has anyone used GAR Gridmaker on their angus?????

[farmerD44]

also i should add our best cows have -#'s for $EN and gridmaker has one of the higher +EN #'s on the select sires line-up. So he should be better than what i am using in that area according to what u people are telling me.

Dan.

 

[Scotty]

More milk does not mean more calve. If I had cattle bred by Gridmaker I would want his heifers. I never said that. 5.8 BW just guessing would be 80 to 100 lb calve. I looked back on some of my calves. I mentioned the two that were over 100 and their sire was both SAF Easy Fortune. I had a 80 lb calve out of Scotch Cap and he has a 5.2 or so. Gridmaker will help you any way you deside to go. Were you shold go is how you want to market your cattle. I raise my purebreds to carcass animals. Some raise them striclty show show cattle. This doesn't mean I sacrifice any one trait. Tell you what. These are the bulls I am using. DCC Rito Prime 14171230, Integ. 14222612(one of the best bulls in the world). Plan on using GAR Pinnacle, Future Direction next year. All have great numbers. All are going to help the numbers of my heard. I think if you use Gridmaker on your New Design genetics you will be doin well.



Scotty

 

[ollie']

Pure unadulterated epd dribble.

 

[la4angus]

Pure unadulterated epd dribble.

By people that has little knowledge of or how to use EPD's.

 

[Scotty]

Pure unadulterated epd dribble.

By people that has little knowledge of or how to use EPD's.

To each their own right.


Scotty

 

[Scotty]

Better yet L4 educate us so we will know. And how do you know what I know or don't know. I was trying to help a man.


Scotty

 

[la4angus]

Better yet L4 educate us so we will know. And how do you know what I know or don't know. I was trying to help a man.


Scotty

I don't know how much you as an individual know or don't know, but from reading the comments I do know that many don't know how to use EPD's.

 

[jscunn]

I personally dont pay much attention to En$ for 2 reasons.

1. Our commercial cows that are good doing cattle are TERRIBLE milkers. They look great in the pasture until you see their poor little calf. You cant have your cake and eat it too. Either the calf is getting nutrition or the cow is. You have to "help" your cows just enough to keep them with enough body condition to breed back and milk, but no more than that.

2. I dont have many registered cows but I have a mother/daughter the mother is a plus 15 for EN and is a VERY hard doing cow so hard doing she is not on time with breeding back, which is why now gone. Her daughter is +9 and is pretty easy keeping, but she also raises a good calf (There are pictures of both posted in earlier threads.) She has avg. 660# of WW on her last 4 calves.

I dont believe in no input cattle, but there is a fine line between just enough and too much feed. Our mature cows only get supplement for about 30 days all year. Our 1st calf heifers get alittle more help than that to help them breed back. The rest of the year they are on winter pasture (Oats, Rye grass) or alittle summer pasture (Brown Top millet and Crab grass) with the permanent pasture a mix of Argentine and Pensacola Bahia grass.

About using Gridmaker, I personally think that he may not be pure Angus from his picture Not to stir the pot too much but look at him (kinda Apple butted, alittle too brown, Great Ribeye and no marbling) kinda sounds like a Limmy cross to me. Maybe why he doesn't milk either.

Remember EPDs are a tool I'm sure everyone has seen a 90# YW Angus bull they wouldn't let breed their worst cows!

 

[farmerD44]

well i am not claiming to be an expert on EPD's. But i am following what the american angus association literature has told me- and also what my uncle has told me- who by the way has been AI'ing cattle since before i was born. first an awsome dairy herd and now beef cattle.

As far as milk not making a bigger calf- maybe not in your herd- but in mine it makes alot of difference. Lets see- the cow with +23 for milk had a 644LB calf at weaning and the cow with plus 16 milk only had a 495LB calf at weaning- i think milk does have some influence people. along with the other genetics of course. And our heavy milking simmentals have awsome calves year after year. Now i want to make part of my herd pure bred angus and i want there performance to be the best i can make it. and i think them giving more milk is part of what needs to be done. Of course we have one cow who's milk # is only +11 and she gives more milk then the one with +23- so obviously u cant go by the numbers alone, lol.

Dan.

 

[Larry Sansom]

Knock the props out from those big cows - simmi etc and big ww / yw Angus and watch the troubles begin. That extra weight is not free - you MUST feed to get it, and feed cost $. Creep feed, extra feed and hay for the cow are cost. They will eat the same % of their body weight if they are 1200 lbs or 1500 lbs cow - but the calves will not be that much larger. Profit comes from Gross sales price minus cost. Every epd is just an average of expected results - cannot look at 1 cow, but $EN is by far the most important figure to look at when selecting a bull to use to make replacement heifers - unless you are out chasing ribbons or some other $ wasting hobby. Of course my herd bull is +30 on $en with 4 stars on Tenderness - so he makes heifers that work for me, rather than me working for them, plus steers that will work on a grass finish program. Every breeder must decide what is important to their program - but Profit is my goal.

