Never underestimate genetics adapted to your environment

[KNERSIE]

35% of the bulls retained this year was sired by my homebred clean up bulls, all but one of them out of homebred cows. I use the very best AI genetics I can find and don't save on semen, yet the clean up bulls have almost consistantly sired the better bullcalves in a year where I was short on the quantity of bullcalves of the quality I want. There was no experimentation on my part and the AI sired calves are out of bulls that has proved themselves already at my place.

Here is an 8 month old bullcalf about to be weaned that is 100% my own breeding, grass and milk only.

 

[novatech]

Very nice knersie. Making the right choices and building up to this has just got to make you awfully proud. Just wondering how long did it take to get to this point. Using your own genetics producing this kind of quality doesn't happen overnight.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Really nice bull calf.
I don't know how your cattle "stack up" to other breeders in SA, but you have some of the best Hereford cattle (overall) that I see. I love the thickness, volume, structure & overall easy keeping look they have.
Hubby pointed out a bull calf the other day, and said I should take a pic & post for you to see because he has great "bull look" to him - even has the developed "eye brow" area (not sure what you call it!).
There is a lot of benefit to fitting your cattle to your environment. Lots of people need to learn that.

 

[cmf1]

I've been considering going AI because of my small herd.
So as is my nature I've been asking all kinds of people all kinds of ignorant questions regarding pros and cons.
A gentleman that I have talked with that has been involved in ET and AI for many years offered me a bit of his wisdom on the matter.

AI can take you very far in developing the kind of animals you seek, but cannot completely replace live cover because of the incredible amount of genetic information that passes along with semen during live cover.

So in my mind what he was saying is that if you have a long way to go AI is a quick ticket to close to the finish, but that there are missing bytes and bits of information that only live cover can give you.

Does this make sense to you?
You're obviously close to where you want to be and with what you said about your own bulls producing what you want, do you think it's possibly biological as well as environmental from here?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

cmf - IMHO - until you have a herd that is capable to produce bulls that are national or AI quality, than AI will improve your genetics faster and better than any cleanup bull, unless you are buying national quality cleanup bulls. After all, an AI bull is simply a bull that has recognition (sometimes good & sometimes not).
Natural coverage does not transmit any "better" genes than an AI bull. Whether the sperm is live or frozen, it's only as good as the producer of the sperm.
In Kernsie's case, he is producing national quality bulls IN HIS ENVIRONMENT, so using his homegrown bull is giving him calves better suited for his environment than what he is finding available thru AI. Not saying that there aren't AI bulls available that may be even better for his environment, but none that he has found. I'm using Knersie's herd, but I'm not trying to speak for him - just making a point.

 

[dun]

A gentleman that I have talked with that has been involved in ET and AI for many years offered me a bit of his wisdom on the matter.

AI can take you very far in developing the kind of animals you seek, but cannot completely replace live cover because of the incredible amount of genetic information that passes along with semen during live cover.

Did you walk lopsided after he told you that? If he actually knows the subject he had to be pulling your leg

 

[KNERSIE]

I've been considering going AI because of my small herd.
So as is my nature I've been asking all kinds of people all kinds of ignorant questions regarding pros and cons.
A gentleman that I have talked with that has been involved in ET and AI for many years offered me a bit of his wisdom on the matter.

AI can take you very far in developing the kind of animals you seek, but cannot completely replace live cover because of the incredible amount of genetic information that passes along with semen during live cover.

So in my mind what he was saying is that if you have a long way to go AI is a quick ticket to close to the finish, but that there are missing bytes and bits of information that only live cover can give you.

Does this make sense to you?
You're obviously close to where you want to be and with what you said about your own bulls producing what you want, do you think it's possibly biological as well as environmental from here?

The reason why I decided to go the registered route is simply because bulls of the quality I needed was out of my price range. What I also didn't state pertinently was that I used various AI bulls with an even greater variety of success and with many more misses than hits before I even learnt what it was that I actually needed in a bull. I could not do this without AI, infact there were quite a few years that I used 100% before I produced bulls that I was confident to use as clean up sires, but as soon as I started using my own bulls I was surprised at how well the calves sired by the clean up bulls compared to those sired by AI bulls.

The environmental factor comes from the cow that is adapted to your conditions that produced a bull that performed above the level of his peers because his dam is adapted and because he is adapted to your conditions, whether the semen was fresh or frozen makes no difference.

 

[showing71]

Nice bull Knersie. We've found the same thing with some of our herd sires, of the bulls we kept back this year to sell out of one of our breeds, 90% of them are out of our herd sire and the other 10% are out of AI sires and all of them came out of cows we bred.

 

[rocket2222]

Looks like you should be selling semen on your bulls instead of buying someone elses. :nod:

 

[Hereford76]

that is a good looking calf - he has a beautiful head on him. you just don't see that in many herefords these days. he has more distance between his eyes than anything i've seen in awhile. that picture makes me want to try him - post another picture of him after his first daughters breed back along with their production records and pics of their udders. nice calf knersie! got a picture of his mamma before you wean that rascle

 

[KNERSIE]

that is a good looking calf - he has a beautiful head on him. you just don't see that in many herefords these days. he has more distance between his eyes than anything i've seen in awhile.

His head is definately his best feature and very close to my ideal in heads. I also like to stick with the oldtime ratio of distance between the eyes must be equal to distance from eye level to muzzle must be equal to distance from eye level to poll.

that picture makes me want to try him - post another picture of him after his first daughters breed back along with their production records and pics of their udders.

I have a better halfbrother that is currently on test, so this guy is destined to be sold to one of my better commercial clients who's current herdsire is a halfbrother to 65% of the bulls that I've kept intact this year. The upside is that I know the herd's health status, he'll be treated well, fed well, I have a good working relationship with the client and he'll be close enough to keep an eye on in case I want to buy him back or collect semen on him.

nice calf knersie! got a picture of his mamma before you wean that rascle

Thanks, I'll try and get a pic of him and his dam today or tomorrow, she is a very moderate cow with a very good udder that put a lot of herself into her calf while she's nursing him.