KNERSIE":31lygcul said:
The cow and the grass is doing a fine job in raising the calf, the cow's not going to win many beauty pageants though. And why would rednecked and redlegged make a calf better, those aren't traditional Hereford markings?
Red legs are as traditional as the white face. I have never heard of anyone selecting for white legs. If you select for white legs, you would be the first I have ever heard of. The rednecks have always been around and favored by many. The original recommendation on white markings on the neck was that the white feather not exceed back beyound the last rib. My father always believed that a short white feather was better than a red neck because, in his experience, bulls with a short white feather tended to mark their calves that way whereas red neck bulls tended to throw more linebacks. I have not used enough rednecked bulls to say if he was right or wrong, but the bulls that have done the most solid job of not throwing extra white had short white feathers and I have not used a redneck that I considered to be a white cutter.
As far as the grass goes. The warm season grass is so good in this area (less than half the year) that I seriously doubt you could get calves to even eat out of a creep feeder.