Keeper heifers

[Ky hills]

Weaned and worked second round of vaccinations for fall calves.
These 3 heifers are tentatively going to be retained.
The two red ones are sired by a Simmental bull. Roan one born October 2, 2024 is 1/2 Simmental,1/4 Angus, 1/8 Hereford, 1/8 Shorthorn.
Hereford marked born October 3, 2024 one is 1/2 Simmental, 1/2 Hereford
Black heifer born November 2, 2024 is 25% Simmental, 62.5 Angus, 12.5 Hereford.
These red calves by the Simmental bull seem to have pretty good growth and thickness
Interested to see what kind of calves they would have by another Simmental for their second calves, will breed them to an Angus the first time.

 

[ClinchValley86]

I'd keep them, too! Nice ones.

 

[BFE]

It's a shame the roan gets docked so hard, they sure are pretty.

Not a fan of shorthorn attitude, they aren't mean but pretty witchy in my experience, but they make a good cow if you keep the udders under control.

 

[Ky hills]

It's a shame the roan gets docked so hard, they sure are pretty.

Not a fan of shorthorn attitude, they aren't mean but pretty witchy in my experience, but they make a good cow if you keep the udders under control.

Yeah, Shorthorns have a good reputation of being good calf raising cows, but they get docked something awful.
This one only has a very small percentage of Shorthorn in her.
I bought her grandmother as a heifer, she was 1/2 Hereford 1/2 Shorthorn.
This calf's mother is by an Angus bull and the above mentioned 1/2 Shorthorn cow.
She is almost solid black except for a little white spot on top of her tail head, some white on her belly and a few white hairs light a slight roan look on her face. Her udder is white with black teats.
She had some very conservative marked Hereford calves that looked just like a red baldy, that's what I was expecting from the rwf Simmental bull, was surprised to this calf when she first had it.
I'm hoping that this heifer will have a solid black calf by an Angus bull, if not I really wouldn't mind a blue roan as long as it was a heifer.

 

[Lucky_P]

I like the roan and the Hereford-pattern heifer. The black one... meh.

Our herd was predominantly SimAngus. We used several solid red Shorthorn AI sires over about an 8 year period. The Shorthorn-cross heifers made great cows, and their steer counterparts were some of the best we ever raised. Never had any disposition issues that were more prevalent with some of the Angus-sired cows.
We did a progeny-test breeding trial for a big commercially-oriented Shorthorn outfit out of Indiana (Waukaru), back around 2015, comparing one of their hot new home-bred sires and another that we'd used heavily in the past. They bought the steers and entered them in a feed-out trial of about 250 Shorthorn, Angus, and SimAngus calves. All 8 of our steers placed in the top 20. One was the top steer for ADG, WDA, % Retail Product, REA/wt., total profitability. Graded Choice +.
I'm convinced that folks are missing out on a very profitable cross-breeding opportunity - particularly if you have black cows - by not using Shorthorns. That said... you have to pick the right 'kind' of Shorthorns... there are, essentially, two worlds of Shorthorns(well, three, if you include Milking Shorthorn) - the most visible are the showring types, bred for big bone, big hair, big birthweights, and often, lots of 'color'; we avoided those like the plague. But there are some herds/programs that are more focused on commercially-important traits, such as reasonable calving ease, good growth (WW/YW), carcass quality, moderate milk, etc.

 

[Ky hills]

I like the roan and the Hereford-pattern heifer. The black one... meh.

Our herd was predominantly SimAngus. We used several solid red Shorthorn AI sires over about an 8 year period. The Shorthorn-cross heifers made great cows, and their steer counterparts were some of the best we ever raised. Never had any disposition issues that were more prevalent with some of the Angus-sired cows.
We did a progeny-test breeding trial for a big commercially-oriented Shorthorn outfit out of Indiana (Waukaru), back around 2015, comparing one of their hot new home-bred sires and another that we'd used heavily in the past. They bought the steers and entered them in a feed-out trial of about 250 Shorthorn, Angus, and SimAngus calves. All 8 of our steers placed in the top 20. One was the top steer for ADG, WDA, % Retail Product, REA/wt., total profitability. Graded Choice +.
I'm convinced that folks are missing out on a very profitable cross-breeding opportunity - particularly if you have black cows - by not using Shorthorns. That said... you have to pick the right 'kind' of Shorthorns... there are, essentially, two worlds of Shorthorns(well, three, if you include Milking Shorthorn) - the most visible are the showring types, bred for big bone, big hair, big birthweights, and often, lots of 'color'; we avoided those like the plague. But there are some herds/programs that are more focused on commercially-important traits, such as reasonable calving ease, good growth (WW/YW), carcass quality, moderate milk, etc.

I agree with your assessment of the black heifer. She doesn't impress me either., she's the main reason I said tentatively for.
She is by a calving ease bull that sired extremely light BW calves and they grow accordingly.
We had fall calves by both the bigger Simmental and the CE bull and there's a world of difference between them. There's 3 other heifers that definitely are not keepers and the other black one may end up joining them on the trailer with the steers.
We've culled down to very low numbers over the last few years with 3 more needing to go to town now that their calves are weaned and that's why we kind of threw her in the mix to keep back to make for 3 more.