Front pasture cattle

[Nesikep]

OK.. Everyone's got cows they like to show off... Which ones are yours? (back pasture cattle will be for another time)

Here's Alma, a cow going on 12 years old I think.. Never fails to raise a nice calf, whether it's a heifer or steer... she's a Shorthorn Saler with some Herf, etc in the woodpile


And her oldest daughter Hekla, a Gelbvieh sired cow, going on 6 years old.. done well for me so far


And her first daughter, Limo sired.. I think she'll make a dandy cow when she grows up


Next up is Cenci, going on 5 years old, daughter of my old girl Rosie... again a pretty complete package.. Gelbvieh x Saler x Hereford, Raised the nicest (and darned close to biggest) steer this year, I'm waiting for her to give me a heifer


This is Caddy, Maternal sister to Cenci (Shorthorn sired though) and going on 10 years old.. One of my most efficient cows, always the first to stop eating, raises a top calf every year and stays in good condition doing it.. Raised 3 bull calves I kept intact (One will have calves dropping on the ground next spring) and 2 replacement heifers so far.. Excellent udder and great calving ease (also makes the smallest (at birth) calves of the mature cows).. sorry she's laying down.. I'll find a better pic at some point.


Chroma, Gelbvieh sired daughter of Caddy, going on 5 years old.. Her first calf was a heifer that was pretty small at weaning, last year was a MUCH better daughter I kept (doubly sire by the GV bull), and this year she hit the home run, making the biggest steer of any cow out there, and she's not that big either.
Nelly is the white/roan cow in the background, also a very nice cow, but for her size she doesn't make a big enough calf.. She still looks good doing it

Chroma's daughter Tifa from last year, Hopefully she lives up to what her mother does.. a spitting image of momma.. not the most flattering picture though

 

[Nesikep]

Mega you all know.. close relative of Cenci (same sire and grandma) and Hekla (same sires, different great-grandma), and she's going on 6 years old, her first calf weaned at 675 lbs and the rest have all been thumpers as well.. I find her pretty well put together.


And she's got milk..


Those are the front pasture cows... the rest of them.. well, I don't think many need to be hidden, they just ain't great

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Can't keep my back pasture cattle in the back...their the ones that always show up to be viewed first...could be a inferiority complex...

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Here are a few of our Murray Greys.
This cow was born in the fall of 2008. She is pictured here at 4 1/2 years. She is raising an exceptional bull calf this year.

This cow was born in the spring of 2007. She always raises very nice calves, both bulls and heifers. She is pictured here in 2013 with her bull calf. Her most recent bull calf weaned at 710 lbs.

This is our very best cow, OK Sadie. She is pictured here at 11.5 years of age. She has a heifer calf this year who we will end up keeping. In 2012, she raised a tremendous bull calf who is now our herdsire. She has had heifer calves in 2013, 2014, and 2015; we have retained all of them.

This is the same cow again with her 2012 bull calf.

Here is her 2012 bull calf now, as a 3.5 year old.

This cow is a spring 2011 model. She is raising a gorgeous heifer calf this year who was sired by a bull born in 1972.

This cow was born in the spring of 2006. She is pictured here at 8 years. She has a very nice heifer calf this year.

This cow is 50% Murray Grey x 50% Angus. She was born October 2009. Her heifer calf is 4 1/2 months old in the photo. She ended up weaning at 614 lbs in 2014.

 

[slick4591]

Some really nice looking cattle pictured! Both of my pastures run along the road so I can't hide anything. :lol:

 

[nathan arizona]

I really like those Murray Greys. Never seen any here in NC, but they sure are good looking cattle.

 

[Nesikep]

I really doubt you have any back pasture cattle Backbone Ranch!

 

[creekdrive]

beautiful cows posted so far.

So hard to pick just a few to share!

Here's a few cows that are extra special in my opinion.

22 - not sure how old she is but have a daughter in the herd that is an 'S' so she will be 12 this coming year at least. This picture was taken last year and we kept that heifer calf, hopefully she will last as long as her mother.

another picture of her taken a few days ago. Still in great shape! She has another heifer calf this year that looks exactly like the one from last year and is awfully tempting to keep.

her daughter that will be 10 next spring. I don't think she's quite as good as 22 but not far behind.

Purebred RA cow - X 208 The 208 cows have always been good cows, however they seem to always have bull calves so there is only a couple in the herd.

this is Y AC - I believe I posted a picture of her and her relatives in my last thread with pictures. She's only a 3rd calver but so far all of her calves have been good and I think she's a very nice cow to look at. The original AC cow on the farm was a shorthorn. The AC stands for the initials of the man they got the cow from. That's quite a few years ago now though, this AC would be at least 75% Angus.

this is Y WFBET (yes that is actually what is written on her tag). We call her Wiffy for short. My husbands grandma comes up with some awfully unique ways of tagging animals...sure gets some funny looks when the calves are going through the ring at the auction. Best she can remember WFBET stood for White Face Black Earless Tailless or maybe White Face Big Ears and T was the year letter - who knows lol

Wiffy from the side - she is pretty much as wide as she is tall and if she would stand still I'm sure you could use her back as a dining table. Now that we have a scale I plan to weigh her this fall/winter sometime just for curiosity.

Sim Angus cross cow. Weans one of the biggest calves every year. I don't know there's much I would change about her...

first calf RA heifer - too early to tell for sure but I think she 's going to be a really good cow. (I might be slightly biased as I picked her and claimed her as mine lol)

77 - BA cow coming 10 yrs old. Not the best picture of her but the only one I could find right now.

