line breeding

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Bez
 
I don't think saving bulls from linebreeding works very well. But heifers if they are good will add consistantsy to your cow herd. I wouldn't linebreed any linebred cows.
 
Angus Guy":1u7ur4wy said:
I don't think saving bulls from linebreeding works very well. But heifers if they are good will add consistantsy to your cow herd. I wouldn't linebreed any linebred cows.



No offense, but speak for Angus. Ever heard of Line One Hereford bulls? The problem is most don't know how to line-breed. You have to cull the trash out until it is gone to oversimplify it.
 
No offense taken, I'm sure there are some that work. It's just that I haven't heard of to many.
 
Spoke to an OSU grad today. He's shown many a champion Angus while in FFA. He said one of the good things about Herefords are that they do have several linebred bloodlines, and that is what the commercial cowman needs in a bull. There are several well-respected Hereford bloodlines that are line-bred, but Line Ones are the most well known. Cooper and Holden of Montana rank high in the sale averages year in and year out. They are probably the two best-known Line One breeders.
 
greenwillowherefords":2obbosb1 said:
Spoke to an OSU grad today. He's shown many a champion Angus while in FFA. He said one of the good things about Herefords are that they do have several linebred bloodlines, and that is what the commercial cowman needs in a bull. There are several well-respected Hereford bloodlines that are line-bred, but Line Ones are the most well known. Cooper and Holden of Montana rank high in the sale averages year in and year out. They are probably the two best-known Line One breeders.

The problem with line breeding is the average person is simply an amateur - hoping for the best.

I happen to fall within that category - so I stay away from it as often as possible.

Takes some serious study and some serious knowledge to be truly successful at this type of program in my opinion.

Bez
 
Bez":3fs3tgvr said:
greenwillowherefords":3fs3tgvr said:
Spoke to an OSU grad today. He's shown many a champion Angus while in FFA. He said one of the good things about Herefords are that they do have several linebred bloodlines, and that is what the commercial cowman needs in a bull. There are several well-respected Hereford bloodlines that are line-bred, but Line Ones are the most well known. Cooper and Holden of Montana rank high in the sale averages year in and year out. They are probably the two best-known Line One breeders.

The problem with line breeding is the average person is simply an amateur - hoping for the best.

I happen to fall within that category - so I stay away from it as often as possible.

Takes some serious study and some serious knowledge to be truly successful at this type of program in my opinion.

Bez

I'll sure go along with that! It's kind of if you have to ask you shouldn;t be doing it or thinking about doing it

dun
 
As others have said, you must either know what you are doing or be under the tutelage of someone who has made his living doing it for years. But if you are not going to linebreed, by all means take advantage of the lines already available. The Line One Herefords have already been mentioned. There are others and there are different lines in most major breeds to use. The advantages are consistency and concentration of the genes, providing a sort of hybrid vigor when bred to a different line within the same breed.

For example, Breeding a Line One hereford bull to a set of linebred Victor polled hereford cows yields a high performing set of calves that can be registered as purebred Herefords, but that have a hybrid "kick" from the crossing of the two lines. This is also very valuable for those who like to run straightbred commercial herds, as the females benefit from maternal hybrid vigor as well as heifers are retained for replacements. It does not provide as much hybrid vigor as crossbreeding, but it makes a difference.

Linebreeding can also be thanked for ridding the various breeds of bad genes such as dwarfism. It definitely has its place in the cattle industry.
 
As I've said in earlier posts, we are doing a good bit of line breeding and so far have had good results. Not claiming to be an expert at it but I'm not afraid to do it. We are using bulls back on their nieces, breeding cousins etc. Only once, this past year did I breed a son to mother and I'm extremely pleased with the heifer that I got-she will be bred to an entirely unrelated line and I'm expecting good things from this planned mating. Of course I'm breeding Longhorns and I know this is a breed alot of people don't take seriously but I do, I have a really growthy young bull that also has a great set of big based horns that I'll breed this gal to. She's a good bodied heifer that is also developing a nice set of horns. I'm working toward the total package, horn and conformation. I worry about color last, that's not hard to get.
 
If you want to know about line-breeding, there is only one guy that comes to mine. Jim O'Neil. His linebred Angus cattle had him as close to the top as a fellow can get in their respective breed. I don't know how well known he was, but he was doing awfully well in Denver, and O'Neils Renovator was a very popular bull down under. He used some great bulls of the breed, and was a part owner in Premier Independence. I believe he is in Logan, IA if you wanted to contact him for info about linebreeding. The man knows his Angus pedigrees, which no doubt contributed greatly to his success.

The two cents I will throw in is that in time identified genes are going to play a bigger and bigger role in this industry. If you linebred to a bull that has them, your sitting pretty. But if you linebred to a bull that didn't, you have a whole line with a big hole in it. You can breed genes out (dwarfism like mentioned, but also desirable ones) just like you breed them in. O'Neil is kind of getting back in the business since some of his old herd tested out pretty good with the new GeneStar testing.
 

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