EPD question

[9 ER]

If someone has a cow/calf operation and they are looking to AI or buy a bull, should bw and ww be the major factors in chosing a bull if they have no intention on keeping any calves as replacements?

 

[dun]

If someone has a cow/calf operation and they are looking to AI or buy a bull, should bw and ww be the major factors in chosing a bull if they have no intention on keeping any calves as replacements?

Each producer needs to look at what his herd needs. For terminal bulls we look to BW, WW, and carcass. For maternal we look at BW, WW, YW, Milk, calving ease of daughters and carcass. We also look at genetic evaluations of the offspring, i.e. feet and legs, udder & teat size, mature size, capacity, length, muscling, etc.
For different uses there is different loading factors on the data.
The beauty of AI is the ability to pick and choose what bull works for what cow. We have cows that we will never keep heifers from, they get a terminal bull everytime. Those that we would keep a heifer from if it was good enough quality, we still want good carcass quality.

dun

 

[jerry27150]

yes, both are good, but if you don't have any heifers to breed i would pick a larger breed bull with average birth weight to increase your weaning weight & profit (called a terminal breed sire where you don't keep calves)

 

[dun]

yes, both are good, but if you don't have any heifers to breed i would pick a larger breed bull with average birth weight to increase your weaning weight & profit (called a terminal breed sire where you don't keep calves)

That's one of the other advantages to AI. There are a lot of bulls available from various breeds that have low BW/high calving ease and are still in the upper percentiles for WW and YW. But it still goes to if your cows can support that higher WW. Generally I've found that a little smaller calves that look well nourished and in proportion bring more money then large rangy looking calves. And it seems that too often, there isn;t all that much difference in weight. If yu retain ownership or finish them yourself it doesn't matter as much.

dun

 

[myersfarm]

a wise old man told me once about bw that a small live calf sold a whole lot better then a dead big one............and on ww. if don't keep you replacements what size do you sell them at right off the cow so the larger the better....... and yes you can have both low birth weight and high ww if you buy the right bull...also if you sell as weaners why even look at yw just look for bull with those low bw and high ww there out there i buy 2 ever 3 years

 

[9 ER]

Dun wrote

But it still goes to if your cows can support that higher WW.

Do you mean if they can keep their body cond. so that they can be bred back on time?
Would it be fair to say that the higher the ww the more stress it puts on the momma cow?

 

[dun]

Dun wrote

But it still goes to if your cows can support that higher WW.

Do you mean if they can keep their body cond. so that they can be bred back on time?
Would it be fair to say that the higher the ww the more stress it puts on the momma cow?

So they can milk heavy enough to supply the required nutrition that the calf will grow to it's potential.
If A cow is milking at her very top capabilities, it shouldn't affect her ability to breed back unless she's milking very heavy. There is a balance between what a cow is capable of on the forage base available without supplement as regards her milking ability. But if she isn;t capable of producing adequate milk for a high WW calf, the calf won;t develop to it's potential.
That's the balance, forage availability, milk production and WW of calf.

dun