My replacement heifers, and calves

[Nesikep]

Here's what I like as replacement heifers.. not all are perfect.. some look(ed) good and became poor cows, and others exceeded expectations..

Here's Rosie, with daughter Cenci (closest to her) and thieving granddaughter Chroma... Cenci was born late, so I left her on the cow a little longer


Cenci



Here they are now 4 years old with their 3rd calves, and both are top notch.


Cenci today


And her steer this year


And from 2 years ago.. going into the freezer soon.. YUM

 

[Nesikep]

Chroma today


And her steer.. I think he's the heaviest of the bunch,.. A pretty good performance for a smaller cow.. I like Cenci's #99 better for looks.. this guy has some bug-eye (He got named Buggy for it)


Roma, full sister to Cenci, has been disappointing.. she isn't performing as well as any of her sisters.. I'll keep her until I don't have more important ones to cull


Kama, another full sister, a first timer (Rosie's 16th and last calf), has been working pretty hard.. she got a bit of a funny tailhead, but she might stick around a while


And Kama's calf.. a nice looking guy.. got a lot of his looks from daddy

 

[Nesikep]

Teddy, the bull calf.. maternal brother to Chroma.. so far so good


Soho's calf.. a nice looking heifer, but may have some serious attitude problems I don't know if I'll be able to adjust.. SUPER pushy and strong willed... should make a good cow, even if it isn't on my place


Volta's calf.. she looked SO GOOD when I turned them out and she looks SO AVERAGE now... the jury is out on her, but unless something really changes she's not going to make the grade


Tifa, 1 of the replacements from last year.. I think she could look a little heftier, but she's built decently... easy to work with, and if she can do what her momma does, she's got a place here


Bouncy, the other replacement heifer.. I find she's pinched off at the waist... Not my ideal,.. her sisters were failures, but as the daughter of my dad's pet I gotta try again... hopefully she behaves

 

[Nesikep]

Mega and her first timer daughter Sofa.. Sofa could be producing a little more, but she's a TINY little cow.. Inherited momma's belly though


Tera, Mega's daughter this year.. she was set back a little from some persistent scours, but she's still among the biggest heifers..


She's got a good arse on her too


And she loves chin (or any other) scratching.. LOVES saskatoon berries! Yes, she's a spoiled brat.. but she's the most docile thing around


Another calf I really am liking... 7/8th sister to Tera, (Different maternal great-grandma, all the same sires)..




Her momma

 

[Nesikep]

And here's the stragglers..
The mother of this one is the mother of the cow pictured above






Prada.. caught up by about 5 or 6 weeks.. she's just about to pop now.. she had a pretty darned good looking heifer last year.. the jury is out on her.. if she catches up well and raises good calves (she's Chroma's full sister), I might let her stick around a while


The cow that was spitting her food out.. she's got a really nice heifer.. I was thinking of getting rid of that line (the mother's sire), but she might still make the grade.. she is nice, and she's got a decent attitude too

 

[Putangitangi]

The thing I primarily notice when I look at a bunch of someone else's cattle, particularly if they've been breeding their own herd for a long time, is that we all get a particular "look" which is often different from that of someone else's herd. Your cattle all look (to me, because I'm used to my cows' shapes) as though they're a bit short between hip/hook and where the tail leaves the body (there's no doubt a tech term for that bit, but it's that length that strikes me), or it may be just a function of the slope from hook to pin? When I visited Waihou's lovely MG herd a few years ago, I was struck by a different shape of the rear ends of her cows, because they rounded off a bit more over the tail than mine did. It was quite fascinating to notice those differences and know that each herd works well in its own setting and we're all making a living from our different cattle.

The other thing I really noticed between my cattle and Waihou's, was that while her cattle eat a high-quality grass diet, mine are on subtropical high-fibre grass which takes a lot longer to go through the cows' systems and so my cattle are always hugely wider in the belly than hers were. It took me a while to work out what had caused the difference I noticed.

