Pretty Good Run Of It

[Caustic Burno]

Always sad to lose the good ones. Hope you have some of hers to carry on in your herd

Had a Brangus girl I bought from an little FFA girl at the county fair.
Paid way too much for her the Mrs. named her Baby and she was. Halter broke and followed you like a dog.
At 21 she had given us 19 bull calves not one heifer. She developed COD cystic ovarian disease from Lepto due to feral hogs in the stock ponds during the 2011 drought. Her teeth and BCS were still good the day she went to slaughter.

I wonder what the odds are, 19 for 19 on bull calves, that's incredible.

Never have had any other cow in over four decades to have all same sex calves. I figured it was Murphy's law as I wanted heifers from her to retain, she consistently calved 11 to 12 months and raised the heaviest calf at weaning.

 

[Bright Raven]

Always sad to lose the good ones. Hope you have some of hers to carry on in your herd

Had a Brangus girl I bought from an little FFA girl at the county fair.
Paid way too much for her the Mrs. named her Baby and she was. Halter broke and followed you like a dog.
At 21 she had given us 19 bull calves not one heifer. She developed COD cystic ovarian disease from Lepto due to feral hogs in the stock ponds during the 2011 drought. Her teeth and BCS were still good the day she went to slaughter.

I wonder what the odds are, 19 for 19 on bull calves, that's incredible.

I took my fair share of statistics. Here is how you calculate probability. First, the probability of a bull calf on each individual birth is 50 bulls out of 100 births or .5 for each birth. There were 19 births. So the overall probability that she would have 19 bull calves in 19 births is the product of .5 times it self 19 times:
.5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 = 0.0000019073 chances in 100 births that she would have all Male calves in 19 births. That is almost incredible. My guess is the pH of her uterus favored the Y spermatozoa over the X spermatozoa.

 

[SPH]

:clap: 26 years old, that is nearly unheard of for a cow. Bet her daughters will have longevity in your herd.

 

[cfpinz]

Thank you all for the kind words, can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

We're pretty sure she's a pinz/herf cross. I spent a fair chunk of change on purebred pinz cows and Hereford cows/bulls trying to replicate her, but it didn't turn out very well. Sometimes you just have to take things for what they are.

She's been about 50/50 for steer/heifer calves, and we've retained almost all of the heifers other than one who was a freemartin from being twin to a bull. She calved regularly up until year before last, and we've kept her away from the bulls from then on. I'd wager there's 30 or 40 of her lineage here on the place, the best ones were when we crossed her with an angus bull or better yet straight Gelbvieh. She has a solid red granddaughter that's currently my best cow phenotypically and raises one of the heaviest calves each year.

 

[Randi]

We sold an old lady this fall, she would have been 17 in the spring. Bought her as a calf out of the Stockyards, black baldy, probably Hereford x Angus. We only have 2 heifers out of her, and one is her last calf.

Those old girl have a space in your heart.

 

[Mossy Dell]

Bud Adams writes in his book A Florida Cattle Ranch about his Braford cow that produced calves for "over 26 years" and died on the range. He ran her picture too, a scrawny, horned beast. He writes that she was also blind, having lost her eyes "shortly after birth." She was never vaccinated or worked, as a result, but they kept track of her.

 

[farmerjan]

Had a Brangus girl I bought from an little FFA girl at the county fair.
Paid way too much for her the Mrs. named her Baby and she was. Halter broke and followed you like a dog.
At 21 she had given us 19 bull calves not one heifer. She developed COD cystic ovarian disease from Lepto due to feral hogs in the stock ponds during the 2011 drought. Her teeth and BCS were still good the day she went to slaughter.

I wonder what the odds are, 19 for 19 on bull calves, that's incredible.

Never have had any other cow in over four decades to have all same sex calves. I figured it was Murphy's law as I wanted heifers from her to retain, she consistently calved 11 to 12 months and raised the heaviest calf at weaning.

Always Murphy's law when you want something. Sad she didn't give you at least one.....