Need help from Hereford guys

[Herefords.US]

I agree with ya George. So are your bulls throwing 90-100lb calves most generally? If so, I'm not too worried. I had that last year with some of the calves. ITs the 100+#'s

I've only had a couple of calves that would have weighed over 90# in 10 years. When I've told that to certain "learned" breeders, they insist that it's my "management" and my environment that's causing my calves to be as light as they are. It's hard to argue with that logic - as I'm sure if they were in a colder climate and their dams were waddling fat, the calves would have been larger.

George

 

[SRBeef]

...get a type that you want fixed in your mind, don't vary very much from that type, and concentrate heavily on the cow side of the equation...

This is about the best advice I've come across here. Same as in design work - get a picture in your head of what you want the end product to look like and work towards that.

I was out checking on my bred cow-heifer group yesterday. I am really pushing them to "clean their (hay) plate" before putting out more. I want to see the ground in the hay rings before I put out more. I have been trying to stretch my hay supply which may or may not be sufficient to get to spring grazing.

I took this picture of one of my raised 3-yr old cows, aggressively digging down in one of my standard hay rings. This young commercial cow (on the right) is very close to my mental picture of the type of cows I am trying to create.

It is surprising to me though how long it take to see if heifers, especially, are going to develop. I don't know that it is possible to pick out a good future cow just by looking at a heifer calf.

Here is a picture of one of my few registered heifers. This number 13 is a bred heifer out of the Huth Stacked Deck bull. She has really come around.

13 is in the foreground. Number 9 behind her is a commercial bred heifer and not bad herself.

I am just not sure there is a quick way to buy a herd of good cows of a certain type, almost regardless of how much money you spend. jmho.

Jim

 

[JHH]

13 is in the foreground. Number 9 behind her is a commercial bred heifer and not bad herself.

Like the #9 dont know if the 13 will do what you want her to do Jim. If she does then thats all you can ask for. Still green grass ? ours is all but gone.

 

[SRBeef]

13 is in the foreground. Number 9 behind her is a commercial bred heifer and not bad herself.

Like the #9 dont know if the 13 will do what you want her to do Jim. If she does then thats all you can ask for. Still green grass ? ours is all but gone.

I don't know either. We'll know a lot more after she calves for the first time. I do see her changing a lot from what she looked like at her weaning. She bred on first cycle and seems to be stretching out a bit longer. She has a very good disposition. She looks a little higher in back in the photo mostly because of the way she is standing on the hill.

It is 18 degrees F outside as I type this. Grass has long since stopped growing but they have been grazing anything green they can get to. I spread AMS in September on a number of different pastures which seems to have kept things green and growing a bit longer than usual.

The AMS was spread to hopefully give me a jump start on grazing in the spring as it did this year on a small test patch. Regardless of winter weather, I am going to be very short of hay in the spring. Normal start of grazing is May 1. I need greenup as much as possible before that.

I suspect good beef hay may be $200+ a ton by then if I need to buy some more. Fertilizer will pay for itself if it can get me some grazing a few weeks earlier. Latest WI, MN, UP long range forecast is for a colder than usual winter with normal snowfall. We'll see.

all the best.

Jim

PS I do agree with you on #13 - she is not my best. My point was she has changed a lot from when she was weaned as have a number of others. I am not sure you can really tell for sure what sort of cow a heifer calf will make until she has her first calf at least.

Having said that though, I have another heifer same age as 13, my #10, who there is absolutely no doubt she will be a standout cow - long, low, moderate weight, slicks up, ... but I controlled the genetics on both sides of #10.