Maine Anjou heifers and cow

[houstoncutter]

JW, she looks good, but I would be concerned that she is late in the calving cycle. You posted July 12 of last year that she was with the bull and you didn't get a calf till August. That is a sign of a hard keeper. Hopefully she will catch up and breed on the fall equinox , otherwise you have a hard keeper that will continue to slip on months being bred. Best of luck with her.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I think that she looks good JW. The first pictures in the thread are no longer available, so I haven't seen what the others saw last year. :???:

 

[JWBrahman]

Houston she didn't get bred until it cooled off enough for the bull. We cannot get any bull to work in the summer unless he is an F1. It can be in the 90's with a feel like temp of 115 on any August day.

Ideally you want em on a tight schedule but the reality of our conditions are a limiting factor. I'm not one of the big boys who can rotate out 50 heifers because they didn't get bred in the hottest part of the summer. My input costs are very low so the cost of her not getting bred until the temps moderated was minimal compared to the gain of a replacement heifer with a good milk machine.

Heck, if we could get the British and Continentals to work year round we wouldn't need Brahman.lol

Thanks for the kind words, too. I'm starting to think the puppy dog gentle ones are worth two meaner than piss Brahman.

BCG the mom had her rear end cocked up the way some cows do if they have had a hand in the rectum a few times and likes it. That old cow had been flushed more than once and you could probably Azi het in the pasture no problem. Heck, she even pooped as a courtesy in anticipation. Yep

 

[houstoncutter]

JW, take the blinders off. In the past I have ran Limi, Angus,and Gelbvieh bulls inthe river bottoms here on the Texas coastlines. You rotate those bulls out on a monthly basis if not sooner but they will breed. It's a matter of wether the cow is receptive .

If you are going to run those bulls year round you might want to consider drop em in around the spring and fall equinox 's. That will tighten your breeding cycles up.

Cattle that are run year on bulls will all tighten their breeding cycles up to those 2 events. Like what you have done with your herd since you first joined. Don't get sidetracked , nothing is going to beat a F1 Braford or Brangus covered with a continental bull in our climate. A Brahmaine cross make a nice cow, but are you going to have the quality of grass to handle that type of animal?

 

[JWBrahman]

Houston I appreciate your input. With all due respect, and I don't mean it in a pecker waving tone, you are a fellow on a discussion group. I gotta go with what I see everyday. Last summer our young Char bulls (that make the one at Ekka look like a chump) did not get everything bred from January to November. End of November the Hereford cleaned up and we are calving white faced calves now. Fella next to me probably runs a few thousand head. Never noticed him getting everything bred on time, either.

What you are saying sounds great. Wish I could find the cattle you are talking about in our area at a reasonable price, too. If I was your neighbor for the past few decades and saw you practicing what you preach that would be a completely different discussion. And I am a sucker for photos of good looking cattle you may wanna share.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Don't know anything about Maine cattle, are they slow maturing? If she's a hard keeper it will tell off before long those type come apart like a Chinese watch after the first calf...that small calf probably won't be to demanding for awhile...

 

[houstoncutter]

JW, check out Triple Son Farms in Cut Off Louisiana . The last ten years I was in business before the drought I bought most of my replacements there. They ain't cheap but they are top shelf cattle that will work in the middle of August .

 

[houstoncutter]

Also if you had cattle that didn't settle and that weren't riding each other on a regular basis, you sure you don't have some reproductive diseases?