds.

The event got the farm alot of great PR, taught lots of kids about cow care, enabled the animal shelter to spay alot more cats and helped sell our bull to a man who can't wait to start getting his own "Harry" calves.

Here is the "original" Harry Potter calf :

Really, how COULD we name him anything else....

Thats a really cute calves man i want one of them but wouldnt you run out of names from harry potter mind you there are alot of names..

 

[Dee]

Have to agree that Right Time calf is dandy! Great shape to him already, awsome top line and great muscling.

 

[joe]

that is a great looking calf. The Mrs. was walking by the computer and gave it a "look at that butt", which is a compliment in her own way.

 

[preston39]

"When I A.I.'d her, I was 100% positive I was going to get a nice replacement heifer. Will try again for next year."
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CowCop,

I had just read an article on getting heifers..then I saw your post.
(Nice calves!!!)

"RECENT RESEARCH RELATED TO GENDER PRESELECTION

Over the years, numerous methods have been suggested to alter the sex ratio of offspring. One of the most common is based on the notion that male sperm swim faster than female, but they die sooner. Thus, if you inseminate early, the male sperm die resulting in more heifer sperm fertilizing the eggs. To my knowledge, there is no conclusive, repeatable data to support the idea that male and female sperm vary in either swimming speed or longevity.

A recent article published in Animal Reproduction Science presented some interesting data to support the timing theory. Using a device which detects changes in vaginal/cervical mucous around the time of estrus, these researchers varied the time of insemination and supposedly skewed the sex ratio of resulting offspring with 90% accuracy. However, the data set presented was extremely small (13 to 14 animals/treatment). Until these results are duplicated in other laboratories and/or on a much larger scale, I'd consider this technology for altering sex ratio as strictly experimental.

An abstract presented at the 1998 Animal and Dairy Science meeting from Dr. Ray Nebel's lab at Virginia Tech, compared the gender ratios for 822 calvings as affected by time from first mount to insemination. First mount was identified by the computerized "Heat Watch" system and time to A.I. and gender ratios were retrospectively analyzed. Dr. Nebel's data (figure 1) would not support the theory that timing of A.I. has any affect on gender ratios.



Dr. George Siedel and researchers at Colorado State University also presented some encouraging data at this meeting on their progress with sexed semen.



Using very low doses of sorted, non-frozen semen and deep horn insemination in virgin heifers, they achieved approximately 40% pregnancy rates with 90% of resulting offspring being of the desired sex. However, just as an example of what small numbers in a data set can do, the frozen control semen in this project that had not been sorted for sex resulted in 80% heifer calves.

Sexed semen technology has a way to go before commercial application will be realized. Among other problems, the current estimated cost of this technology at about $100 per straw. Additionally, because the sorting procedure damages many sperm, it is yet to be determined if acceptable fertility can be maintained with sperm that are frozen and thawed after the sorting procedures.

Only time will tell if technology will provide cost effective methods for altering the sex ratios of A.I. offspring in the future. At present, however, there is one and only one method that is available to every dairy and beef producer that has stood the test of time to get more heifers; get more calves!"
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Good luck next year!

 

[CowCop]

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Thank You for all those kind comments and interesting information.

Today is the first day in over 2 weeks that it hasn't rained --yet.

I was able to finish mowing my lawn tonight.

Also got a few decent photos while checking the pastures today.

Here is a Polled Star Palm Simmental cow with a 5 week Angus sired heifer.

This cow was my original $800 show heifer.
She beat alot of much higher priced cows in her show career.

 

[Rustler9]

Great looking cattle.

 

[TheBullLady]

Great looking cows and calves CowCop! Especially appreciate the Simmental influence! :cboy:

I love those "old timey" spotted Simmentals.. I also have a few left in my herd. I don't care what they say about spots.. they are some great cows! I just shipped my Star Palm cow this spring.. she started developing a cancer eye.

Here's one of my "traditional" Simmentals. She's got her first calf on the ground out of a Black Joker son.

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