New bull and some heifers

[WarEagle73]

The bull I bought in 2014 came home from a neighbors place with screw claw on both back feet, so we went bull shopping. Obviously not the neighbors fault. He kept him in good shape and he brought a good price at the barn today. So here is the new guy:





https://www.angus.org/Animal/EpdPedDtl. ... ndEQ%3d%3d

Maternal oriented. We are looking to expand over the next few years, so this guy combined with AI should let us do that fairly rapidly. I kind of bought him without getting a good look at him. Saw him once for a short period, asked the farm manager about him (who I trust a lot) and came back with a trailer the next week. What do you think? Feel free to blast him or give me your feed back. I'm thick skinned.... Here are a couple of the heifers we kicked him out with:

Probably my favorite. Her dam is outstanding. Full sister is doing great as a young cow. Not much of a looker, but my kind. Moderate framed, super easy fleshing.

 

[wbvs58]

He looks good, plenty of depth and length to him and looks well muscled in HQ and he shows all that being in average condition.
He will be very happy with all those young heifers.
Ken

 

[elkwc]

The bull I bought in 2014 came home from a neighbors place with screw claw on both back feet, so we went bull shopping. Obviously not the neighbors fault. He kept him in good shape and he brought a good price at the barn today. So here is the new guy:





https://www.angus.org/Animal/EpdPedDtl. ... ndEQ%3d%3d

Maternal oriented. We are looking to expand over the next few years, so this guy combined with AI should let us do that fairly rapidly. I kind of bought him without getting a good look at him. Saw him once for a short period, asked the farm manager about him (who I trust a lot) and came back with a trailer the next week. What do you think? Feel free to blast him or give me your feed back. I'm thick skinned.... Here are a couple of the heifers we kicked him out with:

Probably my favorite. Her dam is outstanding. Full sister is doing great as a young cow. Not much of a looker, but my kind. Moderate framed, super easy fleshing.

A nice group. He should mature into a nice bull.

 

[gizmom]

Very nice bull and heifers. I like the pedigree on the bull he should make you a good one.

Gizmom

 

[angus9259]

What causes that screw claw? I had a group of calves out of GDAR Game Day with some bad feet. Is it all genetics or is it mud and lack of walking? Feed type? An injury to the foot? All of the above??

 

[Ebenezer]

What causes that screw claw? I had a group of calves out of GDAR Game Day with some bad feet. Is it all genetics or is it mud and lack of walking? Feed type? An injury to the foot? All of the above??

Genetics. There are reasons that bulls are pictured in catalogs with feet hidden in forage or hay or else the picture stays when they are young. The worst feet I ever had on a heifer/cow was from a proven AI bull.

WarEagle, I like the type of your cattle. We have a bred heifer that is ready to calve, 833, that would be a twin to your favorite. The bull looks like a match in type, too. The only comment that is neither here nor there is about the background behind a bull or cow that is purchased and purely an opinion. I'd prefer to buy an animal whose dam has proven herself with a few calves prior and a little track record. But that is pie in the sky in a lot of cases. Good job.

 

[uplandnut]

Kind of inexperienced with epd's but he is a good looking bull for sure. I like his build.

 

[gizmom]

I do think that your mud is muddy.

gizmom

 

[WarEagle73]

What causes that screw claw? I had a group of calves out of GDAR Game Day with some bad feet. Is it all genetics or is it mud and lack of walking? Feed type? An injury to the foot? All of the above??

Genetics. There are reasons that bulls are pictured in catalogs with feet hidden in forage or hay or else the picture stays when they are young. The worst feet I ever had on a heifer/cow was from a proven AI bull.

WarEagle, I like the type of your cattle. We have a bred heifer that is ready to calve, 833, that would be a twin to your favorite. The bull looks like a match in type, too. The only comment that is neither here nor there is about the background behind a bull or cow that is purchased and purely an opinion. I'd prefer to buy an animal whose dam has proven herself with a few calves prior and a little track record. But that is pie in the sky in a lot of cases. Good job.

Screw claw can be made worse/show up earlier in cattle that are pushed hard on feed. It's also pretty highly heritable(like 40%), so that's why we dumped our bull. He wasn't lame, but I don't want a bull on my farm that I can't keep or sell daughters out of as replacements.

Thanks for the kind comments. I would agree on the bulls out of proven cows comment. Given my preference , I'd like to do that, but I was in a slight bull emergency. Also, I like his dam's pedigree. My last bull I bought from AU was a Mytty In Focus out of the RAY Rita 7446 cow on her top side and, if I am not mistaken, Bismarck is a pretty good cow-maker. He definitely has the EPD's I like (Calving Ease, Moderate Milk, Positive $EN, Good Carcass, and small to moderate MW & MH). So even though she isn't "proven" per se, her genetics are pretty solid in my book.

The bull himself, I wish, was a little better on paper, but I think he is pretty good. Solid phenotype with average numbers. I wish his Milk was a tick higher, but its okay. $EN, CE, BW, WW, Marbling and REA are all fine by me and those are the things I am kind of looking at for a maternal bull. He seems to be a typical OCC bull: great phenotype, average EPD's. Fortunately, I sell cattle not paper.

 

[talltimber]

I like him. I think he favors my young bull, a CC&7 son.

 

[Son of Butch]

The bull I bought in 2014 came home from a neighbors place with screw claw on both back feet, So here is the new guy:


He's 17 months old today.

I like this heifer and 1506 hiding in the other group shot looks like she could be pretty good too.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Good looking group, and bull.
The uniformity is going to be a big money maker in that group.
100 days I'd preg them all, and cut out the open one's.
Should make a nice group.

 

[WarEagle73]

Good looking group, and bull.
The uniformity is going to be a big money maker in that group.
100 days I'd preg them all, and cut out the open one's.
Should make a nice group.

Thats basically the plan. They were all fixed time AIed to Rito 6EM3 and then I had intentions of doing a clean up AI on them 21 days later (hench the patches), but on day 23 I still had not seen the first sign of heat, so we kicked the bull in. It appears 5 out of 11 stuck to the fixed time and he has bred the rest. I think all 13 of them will be bred on either the fixed time AI or within 50 days of that. If they do that, we will be in good shape. Ill try to get some more good pictures of the heifers once they get out of the mud on grass in two weeks.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I like your bull WarEagle. Good luck with him.

 

[Lucky_P]

I've toyed with using OCC Prototype on more than one occasion. You do know that he's a carrier for the DM1 (double-muscling) 'defect', right? Any concerns about that trait, you might need to submit samples from your new boy for testing.

 

[WarEagle73]

I've toyed with using OCC Prototype on more than one occasion. You do know that he's a carrier for the DM1 (double-muscling) 'defect', right? Any concerns about that trait, you might need to submit samples from your new boy for testing.

This bull is a carrier as well. It's going to cause me to have to be more picky in the future, but I intend to AI his daughters to Hereford bulls in the future. If our herd can grow large enough, my ultimate goal is to do a three breed rotation with AI and use terminal Simmental bulls as cleanup. We clearly aren't there yet.

 

[Lucky_P]

You oughta get along fine with him, then. It seems to me that even the 'carriers' of the double-muscling gene seem to have better muscle expression. But that may be imagination...
Will be interesting to see how his calves perform for you.