Heifers with little or no milk.

[Ky hills]

Over the years lack of milk has not been much of an issue for me. Seems like lately it's a recurring theme that happens way too much.
I believe I have tracked the culprit to something in the genetic background of a particular Hereford bull I raised several years ago.
Some of his daughters milked normally and capable of raising good calves, while a few of his daughters would not have enough milk at at all or in a few instances not any milk at all.
The current bull that I have been using is a 3/4 Angus and that Hereford bull is his maternal grandsire. The Angus pedigree part of the bull is full of heavy milking females and his dam who is an F1 BWF is a very heavy milking cow out the Hereford bull.
Anyways, I didn't use this 3/4 Angus 1/4 Hereford bull much until a couple calf crops ago, last year had two heifers retained from him and 1 did not breed and we turned her into beef, the other didn't have enough milk. This year have a few more of his daughters so far they have been failures too. Two have calved so far and one not enough milk and one formed a little bit of anudder but no milk at all. After 3 days of not having her calf the udder has not changed at all.
Good thing we have a Jersey that's just come fresh.
Have 3 more heifers by him to calve and only one looks promising.
Daughters of the other bull we had have more good udder development and looks like plenty of milk.
I've really liked this bull in a lot ways, but his daughters are a disaster.

 

[Travlr]

Over the years lack of milk has not been much of an issue for me. Seems like lately it's a recurring theme that happens way too much.
I believe I have tracked the culprit to something in the genetic background of a particular Hereford bull I raised several years ago.
Some of his daughters milked normally and capable of raising good calves, while a few of his daughters would not have enough milk at at all or in a few instances not any milk at all.
The current bull that I have been using is a 3/4 Angus and that Hereford bull is his maternal grandsire. The Angus pedigree part of the bull is full of heavy milking females and his dam who is an F1 BWF is a very heavy milking cow out the Hereford bull.
Anyways, I didn't use this 3/4 Angus 1/4 Hereford bull much until a couple calf crops ago, last year had two heifers retained from him and 1 did not breed and we turned her into beef, the other didn't have enough milk. This year have a few more of his daughters so far they have been failures too. Two have calved so far and one not enough milk and one formed a little bit of anudder but no milk at all. After 3 days of not having her calf the udder has not changed at all.
Good thing we have a Jersey that's just come fresh.
Have 3 more heifers by him to calve and only one looks promising.
Daughters of the other bull we had have more good udder development and looks like plenty of milk.
I've really liked this bull in a lot ways, but his daughters are a disaster.

I don't know how you feel about it... We've all had animals we've liked and become invested in... but this sounds like something that might indeed be from the bull you mention and could be well contained at this point by culling to slaughter.

 

[Ky hills]

I don't know how you feel about it... We've all had animals we've liked and become invested in... but this sounds like something that might indeed be from the bull you mention and could be well contained at this point by culling to slaughter.

Definitely, I agree, it's time for that bull to go. We've relied heavily on him for a couple of years, just used him light prior to that. 5 years old so we're just now having enough daughters to get a picture and even with that small number it's not looking good.
We like to have the option of retaining heifers so milk and maternal quality is a priority.

 

[Travlr]

Definitely, I agree, it's time for that bull to go. We've relied heavily on him for a couple of years, just used him light prior to that. 5 years old so we're just now having enough daughters to get a picture and even with that small number it's not looking good.
We like to have the option of retaining heifers so milk and maternal quality is a priority.

If you don't get rid of the heifers, even the ones that have milk may carry the trait you are disappointed in.

 

[coachg]

One way ride to the sale barn . My grandpa Griffith use to call them coffee cows . Just enough milk to squirt in your coffee . I'll give a heifer a little benefit of the doubt on low amount of milk but no milk ain't an excuse .

 

[Ky hills]

One way ride to the sale barn . My grandpa Griffith use to call them coffee cows . Just enough milk to squirt in your coffee . I'll give a heifer a little benefit of the doubt on low amount of milk but no milk ain't an excuse .

Yeah, I'll cull them, no need to keep them. I've found over the years that if a heifer doesn't have much milk the first time it generally doesn't improve much with age. If it's one that's kind of borderline, then yeah I've seen it work out better the next time, but with the little amount we're dealing with here I don't think think there's ever gonna be the ability to raise a calf.

 

[angus9259]

Given prices what they are it's the best time ever to have that kind of bad luck.

 

[Dsth]

A bad cow can give you a bad offspring but a bad bull can give you a whole generation of offspring. even the daughters that are milking good can carry the little or no milk gene and pass on to offspring. take others advise and cull what you feel comfortable from that bull.