 

[farmerD44]

where are u getting these high EN numbers- the highest i see on the select sires lineup is15.57

And yes there is a big difference in calf size- if u want a good herd of cattle u have to be willing to feed them- i know that much

And no- i could care less about ribbons.

Dan.

 

[la4angus]

and crossed with the angus that we have the numbers will awhy wouldnt i want heifers by him- they will still be smaller than our current simmental cows.
Dan.

What are you wanting to raise? Angus or Simmentals.

 

[farmerD44]

i am raising both. All i know is that there is alot of potential to improve my angus cows and get them bigger and fleshier- i have looked at other herds and they look quite a bit better than what i have. I am not trying to turn my angus into simmentals- but i know they can be much better than they are.
my end goal is to have half my herd in purebred angus and the other half crossbred simmys.
Dan.

 

[la4angus]

And yes there is a big difference in calf size- if u want a good herd of cattle u have to be willing to feed them- i know that much .... :?: :?: :?:

Dan.

 

[farmerD44]

i was responding to the person who said there isnt much differnce in the calf size from bigger cows. which require more feed and more feed if they give more milk.

and the only time we give any of our cows grain is when we want them to get more mineral- we mix in the mineral.

but most of the time they eat enough free choice.

Dan.

 

[farmerD44]

and Scotty- thanks for your helpfull info- u sound like someone who knows what he is talking about- and also the rest of u for your replies- good or bad

If anyone else wishes to chime in be my guest- the more info the better.

Dan.

 

[Frankie]

how is he for calving ease on cows. his BW is now +5.8

WW and YW are awsome!!! would really like to use him on a couple cows but am worried about calving problems.

Dan.

I talked to a friend who has used him quite a bit on his registered Angus cattle and he had no problem with birthweights. I'm considering buying a Grid Maker heifer from him.

Consider the BW EPDs on the cows that you're planning to breed him to. What were the BW EPDs on the bulls you've been using on those cows and how heavy have the calves been?

Higher milking cows need more feed, grass or otherwise. They should get you a heavier calf, but if the feed isn't there for them to maintain their condition, they'll not breed back. The first Angus bull we used AI was Traveler 71. At that time he had the highest milk EPD in the breed and we used him on some heifers with very low milk EPDs. We learned the hard way that too much milk can be as bad as too little milk in our situation. We found that the heifers with low milk EPDs were actually decent milkers. There just wasn't much data on them in the EPD database to reflect their true milking ability. That's why we now use bulls with a lot of information already in the EPD system.

 

[JHH]

well Integrity looks like a good bull but his #'s are lower than what i am using now. I have the Select sires spreadsheet in front of me here.

I am concerned about the milk # because some of these cows dont give alot of milk. I think that needs improving. and i am used to heavy milking simmentals, LOL.

Dan.

First let me say I dont know much about angus or epd's but seems maybe you are chasing numbers. Why not go with a proven sire that you know the accuracy is ok and wont kill your cows and still improve on your herd for milk epds. Sounds like your cows are milking pretty good already with the WW. that you posted and you might want to look and study a little more before you start getting frame 7&8 cows and heifers in the angus. Most people around here want moderate framed JMO. I thought I wanted to add some height to my herefords till I went and started looking at other peoples herds and mine are ok and I am not going to try and get them great big moderation I think is the key to everything including frame and milk and so on.JMO JHH

 

[farmerD44]

ok- heres my plan people,

I currently have 5 cows that are AI bred to new design 5050, 208, and GAR yield grade. If the calves from them look really good this spring then i will probably just stick with them. Am hoping to get all 9 of the cows and my 2 heifers AI bred this year. my uncle said it is usually easier to catch them in heat after the second calf. my uncle does the breeding- so this is economicle for us.

Dan.

 

[farmerD44]

ok- after recieving an email from the actual owner of grid maker and from recieving messages from a couple of others who have used gridmaker alot i have decided to try him on 2-4 cows. These people have told me that his calves come out long and skinny with no calving problems on good cows. and that they have used him on smaller cows to increase the size and muscle on there progeny- also with no calving problems.

So i will use him on some cows and then probably either yield grade or 5050- whichever one has better calves this coming spring.

Dan.