Dang Hector's grown!

[Muddy]

All I know that his herd is a mixture of Shorthorn, Gelbvieh, Hereford, Salers and recently Limousin. Basically red linebred crossbreds. I do like one of his home raised bulls but it seems he has add chrome on his calves really good.

 

[Nesikep]

Getting kinda inbred aren't you? The bull turned out real nice but you might want to consider
some outside blood. If it was me , and knowing what your herd composition is I would consider a real good red Balancer.

His cows are mostly all red, tame and culled on family lines instead of structure and soundness is all I know.

Yes, family lines are important here because I know which ones do better, and also which ones have perpetual issues

3way.. I'll continue my reply when I have a real keyboard

 

[Nesikep]

His cows are mostly all red, tame and culled on family lines instead of structure and soundness is all I know.

Seeing that I can't find a SINGLE picture of your cows, pardon me not taking your critiques too seriously. c'mon, we have the technology nowadays.

On the other hand, I have seen lots of pics from 3waycross, and definitely like them all.

I'd love to be able to buy a perfect bull, but even if I did, some people won't like him, we all have different goals and environments. I've been working on eliminating so many more important issues than milder structural problems that don't affect performance, though I do want to get to that point eventually, and it is on the horizon. I'd love to have all perfect toplines, perfect stance, but if the end goal is beef, that is secondary...

Getting kinda inbred aren't you? The bull turned out real nice but you might want to consider
some outside blood. If it was me , and knowing what your herd composition is I would consider a real good red Balancer.

As of right now, I have no linebred/inbred cows whatsoever, the calves I posted would be the start, and from what I'm seeing, and the popular choice of people here, it's all the linebred calves that look the best... So how do I win here? Keep calves you say don't belong in my herd whatsoever, or keep the linebred ones? The linebred ones have the "look" I'm looking for, and they're outgrowing the ones that ought to be full of hybrid vigor. I don't think I'll ever completely close my herd to outside bulls, it's just not reasonable with the numbers I'm limited to, however, I'm thinking if I keep 2 bulls from every purchased bull, and am mindful of what breeds what, I should be able to get better uniformity without going overboard linebreeding, staying mostly to half siblings and cousins.. It wasn't in my original plan to have a mother-son mating, but since that cow was just not working with the unrelated bull, I gave it a try and well, it got far better results.

 

[elkwc]

His cows are mostly all red, tame and culled on family lines instead of structure and soundness is all I know.

Seeing that I can't find a SINGLE picture of your cows, pardon me not taking your critiques too seriously. c'mon, we have the technology nowadays.

On the other hand, I have seen lots of pics from 3waycross, and definitely like them all.

I'd love to be able to buy a perfect bull, but even if I did, some people won't like him, we all have different goals and environments. I've been working on eliminating so many more important issues than milder structural problems that don't affect performance, though I do want to get to that point eventually, and it is on the horizon. I'd love to have all perfect toplines, perfect stance, but if the end goal is beef, that is secondary...

Getting kinda inbred aren't you? The bull turned out real nice but you might want to consider
some outside blood. If it was me , and knowing what your herd composition is I would consider a real good red Balancer.

As of right now, I have no linebred/inbred cows whatsoever, the calves I posted would be the start, and from what I'm seeing, and the popular choice of people here, it's all the linebred calves that look the best... So how do I win here? Keep calves you say don't belong in my herd whatsoever, or keep the linebred ones? The linebred ones have the "look" I'm looking for, and they're outgrowing the ones that ought to be full of hybrid vigor. I don't think I'll ever completely close my herd to outside bulls, it's just not reasonable with the numbers I'm limited to, however, I'm thinking if I keep 2 bulls from every purchased bull, and am mindful of what breeds what, I should be able to get better uniformity without going overboard linebreeding, staying mostly to half siblings and cousins.. It wasn't in my original plan to have a mother-son mating, but since that cow was just not working with the unrelated bull, I gave it a try and well, it got far better results.

I admire your program. You have a breeding goal and it is obvious you are working towards it. I admire good cattle even when they aren't what works the best for me in my environment. I know of very productive cattle way more inbred/linebred than yours. Please keep the pics coming. Any pics of Hectors since he has came home?

 

[Nesikep]

Not great pictures




Here's a daughter of his from a Hereford cow

 

[True Grit Farms]

I've posted a few pictures on different threads of my cattle on here, but never made a point to show off. I'm trying really hard to be nice, but LINE breeding CROSS bred mongrel cows isn't what LINE breeding is all about. You definitely are thinking outside the box and your results show....some good some bad. And that wouldn't be such a bad thing for a registered breeder that's willing to cull mistakes. A good pure bred line bred animal bred to another pure bred line bred animal will produce another animal very similar to it. Your good crossbred animal line bred with another good cossbred animal will produce? That's just a stupid way for a commercial cattlemen to breed cattle. And after spending 20+ years doing what you've been doing, the fact is you need to stick with breeding for calm easy handling cattle, you seem to be good at that.

