On Farm Bull Test

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Ok, just thought some of you may want to see the subjects. Photographer I am not so be easy on my pictures. The first one is C37. He is the youngest of the crowd and is by my 906 donor cow. He is a May calf, but is within a 100lb or so of the yearlings. His last test period he gained 4.93 lbs/day. His name is Smokestack




This one is C32. He is known around here as Jack. His papered name is BFM Gentleman Jack C32 after his AI sire, Baldridge Kojack 29k. He is out of my 107x donor(Mary). Jack is a January calf and gained 5.6lb/day the last test period.



This is where the bad photography comes in. This is the C35 bull, and he is much better than I am able to capture with a camera. C35 is out of my 906 donor cow, the same as C37 but a different sire. He is a Feb calf and also gained 4.93lb/day the last test. There have been test periods when he ratioed close to 200,but this last time his ratio was only 91. His name is Magnum


This one is the C33 bull. He is named True Value. He is out of the Mary 107x donor same as Jack but with a different sire. This bull probably represents the most growth I have ever had here(that I know of) on his last test period. 15 day test period C33 gained 110lbs for an average of 7.33lb/day. Over the previous 30 days he was averaging 5.6lb/day.


Last one...B31. He is the oldest of the group and is a late December calf. He is the only one in the group off my G123 donor. His name is Accelerator and he averaged 4.26lb/day the last test period.


Sorry for the low quality pictures, hope you like my bulls. Cotton1
 
Good pictures to me. Seems to get an animal to look like it looks it either takes a long distant shot or some technique that is low percentage for me. Unfortunately pictures can really distort the good or bad of an animal. I am not picking but merely asking. From the pictures I see differences in rear leg set. It can be the slope, the angle of the shot, the weight distribution of the animal at that moment. And this question is for one and all regardless of the pictures.
How much do you pay attention to rear leg set, tracking in front tracks in judging stride, the amount of action in the rear leg swing during normal walking, ...? Can this be seen from pictures?
 
To be honest, I scrolled back up and had a look at the pictures again. In the pictures they all look strait legged in the rear to me, but that is not the case in the pasture. I think I was told the proper way to take a picture is with the one leg back on the side you are taking the picture on in reference to the back legs. I think I am taking them with both legs back a little more or something. Most of them have a nice shape to the rear legs if you were to be standing in the pasture watching them be themselves. B31 picture is like they are supposed to be taken I think and you can kinda tell by his back leg a little better. I think Jack is standing ok but I was on the wrong side. The other bulls were standing a little funny I guess. As far as tracking, I think they are ok. I haven't shown cattle and am no expert in that area, but I think I understand the idea behind front/back leg tracking. Not to make excuses, but a good photographer would make a lot of difference. I took these Sunday afternoon myself and this is about as good as I can get with a camera. There are a lot of pictures that get deleted when I am snapping them. A lot. No promises, but I will see if I get time to try again for more representative pictures.
 
Update: 15 day test period; gains were more moderate overall. Group average daily gain for this test period were 2.47lbs per day.
Results for this test period:
B31-68 lbs, 4.53 lbs/day and 132.84 ratio, C32-49lbs, 3.26/day and 95.60 ratio, C33-30lbs, 2.0lbs/day and 58.65 ratio, C35-51lbs,3.40lbs/day and 99.70 ratio,C37-58lbs, 3.86/day and 113.19 ratio.

Consumption for the test period was steady and I thought gains would be better. I don't know why the growth patterns are so variant at this point. The bulls were wormed with Epronex last test period, and are in nice shape as far as the eye test goes. There are 2 more test for the bulls forthcoming, and then 3 of them will be sold. I will give them an oral drench of wormer between now and then. For now all appear to be happy and healthy, and ready to find a home where breeding is their job! I am pleased to date given the adversity for the bulls during this test. Cotton1
 
Update: 15 day test period.For this period results were excellent. The group average daily gain was 5.25lbs/day. I am more than pleased about that. The consumption seemed slow to steady and I expected a much lower gain, boy was I surprised! I also had another individual gain better than good, and one bull is ratioing great as well.
Results for this test were: b31;65lb gain-4.33lbs per day and 82.53 ratio, C32;80 lb gain-5.33lbs/day and 101.58 ratio, C33-65lb gain-4.33lbs per day and 82.53 ratio; C35-100lb gain-6.65lbs per day and 126.98 ratio. C37;84lb gain-5.6lbs/day and 106.66 ratio.
As the first sprigs of spring grass start to show, it seemed the bulls had slower consumption of the feedstuffs. I expected bad gains for the period but was very happily surprised. I have just one more test weight before B31,C32, and C33 are sold on April 9th. I have enjoyed my experiment and hope to analyze the data a little more in relationship to the growth and the stages of the moon. Over all it has not been too difficult for us to collect this data and hope to learn from it as much as possible.
 
Well this was the last one of my little test weights. I have enjoyed the added information while watching the boys grow up. Three of these guys will be sold Saturday April 9th. I took them to the barn today. The weights for this last period were moderate,but overall they were good. This is the 90 day cummulative data for 2016 from 01-06-16 to 04-06-16:

B31 286lb gain 3.17lb/day ratio 91.05 -higest gain was 4.53lb/day from Feb 20 to March 07

C32 277lb gain 3.07lb/day ratio 88.18 -highest gain was 5.60lb/day from Feb 04 to Feb 20

C33 374lb gain 4.15lb/day ratio 119.07 -highest gain was 7.33lb/day from Feb 04 to Feb 20

C35 350lb gain 3.88lb/day ratio 111.42 -highest gain was 6.6lb /day from March 07 to March 22

C37 287 lb gain 3.18lb/day ratio 91.37 -highest gain was 5.60lb/day from March 07 to March 22

Thanks for letting us share this little test with you. It was just a little extra work, but informative. Wish us luck on sale day!
 
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Consistency was tough to gage. The group as a whole made growth swings as well as individual growth swings. I thought going in that the ratios would be the tell all in respect to consistency, but now I'm not so sure of that. The group changes made it possible sometimes to gain say 30lb to ratio 100, but other times may have been 60lb necessary to ratio 100. I really thought that I would have a number 1, 2 , 3 etc bull that was almost the same bull in the same growth rate every time. I did find that the b31 bull had almost the same gain 4 times varying only 4 pounds from 64 to 68. Also the c33 bull ratioed over 100 4 times which was pretty steadily making him the high gainer, but all bulls ratioed over 100 at least one time during the test.
We took hip heights earlier on for the yearling data on their registration on b31,c32 and c33. I have yet to do them for c35 and c37 but need to get on that any day now. I just realized I had not done them. When I measured the 3 bulls back in December of 15 b31 and c32 were at 49.0 and c33 was at 49.25.
Also the vet did scrotal during the bse for the 3 selling April 9th. All three tested in the mid to upper 80s which I thought was good. B31 scrotal was 36, C32 was 34, C33 was 37. Despite all the growth variations, they are a pretty uniform group and consistent in that way.
 
Also meant to mention-Next year I will have a slightly larger group and will likely do the weights again. The one thing I wish I would have done this time that I hope to remember to do next year is record weather data. I would like to see if the moon phase or barometric pressure make much difference in gains. Also the sunny days compared to the rainy/cloudy days.
 

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