MountainFarmChar
Well-known member
You hear a lot of talk about how the bull will influence calf birth weight, etc., but you don't hear much talk about how the cow will influence these things. Why?
:clap:dun":1toswhn6 said:It's easier to blame the bull. The cow, in my humble opinion actually has more actual influence on the calf then the bull, not geneticly but developmentally. It's her ability/skills at nurturing the calf both from conceptin to birth and post birth to weaning that can make or break a calf. Of course if she does a lousey job she find new emplyoment, but hers are the important influences.
dun
the reason why you hear them say the bull is half the calf potental.is this once you get a set of cows.they will stay in the herd till they get tobe problem cows an culled.the bulls on the other hand only stay in a herd 2yrs.because you are keeping their daughters.an have to change bulls to prevent inbreeding.so you use the genetics of the bulls to improve your cow herd though the heifers you retain.MountainFarmChar":xio5h7tx said:You hear a lot of talk about how the bull will influence calf birth weight, etc., but you don't hear much talk about how the cow will influence these things. Why?
MountainFarmChar":8sb7sc20 said:You hear a lot of talk about how the bull will influence calf birth weight, etc., but you don't hear much talk about how the cow will influence these things. Why?
George Monk":1fxv0080 said:the et embryos we implanted were not clones. They are simply brothers and sisters in the same family. I am nothing like my two brothers, both of them were skinny one was 5'8 the 6'3 neither weighed over 160. i am the youngest and am 6'1 weighing 205 (if I keep working at it ). I have 4 sisters that were just as dissimilar.
The reason I used the et's as an example is because I firmly believe that even the highest accuracy BW bull will have calves born in a 20 - 30 pound range! While a low birth weight bull is going to have a range from 50 to 80 lbs there is no guarentee that on the "wrong" cow that calf will be 100+ lbs. Even high birth weight bulls can throw a 60ish pound calf. Too many producers are sacrificing WW, YW, muscle etc. in favor of a supposed low birth weight bull.