13 - BA cow coming 17 yrs old. When they get to that age don't they all belong in the front pasture?

this is Pest. She comes by her name honestly... If she could come in the house with you she gladly would. The grandparents bought her as a feeder calf and obviously she was somebody's bottle calf. When we bring cows in from the pasture the first thing you do is lead Pesty out the other side and turn her loose in the yard. You can not get anything done with her in the corral as she just follows you around or she stands in the gate you are trying to sort through and won't let any animals come or go. And if she doesn't want to move there is nothing you can do to convince her otherwise.

That's it for now - I know we have more but that's all the photos I could think of right now.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Those are some great looking cattle, creekdrive!

 

[Nesikep]

Very nice indeed.

I agree, the old cows all belong in the front pasture, they've earned it.. they wouldn't be around at all if they didn't. I do have one 12 year old that isn't a front pasture cow.. she looks like a coat rack and has a bag she kicks to the side with each step.. I might give her another year or two..

All the pictures I posted before are of cows I currently have.. Here's some of the ones that have gone. I posted some in another thread already but oh well.

Arnold the Gelbvieh sire of a large portion of my herd.. had him from age 2 to 7.. about 5 in the picture I think


And lets start the cows off with a VERY old picture.. This is Josie as a yearling in 1992.. She's the mother of Rosie and Tizia.. I think she'd have done better and lived longer had I had a proper mineral supplement back then. Not everyone likes her, but she earned her place by producing front pasture cows.


Rosie, not the greatest picture of her.. I think she was going on 16 here


Mother of this year's best looking steer, Cenci.. 14th calf I had from Rosie.. she was born in May.. a little later than the rest, but you sure couldn't tell the difference by wintertime.


Cenci expecting her first calf


Mega with her first calf.. she did alright at 675 lb weaning weight


Mega's mother Tizia.. sure wish I had gotten some more daughters from her

 

[Nesikep]

Here's a picture of Josie at 14. she came up open and died suddenly in the summer... My best guess is heart failure, which may have been brought on by acute copper deficiency


Here's a better pic of Rosie at about 16.


The other daughter that I only had a picture of laying down in the first post.. Caddy, shorthorn sired

And part of the reason I call her a front pasture cow.. this is her second calf


And here's Nelly (pictured in the first post but poorly) with one of a pair of twins.

This was Tizia's first calf.. she was some sort of looonnnggg.. didn't keep her, but wonder how she'd have turned out

 

[Koulee]

Nesikep I am very happy that you are using shorthorn cattle. I am from Washington State and have traveled Alberta extensively in past looking at shorthorn cattle. I was wondering where you get your shorthorn cattle from?

 

[Hereford76]

WFBET...

Creekdrive, I think that morning your husband's grandpa told his wife she was getting too old to tag calves.

 

[Ozark cowman]

Nice cattle everyone! thanks for the pictures, I really like seeing them.

 

[cotton1]

I like this thread. Nice cattle all, thanks for sharing! :tiphat:

 

[ez14]

just my heifers I like to show off we only have a front pasture

 

[Supa Dexta]

Any red brockles I have are like my bull dozer - park it out in a field and its there when I need it. Gets no special attention and is tough. Not pretty, and not a hotrod, but it works.

 

[Nesikep]

I like the brockles better than baldies... don't know if it's dumb luck, but they've been better cows too

 

[cotton1]

Technically all the cattle here get out by the road at some point because of the way the farm is laid out.These are the donor cows on my small herd of Registered Charolais.The first one here is Duchess. Her last flush was just after Thanksgiving and gave me 27 embryos. The previous 2 were not as good since she had a big calf on her(weaned at 730lbs). That's him nursing her there. She has given me over 80 grade 1 embryos for an average of 16 per flush.


Here he is at about 2 months of age. I couldn't find a recent picture of him.


This one is Vannar. She is the newest one here and was already a donor when we bought her fall of 14 bred with the calf in the picture. He weaned at 672 lbs. She was flushed twice this year and produced 27 embryos for us and 23 embryos on a partnership flush for a total of 50 grade 1 embryos. I don't know her lifetime avg, so I can only say here it is 25 grade 1 per flush. She is currently bred to my bull Injector I posted on the bull thread, and I am anxiously awaiting that calf.



This is Mary. She is the type of cow I love. Her mother is a flush mate to a cow that has produced several popular AI bulls. Her sire is from a linebred program that does a lot of things right. Among those things are super quiet dispositions, and Mary not only has that but passes it along to her calves. Her natural calf this year weaned at 680 lbs. We flushed her twice this year producing 18 and 21 grade 1 embryos respectively. So far I have only gotten bull calves off her, but am hopeful for some daughters in the ET babies off her in the future. She is currently bred to an AI bull I own that is not mainstream but does a lot of things I like including making smaller frame score cattle and daughters with near perfect udder structure. The little bull test I am doing has 2 from Mary, the one from Vannar, and 2 from Duchess.


Well, I enjoyed this thread so much thought I would put these on. Hope you all enjoy. Merry CHRISTMAS! :santa:

 

[Nesikep]

I'm not sure I really like Duchess that much, but Mary is pretty darned good... She looks dry at the time the pic was taken but seems to have a better udder.. she's thick too
Vannar looks really sleepy!