Keep or cull?

[Davemk]

I'm in South Texas. The bull lined up to run with my heifers is a black angus. My heifers were wormed about a month ago and have hay, pasture (which is already green and growing) and protein tubs and loose minerals. Does sound like I should trust my instincts and cull.

No way would I sell her. You will not get anything for her at the sale barn. Her black angus calf will pay for her in a year.

 

[Warren Allison]

I never tried it, but was considering it about 20 years ago. Roping steers were costing as much as beef calves and I figured I could run 3 corriente cows per 2 beef cows. I was in to team roping back then too, but that has all gone by the wayside. Went Angus instead. I don't have any idea what roping stock is bringing these days, but price used to correlate somewhat with beef cattle prices.

Back in the 70's when only steers could be imported, and team roping was hot, roping steers were about $450 each. One the 80'sw hit and you could import bulls and cows, and people started breeding them here, they got cheaper. Lots of times in any of the last 4 decades, you could buy roping steers for as little as $250. In the 90's, when team penning became the hot ticket in the us, and they started USTRA numbered ropings etc., and it got to where you had to have better, rodeo- quality, high-dollar horses to team rope. I started breeding half of my 300 head Criolo herd to Angus or Brangus. These were ideal calves for penning/sorting. Uniform size and color, and very fast with a lot of endurance. Of course, a lot of people quit breeding pb Corrs once they got to $250, so there just aren't as many as there was in the 80's and 90's. Right now, we are getting $350-$375 for fresh steers ready to rope. These are going to be yearlings or older. But, you can breed the Corr cow to a brangus or angus bulls, and wean a 500 lb calf at 6 mos, that will bring what any other black, polled Angus cross calf is bringing that day.