CVHFarmsLLC
Active member
I've just finished selecting bulls four our up and coming first ever round of AI in May. We have hired a well known local AI tech and will be doing 16 cows and 5 heifers with one round of timed AI and then turning out with our cleanup bull. This is our first time to select bulls for AI and I'm looking for a sanity check that I haven't overlooked something and am not about to cause a trainwreck. Our goal this year is to take a mix of Brangus, ultra-black, and F-1 Braford cows and produce a more uniform set of Brangus baldy calves while retaining heifers that are produced out of our best performing mommas. We sell 50% at the barn, retain 50% for freezer beef, and retain 3-5 heifers a year for replacement. Cows are fleshy and weigh 1200-1400 lbs with a couple 1150s and current birthweights range from 70-95 lbs.
When I was sorting and selecting within a breed, I first looked for EPDs that matched our goals of good growth and good maternal traits with average or better carcass quality, specifically marbling and low birth weight / good calving ease for our heifers. I avoided bulls that ranked 80% or worse over breed average in CED, BE, WW, YW, CEM, Milk, MH, MW, HS and marbling with the exception of my Herford selection which had poor marbling EPD. Once I found one with EPDs I liked, I looked at pedigree to see if the EPDs were a one off or something that was being carried in the family line avoiding bulls that appeared to have weird swings in EPDs from it's parents. I also looked at how many progeny the bull had for accuracy of the EPDs. I avoided bulls that had an outlier actual BW, WW, YW compared to its respective EPD. I am not great with eye appeal, especially considering you only get a fancy picture, but I did exclude a few this way.
I'm fairly confident in my selection on bulls for our momma cows, but less so on the heifers. We have brangus baldy, brangus, and ultra-black / angus plus heifers. I've selected lbw Brangus, lbw Hereford, and lbw angus for them. The heifers will be calving at near two years old and are currently 950-1050 lbs. I went with Sankeys Special Op 108E for the Brangus bull and Boyd 31Z Blueprint for the Hereford. Any reason I should be losing sleep over possible calving issues with my plan? I know the lbw angus should do great but what about putting the lbw Brangus on the angus plus heifers?
As always, advice and feedback is appreciated.
When I was sorting and selecting within a breed, I first looked for EPDs that matched our goals of good growth and good maternal traits with average or better carcass quality, specifically marbling and low birth weight / good calving ease for our heifers. I avoided bulls that ranked 80% or worse over breed average in CED, BE, WW, YW, CEM, Milk, MH, MW, HS and marbling with the exception of my Herford selection which had poor marbling EPD. Once I found one with EPDs I liked, I looked at pedigree to see if the EPDs were a one off or something that was being carried in the family line avoiding bulls that appeared to have weird swings in EPDs from it's parents. I also looked at how many progeny the bull had for accuracy of the EPDs. I avoided bulls that had an outlier actual BW, WW, YW compared to its respective EPD. I am not great with eye appeal, especially considering you only get a fancy picture, but I did exclude a few this way.
I'm fairly confident in my selection on bulls for our momma cows, but less so on the heifers. We have brangus baldy, brangus, and ultra-black / angus plus heifers. I've selected lbw Brangus, lbw Hereford, and lbw angus for them. The heifers will be calving at near two years old and are currently 950-1050 lbs. I went with Sankeys Special Op 108E for the Brangus bull and Boyd 31Z Blueprint for the Hereford. Any reason I should be losing sleep over possible calving issues with my plan? I know the lbw angus should do great but what about putting the lbw Brangus on the angus plus heifers?
As always, advice and feedback is appreciated.