 

[Nesikep]

25 years of crossbreeding hasn't REALLY gotten me anywhere significant, which is why I'm trying something a little different. At this point my main goal is to have mid-size cows with no skinny looking racks.. and I have some full sisters that are so completely different from each other you'd never guess.. that's what I'm trying to avoid at this point.

 

[Muddy]

Well Red Angus cows fits your bill then.

 

[Nesikep]

Here are some videos of today, First one you can see Hector (a little bit) walking.. He was a little sore from the long ride and a heck of a rough road, but he's loosening up again
[youtube]https://youtu.be/G4ftCa9Pjlw[/youtube]

And here he is a bit of a walkaround of him
[youtube]https://youtu.be/Br2FeCDK5tw[/youtube]

And a pic

 

[ALACOWMAN]

His look at 5 months,,concerns me more then anything else...one of the periods in their growth that tell the tale...

 

[cotton1]

Congrats on Hectors return Nesi. Ive been away for a while and just now read this thread thru. As best I remember, you already were using a bull out of your herd. (Via Chroma??) I cant remember the parentage of him really, but never knew how he turned out.

Glad to see you are still using line breeding to improve your herd. I also laughed when I saw the post inferring that "pure bred" cattle can be line bred and "mongrels" can not. As if in the beginning there were all these "pure breeds" we refer to cattle as today and genetic concentration is only possible with those animals. Over the years you and I have shared our thoughts on cattle and breeding practices, mostly in agreement. I have enjoyed the pictures and post you have shared of your herd and hope Hector does you proud.

Cotton1

 

[Nesikep]

Congrats on Hectors return Nesi. Ive been away for a while and just now read this thread thru. As best I remember, you already were using a bull out of your herd. (Via Chroma??) I cant remember the parentage of him really, but never knew how he turned out.

Glad to see you are still using line breeding to improve your herd. I also laughed when I saw the post inferring that "pure bred" cattle can be line bred and "mongrels" can not. As if in the beginning there were all these "pure breeds" we refer to cattle as today and genetic concentration is only possible with those animals. Over the years you and I have shared our thoughts on cattle and breeding practices, mostly in agreement. I have enjoyed the pictures and post you have shared of your herd and hope Hector does you proud.

Cotton1

Well, It's turnout day today..

Pics of him from yesterday..

He's all happy to have company again

 

[Nesikep]

Oh, and my previous bull was Chroma's full brother, this one is about a 13/16th sibling.. a generation of difference and a different great grandsire somewhere there.. Chroma has Saler blood, Hector does not

 

[TCRanch]

Look at Hector!! Well done, Nesi!

 

[Bright Raven]

I saw that post on your Facebook. That was funny.

He sure looks Good!

 

[Lazy M]

Looks good. You might want to trim around his sheath if you haven't already turned him out.

 

[Nesikep]

He's already out.. probably could still do it,.. and he's been busy.. 12 cows bred in 6 days.. 2 of the 4 heifers, and 2 of the 4 second timers... I just noticed MOST of the ones that were bred were from his maternal line.. 8 of 10 from that line are done.. Now as long as they all stick, should be a quick start to the calving season.

His size hasn't seemed to be any issue at all with the heifers or small cows, seems gentlemanly enough I guess..
Can't wait to see the calves now.. *sigh* why does 285 days seem like an eternity?

 

[Nesikep]

Well, I have 2 calves here so far, by far the smallest calves I've had in a long time, heifer and bull from mature mid sized cows, about 70 and 80 lbs respectively, really easy births so far.. Next up is a first timer, big girl but a big eater too.

This is Prada's calf, I saw she was calving, just standing uncomfortably so I moved her to her own pen.. didn't see feet, didn't think the water had broken.. Come back 20 minutes later and she's licking the calf off... I like that

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Looks to have good thickness down the back. Calving ease is a blessing - if the calves have growth.

 

[Coosh71]

Looks to have good thickness down the back. Calving ease is a blessing - if the calves have growth.

Jeanne, this is about exactly our goal here. We try to get that 70-80# calf with some get up and go. As I've stated in a different post about mineral and nutritional tweaks, our calves this year are easy on the cows and have started out great. Seems like they are more muscled than in years past and definitely have more spunk. The calf Nesi posted looks identical to our calves here at birth. Great job Nesi, and good luck with those heifers.