Now I'll have to put my pictures up, wont' I! Last time I tried that I got roundly dumped on, but I guess I'm braver now.

 

[Nesikep]

I don't mind getting crap for my stock... it helps me get better at judging it... pictures are never perfect.. I try and take pictures of the animal that do it justice without hiding anything... unlike bull catalogs that show them in a foot of straw so they all look like barrels.

It seems that my calves often have that nice round butt, but they lose it as they age... Cenci would be one that hasn't lost as much as others

Here's some old pics..
Prada when she was a calf


Chroma as a yearling


And Roma as a calf.. she looked prettier back then.. a lot of us can say that about ourselves too though


And here's a walkaround of Marko the home raised bull on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qui4jEe9I1I
if it works embedded...
[youtube]Qui4jEe9I1I[/youtube]

 

[KNERSIE]

Have you got daughters of your limousin bull in production yet? If so how are they doing?

 

[Nesikep]

Nope, not yet.. the calves you see here are the first calves from him.. yeah.. it takes darned well forever!... we've had him for a year and a half, and it'll be another 2 years before we know what the daughters can do *sigh*

 

[KNERSIE]

I thought you had him longer, I believe a limousin bull is great for terminal calves, but I don't want half limousin replacements. It would be interesting how much the Gelbvieh can offset the Limousin influence.

 

[WalnutCrest]

I thought you had him longer, I believe a limousin bull is great for terminal calves, but I don't want half limousin replacements. It would be interesting how much the Gelbvieh can offset the Limousin influence.

Is that because of they are typically later-maturing?

 

[Nesikep]

I do tend to like the Limo calves that have a quarter Gelbvieh better than the ones that have more shorthorn, but both could be good... in the pictures, Calves # 5X and 7X have no Gelbvieh, but look like fine animals, while #8X does, and shows it too.. I think the SH x Limo will make a nice, but pretty big cow.. not really my goal.

 

[KNERSIE]

I thought you had him longer, I believe a limousin bull is great for terminal calves, but I don't want half limousin replacements. It would be interesting how much the Gelbvieh can offset the Limousin influence.

Is that because of they are typically later-maturing?

Not so much that as they tend to not quite have teh maternal quality I want in a cowherd, typically they're not as fertile aand don't quite milk like the more maternal breeds, they also tend to be a little more high strung, when it comes to siring calves for the feedlot only charolais give them a run for their money, but limousin is usually a safer bet for calving ease

 

[Nesikep]

For docility, these limos we have are REALLY good.. a lot like the Gelbvieh.

There's all sorts of measures of fertility.. which one is the Limo poor at? late coming into heat as heifers or after calving? Just don't stick?

I think the calves from this Limo bull will have a bit better udder formation than the Gelbvieh... He was good for the udder suspension, just not for the teats.. a bunch had extra teats, and not always functional or evenly spaced like Mega's set of 6, even from good lines that usually had great bags

 

[KNERSIE]

inter calving period

 

[Nesikep]

It'll take me a while to figure out how they do in that case... I think I'm only going to keep this bull for 1 more season before I look for a Saler again.. he'll still be worth something.

 

[Nesikep]

And I got another calf today.. Prada had a bull calf.. since it was over 100F, he dried off darned quick... Alma, the cow that had the late heifer calf ABSOLUTELY wanted to steal this one, and since Prada is younger and not bossy, I had a bit of a time getting them separated out, but they're all good now...

So this year ALL Rosie's 4 daughters and 2 grand daughters had bull calves.. My count is now 15 bulls and 11 heifers

 

[TexasBred]

Nesi I would almost pay you just to let me hang out up there in that beautiful country. :nod:

 

[M-5]

Nesi I would almost pay you just to let me hang out up there in that beautiful country. :nod:

Better yet If you let me hang out Ill bring a 4' level and see if we could straighten out some of the fences and gates

 

[Nesikep]

You make a pretty convincing argument.. but what's with this "we" thing?