Not perfect cows

[ANAZAZI]

Got one cow with a crooked toe, one with a dragging bag, and another with 3 teats. All three raise good calves and breed back which obviously helps my bottom line. Since I have the grass I keep them as replacements are high.

However, if I'm trying to improve my herd I have always thought I should cull any cow that I wouldn't keep a heifer out of. Any thoughts on this?

Good thought.

 

[skyhightree1]

Got one cow with a crooked toe, one with a dragging bag, and another with 3 teats. All three raise good calves and breed back which obviously helps my bottom line. Since I have the grass I keep them as replacements are high.

However, if I'm trying to improve my herd I have always thought I should cull any cow that I wouldn't keep a heifer out of. Any thoughts on this?

Always remember there is 2 bovines that go into the equation of the heifer you may keep. The cow is just one. I retain darn near every heifer a good 99% to see how they turn out. I give them a fair chance to see how they perform. I had a cow that was really thin and branguscowgirl teased me and I cried everyday at the thought of her poking fun.. :cry2: well not really :lol2: but her daughter has had a calf she did not loose conditioning and the calf is growing great. IMO I give everything a chance I have enough hay and pasture to see how they turn out. If I sell heifers its cause I am where I want to be # wise not because of her mama.

 

[M5farm]

I got a sway back cow I got last year. she a hard doer but has raised 2 fine calves for me. this years calf is a heifer and I noticed the other day she has the same characteristics as her dam just not as bad of sway back. conventional wisdom says she is not a keeper because of that trait. My question is as long as you don't build the entire herd off of that will a couple of generations be that bad.

 

[goddy]

As my Dad used to say - he knew a guy bred the perfect cow ( or bull or sheep or pig ) but it was just a bit small

 

[jedstivers]

Got one cow with a crooked toe, one with a dragging bag, and another with 3 teats. All three raise good calves and breed back which obviously helps my bottom line. Since I have the grass I keep them as replacements are high.

However, if I'm trying to improve my herd I have always thought I should cull any cow that I wouldn't keep a heifer out of. Any thoughts on this?

In the last few years since the cow herd got so small and calf prices started getting so high I didn't cull anything that would raise a live calf. She was paid for and put a live calf on the trailer I didn't care it it wasn't the top 10% best. It made money.
Old saying, "don't get mad at your money".
When times change I'll change, that's where a large percentage of cattle producers fall short. They stay with whatever program they are doing and don't watch for the signs to change with the market.

 

[kenny thomas]

Got one cow with a crooked toe, one with a dragging bag, and another with 3 teats. All three raise good calves and breed back which obviously helps my bottom line. Since I have the grass I keep them as replacements are high.

However, if I'm trying to improve my herd I have always thought I should cull any cow that I wouldn't keep a heifer out of. Any thoughts on this?

In the last few years since the cow herd got so small and calf prices started getting so high I didn't cull anything that would raise a live calf. She was paid for and put a live calf on the trailer I didn't care it it wasn't the top 10% best. It made money.
Old saying, "don't get mad at your money".
When times change I'll change, that's where a large percentage of cattle producers fall short. They stay with whatever program they are doing and don't watch for the signs to change with the market.

Good point Jed. Cows that once barely paid their way are making a good profit now. Feed costs are down and fuel cost are down so a cow that maybe once would have been culled is kept now. I know I do. One problem here is there are few cows to buy and I dont raise my own.

 

[regolith]

Got one cow with a crooked toe, one with a dragging bag, and another with 3 teats. All three raise good calves and breed back which obviously helps my bottom line. Since I have the grass I keep them as replacements are high.

However, if I'm trying to improve my herd I have always thought I should cull any cow that I wouldn't keep a heifer out of. Any thoughts on this?

Admirable end goal. I'd like to get there one day - though in reality, by then I may have moved the goalposts so that the cows I 'would keep a heifer out of' are still a fraction of the herd.

Unless you have gold-lined pockets and don't need the income from your cows, I think you might get there just as fast by putting a terminal bull over every cow you wouldn't want heifers out of, and not keeping their heifers. In the meantime that group of cows is working for you, without having any genetic influence on your herd. They don't get second chances if they slip up - the bad tempered or lower production or really ugly cows don't get to calve at the wrong end of the calving season here.

 

[Nesikep]

I think nearly everyone has two herds.. the herd of cows you hope to get lots of heifers from for replacements, Probably because they've proven themselves as profitable AND have other good traits.. And then the rest of the cows you wish would have only bull calves and they'd take care of nutting them themselves.. Yes, they still make a calf every year, but don't have what it takes to want a heifer from.

We've moved the goalposts a couple times already.. Starting with about 16 original cows, we're down to the offspring of 6 of them.. of those, we thought for sure we were going to want to keep all the offspring of about 3 of them.. as time went on we found they routinely disappointed, and by next fall the last descendants of 2 of them will be off to the sale barn.

 

[Big Cheese]

We went the route that was mentioned at the beginning of this post. We went the Longhorn route and have gotten into them for a song. Very cheap and 75% were already bred or had calves. We are breeding them to a Charolais bull and rolling along and me personally (I bought 15 this past year) will start profiting at the end of this year after only having them a little over a year. I'm all about profiting as soon as possible. And also keeping heifers and expanding as we go.

 

[Rafter S]

In 2008 I had one heifer that I didn't much like the looks of. She was kind of raw boned, and had nub horns, and just wasn't pretty. I weaned her with the rest of the heifers, intending to have her butchered a little later. Before I had a chance to do that I looked at my records and realized that she was a fair bit younger than most of the other heifers, but was about the same size, so I decided to keep her and give her a chance. She's still raw boned, with nub horns, and not pretty, but she raises a good calf, and she's always one of the first ones to have a calf.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

All of my cows are perfect....but I didn't say anything about beauty.

 

[Dave]

I like buying those cows who are run down wormy with half their hair gone from lice. I buy them cheap and it is a quick easy fix. To me the prefect cow is one I buy cheap who makes me money.

 

[Big Cheese]

I like buying those cows who are run down wormy with half their hair gone from lice. I buy them cheap and it is a quick easy fix. To me the prefect cow is one I buy cheap who makes me money.

That is exactly how I feel as well. I bought a run down Longhorn roping heifer a couple of months ago and wormed her up really good and just put her out in the pasture right before the winter started and I bet she has gained over 200 pounds since then and i promise you you could almost see through her she was so skinny. I only paid $400 for her and she may never pull out of it but in October if I decide to sell her I bet you I will double my money for her and if she ends up sticking around and having calves I will really start benefiting from her very very quickly.