Hereford bull prospect and a couple cows

[Ky hills]

This is a late November Hereford calf I left intact. If we retain him as a bull he will be a complete outcross to the bulls we are currently running. His dam is around 9. The black cow is the dam of the Angus bull that we currently have out with heifers.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I reckon you are in the hunt for a replacement soon eh?
I like my hereford bull. Hes doing a pretty good job. No one likes my brangus. I've been eyeballing a couple bull calves I have as well.
This guy was pretty small at birth. Mama is a gelbvieh/angus.

This one was moderate birth weight.
Growing better than the bwf. Dang, thought I had a good picture. The red one. That's not his mother. I'll try n get a better pic later.


I like the calves you have been showing. Be hard to pick one. Any of em would probly do the job huh?

 

[Ky hills]

@MurraysMutts your calves look good. I've heard good things about Hereford Gelbvieh crosses.
Yeah we sold our Hereford bull, and my wife said we need a Hereford bull to replace him. I like Herefords too, but when we sell I like black calves so I guess you could say we have his and her bulls.
One of the biggest things I like about raising our bulls is that in just like retaining heifers you are privy to all of the information and details about the calf and the cow it's out of which is not always available when purchasing a bull. I kind of have in my head a few possibilities even before the calf is born based on the particular matings. If it turns out to be a heifer then it's likely a keeper too anyways. If I have any apprehension about a bull calf then he goes as a steer.

 

[elkwc]

@MurraysMutts your calves look good. I've heard good things about Hereford Gelbvieh crosses.
Yeah we sold our Hereford bull, and my wife said we need a Hereford bull to replace him. I like Herefords too, but when we sell I like black calves so I guess you could say we have his and her bulls.
One of the biggest things I like about raising our bulls is that in just like retaining heifers you are privy to all of the information and details about the calf and the cow it's out of which is not always available when purchasing a bull. I kind of have in my head a few possibilities even before the calf is born based on the particular matings. If it turns out to be a heifer then it's likely a keeper too anyways. If I have any apprehension about a bull calf then he goes as a steer.

Ky Hills I like Herefords also but mainly use them too raise baldies. Baldies sell better here than straight Angus. We retain some of our calves for bulls. We know their mothers and we know they will do well here. We are trying AIing this year on our replacements and a few of our better mature cows. All the mature cows were Angus except for one reg Hereford and bred her to a bull bought from Holdens that I like. Have a polled 1st calf heifer I plan to AI later. Looking for a good polled bull but haven't found one yet that firs my criteria and the semen isn't too high. I hope this works for us. Like you I'm already thinking about how the matings will work. We breed hoping for a good heifer but will retain any good bull calf we can use.

 

[Hpacres440p]

I reckon you are in the hunt for a replacement soon eh?
I like my hereford bull. Hes doing a pretty good job. No one likes my brangus. I've been eyeballing a couple bull calves I have as well.
This guy was pretty small at birth. Mama is a gelbvieh/angus.
View attachment 4510
This one was moderate birth weight.
Growing better than the bwf. Dang, thought I had a good picture. The red one. That's not his mother. I'll try n get a better pic later.
View attachment 4511
View attachment 4512
I like the calves you have been showing. Be hard to pick one. Any of em would probly do the job huh?

Good pic of the red calf in the last pic-just a little farther along. These guys have a much better top line than your Brangus dude (sorry!) like the red a lot.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

KY>You have some good looking pasture. You are the one who has to be satisfied with the bull in the final analysis.

 

[gcreekrch]

No and no......

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

@Ky hills - GREAT black cow. Your Hereford bull looks real good. Great bone, thick, deep, with lots of rib. He's breeding quality - ready to wean!!

 

[MurraysMutts]

No and no......

Whatchu talking 'bout?
Dont like any of em?

 

[gcreekrch]

Whatchu talking 'bout?
Dont like any of em?

While I am not a Polled Hereford guy that bull is fine. I have been trying to educate you that using average or less bulls costs more money than otherwise. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting change doesn't work. Get yourself a good bull!

 

[MurraysMutts]

I think @Ky hills has much better stock than I do.
While my hereford bull has been giving pretty good animals, I just dont know if I have a keeper bull out of him. Yet...

The black hereford looking bull calf just isnt exploding with growth. His mother is a smaller black gelbvieh. I do like her a lot, but dont think I'd want that bull for anything but heifers.

The red white face bull was born a bit larger, and is growing better. He is actually younger than the "black hereford" bull calf. His mother is nothing spectacular. Just a plain ol mixed black cow I bought a few years ago. Makes good milk. Holds decent condition thru winter. No real problems, just plain. Lol
The pictures make me think he is shorter in the front than the rear.

And here's mama. Number 99. When I bought her, she was 5 or 6. I was gonna calve and sell. But shes had no issues so I've just kept her around....

Now.
THIS is the one I'm waiting on to calve. She should be along this fall. Bred to my registered hereford bull.
Itll probly be a heifer. But that's ok too I guess.

Who knows, I may get a wild hair this fall, and just buy a bull when I sell some animals.
I've a couple cows I'm planning on selling as pairs. As well as some calves.
I've just got to be careful. On a tight budget this year. I've still gotta feed em all winter and funds are ok but not great. With any luck, I want them paid for this next spring!

 

[gcreekrch]

The "black Hereford" is shallow, tall and fine boned. The red baldy is a darn good feeder steer. Our herd never came ahead or started selling sale toppers until we bit the bullet and bought better genetics.

I also know how hard it is to make ends meet, have been through those days and may get there again one day.

 

[Ky hills]

Thanks for the compliment @MurraysMutts I've been at it a long time, took a lot of twists and turns and back to square ones, just within the last few years seem to have focused on a direction as far as type and kind. Most of our current mature cows came here as purchased heifers while we were part of a regional bred heifer sale. I bought most through stockyards and tried to be real selective as to what I wanted. I was looking for mainly black or BWF and that looked Angus like with some decent frame. We did buy some Hereford and Hereford x too at times and usually kept most of them for cows and some of the black ones that did not make the cut for the sale such as they may have had some spots in their eyes from pinkeye before we purchased them or some were bred already at time of purchase. Over the last few years we retained more heifers from our cows and the last year we did the sale we kept half of the heifer group. As we are transitioning to all cow/calf and now are more confident to retain bulls because we have some background knowledge of the cows and how they produced over several years. We have some cows that I am very pleased with and a few that are back forty that will be culled over time as more replacements can be retained. Finances were a big part of why we started raising some of our bulls. It seemed counterproductive to steer calves that I knew the history of and a good idea of how they would turn out, and bring in a more expensive bull that may or may not be any better quality in the long run other than having a registration paper. That being said there are times when bringing in a good bull is beneficial.