Meet Hera

[Nesikep]

I think I have my star heifer picked out for the year.. Cenci's calf with Marko as a sire, so a 3/4 sibling mating, 1/2 GV, 1/4 SH, 3/16th Saler... She's a heck of a stout one, WIDE and super meaty over the back, much like both of her parents.. She's bound to become boss cow someday, she's really headstrong, so I'm getting an early start to halterbreaking her

 

[Nesikep]

I have a couple other heifers that are looking promising, one is a Mother-son mating and she's growing exceptionally well, the other is a full-sibling mating and looks to be very nicely built

Pic is a couple weeks old (she's 3 or 4 weeks here)


A little much chrome, but I do like her... 2 weeks old and shows nice meat and width as well.. time will tell

 

[Bright Raven]

I like her. Good idea on starting young. She is as cute as a speckled pup in the spring time.

 

[frieghttrain]

Hera looks like a good one Nesi! Do you think she'll make as good of a cow as Mega?

 

[Nesikep]

Hera looks like a good one Nesi! Do you think she'll make as good of a cow as Mega?

She'll be a different character, but she's good so far.. Mega set the bar pretty high for being good in every aspect, from production and build to character.. Hera may exceed in some parts (probably build, especially if her calves look like her)

Here's Hera's mother Cenci as a weaned calf.. I think Hera will be similar



And Mega as a nearly weaned calf


Mega and Cenci are 3/4 sisters as well, Mega has a Shorthorn grandsire while Cenci has a Saler grandsire.. Hera has some of both, and I think it's getting pretty close to what I consider the perfect breed mix for what I'm trying to do.. combination of meat, milk, and moderate frame

 

[WalnutCrest]

Hi, Hera!

 

[Nesikep]

She says Moo!
The calves got really worked up at play time today, and really love the fresh alfalfa I bring them... Even Kama, nursing 2 calves got all excited and was jumping around bellering

I've finally decided on a name for the chrome heifer pictured, she's Zecca, which is an italian slang for a pest, kinda like the cat you can't get out from between your legs

 

[wbvs58]

Nice calves Nesi. I do like those pictures for the background scenery and a lot of the innovation you use around the place like the hay feeder made out of the logs, the feed trough from the corro iron, your yards just to name a few. I call it using materials that are to hand. In this fast world most people have lost the ability to improvise and think laterally to achieve what is needed.

Ken

 

[Nesikep]

Nice calves Nesi. I do like those pictures for the background scenery and a lot of the innovation you use around the place like the hay feeder made out of the logs, the feed trough from the corro iron, your yards just to name a few. I call it using materials that are to hand. In this fast world most people have lost the ability to improvise and think laterally to achieve what is needed.
Ken

I'm keeping my eye open for a 500 or 1000 gallon propane tank to split in half for a feeder, I think it would work perfectly, be just deep enough they can't root for all the leaves and toss all the stuff they don't like up and trample it into the mud.. I am good at making do with what I have, being fairly remote and especially being poor (or just stingy), I won't buy it if I can make it myself...

Starting to adopt that on bulls too, my 4 best looking heifers are all from the homeraised bull Marko, after this breeding season I'll probably sell the Limo and buy another Gelbvieh, and Marko will be traded for the previous one I raised and sold to a friend... He likes chrome, and he'll get some with him for sure, meanwhile Hector knocks the chrome off nearly anything and is a 3/4 brother.. He's a BIG boy now, so he'll be used on the mature cows while the prospect GV will have heifers his first year... at least that's the plan.. I have to convince both bulls they want to get on my trailer first! I'm quite sure Marko will halter and walk right in though

Yeah, you've probably seen him before.. Hector at 4 years old

 

[frieghttrain]

Why buy a Gelbvieh instead of Salers?

 

[Nesikep]

Why buy a Gelbvieh instead of Salers?

They are hard to find in these parts, and I'm really going to have to go shopping for one.. GV on the other hand I have a breeder who's a half hour from the sale barn and has very nice stock.. I wish I knew where my first one came from.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Nice heifer! She should make a fine cow one day. Love the colour of the one with white marks. I wish we had more calves with white. Guess will need to get Simmy bull or use some BB on some girls in the future.

 

[Nesikep]

Nice heifer! She should make a fine cow one day. Love the colour of the one with white marks. I wish we had more calves with white. Guess will need to get Simmy bull or use some BB on some girls in the future.

Get some Shorthorn for that I do like the way she is growing, and I don't mind some white, it's just that the buyers here don't like it that much

 

[lithuanian farmer]

No good breeders here. Shorthorns which are here couldn't produce as much of meat as we'd like. Wouldn't mind to have some Shorthorn females, but using bull means that we'll loose some profit with his calves. Have seen some serious Shorthorn calves which look like BB, but all from abroad.
Our buyers pays no attention to the colour. Except if you sell BBx calves to abroad they need to have some similarity to the breed.

 

[Nesikep]

your buyers must be smarter than the ones around here.. you can have great calves but if they're spotted you get much less per pound

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Meat factory doesn't care what colour animals you sell. They have their prices for each musclularity and fat grades. Also price changes from the carcass or live weight. And of course dairy cattle have lower prices than beefx or beef. Sometimes can get better price than some others if you sell more animals and better quality.

 

[reeler]

Thanks for introducing Herra & Zecca, gorgeous!