Bcompton53
Well-known member
So, I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but this site has an incredible amount of information and experience. So since I just discovered the site, and I've spent the last two days scouring through post after post of good stuff. I thought I'd say something about what I am up to.
So I'm from NE Kansas, although I live and work in Wichita. Growing up we had beef cattle, which turned into a dairy farm for a while. After my dad sold out, we decided to start a beef herd again from scratch. It's basically a commercial cow/calf op, using angus as a base breed. My dad likes variety in color, so we also use some shorthorn in the mix. Not the smartest economically maybe, but what's the point if the owners don't enjoy it a little, I guess.
So, the weekend after I got married, rather than a honeymoon, I took the wife to the sale barn. (Yeah, you read that correctly). We walked out with 15 heifers. Now, they were sale barn cattle, so I knew we would be culling some fairly quickly.
Our operation is far from ideal. We have 120 acres of mostly pasture. We have to buy all our feed and hay. We are trying to grow moderate, low input, easy to work cattle. You'll see the cattle we started with, and so my a.i. choices have been made trying to bring the big cattle down some, and the small ones up. We calve in the fall. The bulls I've used are comrade, summit, and Regis on the heifers, and a cleanup bull out of prophet. This past year I used a lot of capitalist on the heifers and on some of the bigger cows, and DV All In on some of the smaller frame cows. And of course a couple straws of shorthorn to keep Dad happy. I'm hoping to get some really nice calves from All In from heifers out of comrade. I'd take any comments on my bull choices. Again I'm not looking for giant calves or cows.
As expected, we culled a couple heifers that didn't get bred, and a couple knot heads. I hate a cow that turns and runs for no dang good reason. I will say that I used comrade on a pretty jumpy nervous cow, and her yearling calf acts like a puppy, she comes running when she sees you. That's great to see DOC in action. Anyway, just thought I'd toss out the breakdown of our operation, because I figure some if you all like hearing stories. I'll add pictures to the thread when I master that function. Again, thanks to all for putting the decades of experience on this site, it's incredible.
Brendan
So I'm from NE Kansas, although I live and work in Wichita. Growing up we had beef cattle, which turned into a dairy farm for a while. After my dad sold out, we decided to start a beef herd again from scratch. It's basically a commercial cow/calf op, using angus as a base breed. My dad likes variety in color, so we also use some shorthorn in the mix. Not the smartest economically maybe, but what's the point if the owners don't enjoy it a little, I guess.
So, the weekend after I got married, rather than a honeymoon, I took the wife to the sale barn. (Yeah, you read that correctly). We walked out with 15 heifers. Now, they were sale barn cattle, so I knew we would be culling some fairly quickly.
Our operation is far from ideal. We have 120 acres of mostly pasture. We have to buy all our feed and hay. We are trying to grow moderate, low input, easy to work cattle. You'll see the cattle we started with, and so my a.i. choices have been made trying to bring the big cattle down some, and the small ones up. We calve in the fall. The bulls I've used are comrade, summit, and Regis on the heifers, and a cleanup bull out of prophet. This past year I used a lot of capitalist on the heifers and on some of the bigger cows, and DV All In on some of the smaller frame cows. And of course a couple straws of shorthorn to keep Dad happy. I'm hoping to get some really nice calves from All In from heifers out of comrade. I'd take any comments on my bull choices. Again I'm not looking for giant calves or cows.
As expected, we culled a couple heifers that didn't get bred, and a couple knot heads. I hate a cow that turns and runs for no dang good reason. I will say that I used comrade on a pretty jumpy nervous cow, and her yearling calf acts like a puppy, she comes running when she sees you. That's great to see DOC in action. Anyway, just thought I'd toss out the breakdown of our operation, because I figure some if you all like hearing stories. I'll add pictures to the thread when I master that function. Again, thanks to all for putting the decades of experience on this site, it's incredible.
Brendan
