Cows for Critique

[randiliana]

Feel free to critique these cows. They are IMO some of the best cows in our herd, as far as raising a calf. No naughty temperaments either. I'll tell you how they rank in the herd later.....
216, Red Angus x

136, Shorthorn x?

101, Hereford x Red Angus

98, Hereford x Blk Angus

79, Hereford x?

78, Shorthorn x

59, Hereford

40, Shorthorn x Blk Angus

32, Shorthorn x Gelbveih

217, Hereford x Red Angus

129, Shorthorn

77, Shorthorn x

9, Hereford x Red Angus

44, Hereford x Red Angus

 

[MO_cows]

They all look like good "workin' class" cows. My picks would be 216, 32, 101.

 

[alacattleman]

you know cattle,.. and you know your cows. hard to be eye candy in your working clothes they'll do :cowboy:

 

[bigbull338]

they are all fine looking cattle.

 

[spear B]

good cows in good shape, I'd run them.

 

[Chuckie]

136, 98, and 40.

 

[3waycross]

136, 98, and 40.

I agree but would also add 217 and 32

 

[Jake]

I'd tend to agree with alacattlemen a color blind person could be very happy with a set of productive momma cows like that.

 

[randiliana]

Well, here is how I rank them. Using a strictly WW based ranking, I know there are a lot of other factors out there. But, this group of cows are pretty low maintenance on the whole. And, I'm using a 205 day average WW for them all, don't really know how else to fairly compare them....

59 - 673 lbs average on 5
9 - 652 lbs average on 7
216 - 632 lbs average on 6
101 - 632 lbs average on 6
79 - 629 lbs average on 4
44 - 623 lbs average on 7
40 - 619 lbs average on 4
136 - 613 lbs average on 6
77 - 607 lbs average on 9
129 - 598 lbs average on 6, keeping in mind that of her 6 calves, we have retained all 4 heifers in the herd, with a total of 7 head tracing back to her now. 40 and 32 are both her daughters.
78 - 598 lbs average on 9, keeping in mind that she has had a total of 11 live calves, including 2 sets of twins where we sold/adopted the extra calf.
217 - 591 lbs average on 6
98 - 580 lbs average on 6
32 - 579 lbs average on 3

I would put my top cow as #129. She's maintenance free, raises a calf pretty much every 365 days. We have kept every heifer she has produced, and all of them are producers. Not 1 dud calf out of 6 producing females so far, and they are proving to be maintenance free as well. And she/they can raise a steer as well as a heifer.

Next, I would put #59. Obviously she has the top WW of them all, by far. She's a nice sized cow, easy to manage, but he BW are a little high, although we have not had to mess with her.


After those 2, really all those cows are as good as the next. Some tend to wean a little heavier calf than the others, but some tend to be somewhat hit and miss cows. One year they will have an exceptional calf, the next a little poorer calf. 44 tends to do this. One year she will have a 720 lb calf and the next a 550 lb calf. Still a good calf, but rather all over the board.

 

[MO_cows]

Those are super production records on those cows, especially the ones who have turned in those heavy calves year after year. Congrats, you have really built a herd.

 

[Son of Butch]

A very good posting! It really shows the importance of good records. I never would have rated 9 or 59 in the top half of the herd
without production records. My top pick was 40 and I really liked 216 because she reminds me of a good one my brother owns.
Also 98 near the bottom surprised me. A very interesting posting.

 

[MO_cows]

Randi, you feel like sharing the weights on those cows if you have them? I looked long and hard at the 129 cow when I made my picks but she looked BIG in the pic and so I didn't figure she would be weaning 50% so I passed her over.

 

[tom4018]

Even before seeing the weaning weights I like 44 and 9 crossing them with ablack bull their calves would sell good in this area. I liked 32 but I see her numbers are one the lowest in the group. The ones that you can see udders on look good.

Were the calves creep fed?

Did they all average a calf every year?

We have really been trying to track our calving interval to see what is going on with ours, sometimes I feel I am too easy to give one a second chance.

 

[randiliana]

Randi, you feel like sharing the weights on those cows if you have them? I looked long and hard at the 129 cow when I made my picks but she looked BIG in the pic and so I didn't figure she would be weaning 50% so I passed her over.

Well, I don't have many actual weights on the cows. But from our culls, I would put our cows in the 1200 to 1300 range, of course some are heavier. 129 would definitely NOT be one of the heaviest cows in the herd, in fact, I would put her right about average for our herd. We've sold 15 cull cows this year, most of them were dry's that we had wintered, and their avg wt was 1282 lbs.

 

[randiliana]

A very good posting! It really shows the importance of good records. I never would have rated 9 or 59 in the top half of the herd
without production records. My top pick was 40 and I really liked 216 because she reminds me of a good one my brother owns.
Also 98 near the bottom surprised me. A very interesting posting.

I certainly believe in records. Out of the 120 cows we have, those cows all would be in the top 30 or 40 head. Of course, they are all proven cows too, I tried not to include cows that had less than 4 or 5 calves. We have some really good younger cows coming up too, but not as proven as these mature girls are. They are all good cows, and I would love to have the entire herd made up of cows just like them, we are working towards that. Our steers usually average about 590 lbs at sale time over the entire herd, I'm not too disappointed with that......

40 is a good solid cow, 1/2 Shorthorn, 1/2 Black Angus. We've got 2 of her heifers in the herd and they are both doing their job. Her calf last year was our biggest calf with a 205 day wt of 731 lbs. And would have been the 4H steer if he had been a little quieter. She is just coming into her prime now, and I think she will stay up at the top of the list.

 

[randiliana]

Even before seeing the weaning weights I like 44 and 9 crossing them with ablack bull their calves would sell good in this area. I liked 32 but I see her numbers are one the lowest in the group. The ones that you can see udders on look good.

Were the calves creep fed?

Did they all average a calf every year?

We have really been trying to track our calving interval to see what is going on with ours, sometimes I feel I am too easy to give one a second chance.

32 is also the youngest in the group. Most of the time that first calf will pull their average down a bit. I expect that her #'s will improve over the next couple years. But, she will never catch the top end, those are the cows that have raised a heck of a calf every year, including their first. Udders are not something we generally have a big problem with. We do have the odd cow with problems, and they get culled as soon as we have to deal with their udders.

Calves are not creep fed here in general, I think the only time was when we held them to sell in late Nov. and needed to stretch the grazing a bit. But weights were done before they ever went onto creepfeed.

They all have a calf a year. They have a 60 day calving period and if they miss that they are gone, the only animals that might get a second chance are the first calvers, and that is only on production. If they aren't pregnant again they are gone too.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

My pick are 40,136,77