Tnfarmboy67, I really don’t know if they stopped I know they made a delivery in Louisiana, but don’t know if they unloaded or not.
Named’em Tamed’em , thanks for the compliment on our program but from the sounds of it you have a pretty good program going for yourself. We have used New Day in our program for years and he has done us a lot of good. I have been thinking of using the Absolute bull for a couple of years just haven’t seen any of his progeny so haven’t done it. When Travis asked about breeding he gave us a list of heifer bulls he had in the tank, since he had the Absolute bull we decided to give him a try. I sure like his genetics. If the heifers didn’t stick they should recycle tomorrow or Wednesday, I hope they stuck. We have a few Priority calves on the ground they look pretty good, time will tell.
Ebenezer
Good point on sourcing cattle from different climates. We have had pretty good success doing it, it is best to bring them in the winter. This gives them chance to acclimate a bit before the summer hits them. Younger cattle adapt faster than older ones. We purchased a cow from Bill Rishel back in 2000 she was a five year old cow. It took her about a year to acclimate but she did and worked out very well for us. We purchased a yearling bull out of the Sinclair program back in February 2010 since we have a fall breeding program we got him here in March and put him to work the following December. He worked out just fine we have a bunch of his daughters working in the herd so we did not see any issues with bringing this bull into our climate.
The bull calves that didn’t work out for us are Sinclair Rito 3R9 X N Bar Clova Pride F2839 the heifer mates to these bulls look really good and will probably make nice cows. The two bull calves will make nice hamburger. These calves were ET calves no excuses for needing to acclimate they were born here. Some mating just don’t work and unfortunately this one didn’t at least as far as being a bull maker goes. Time will tell on the heifers, I know I will have to breed them to a bull with performance but I still think they have the potential to make some good cows.
The other two ET bull calves out of the Sinclair program have more performance than the two 3R9 X F2839 calves. They are out of N Bar Primrose Y3051 X Finks 5522-6148. I plan to use the B35 bull for clean up on heifers, I would imagine the heifers out of this young bull will make some great cows, I just can’t throw those good maternal genetics away. The calf finished the Florida Bull Test with an index of 89 he has a CED of +6 EN of 13.82 he is out of a cow that is known for making bulls. All of the heifers have been AI’d so it isn’t like I will be breeding all of them to this bull, but I do want a sample of calves out of him to see how they develop.
As far as what I expect from the new cattle, nothing more than I expect from the ones we breed here at the farm. The two yearling heifers should have no problem settling in, the cow is going to be held open for a year and flushed so she will go through her first summer open. The plan right now is to flush her in March and April then again next December and January then get her back in calf.
I personally think a good cow is a good cow no matter her geographic location. If she is good in Florida she is going to be good in Montana. I do think we have to look at hair coat in Florida we need cattle that will slick off for the summer
gizmom
