I am new to the cattle business and I am still learning a lot, some of the things I've learned have been the hard way. I've been around cattle most of my life just never really knew much about raising/owning cattle, so my experience and knowledge is limited. Either way I am learning and have truly appreciated these forums, I've spent countless hours reading various posts on here. Decided it was finally time for me to create a profile.
I found several threads out there about the rat tail defect in some cattle, just couldn't quite find what I was looking for.
I recently bought 2 yearling heifers from a friend to add to my herd as I am slowly trying to build mine. He has a closed herd and it's pretty much a mixed bag of cows, He runs them with a nice black angus bull. One of them is a very nice looking black angus heifer her mom was angus, the other one is like a brown/smoke colored her mom was Charolais.
Due to my inexperience and lack of knowledge I didn't even know there was such thing as a rat tailed calf maybe he didn't either as he never said anything about it. I noticed the tail didn't have a switch and just thought maybe it was because she was young and it hadn't developed yet. :bang: Regardless I now own the calf and am not sure what to do with it.
All of my other cows are black angus cross of some sort and some are sim angus x
I bought these two with the intentions of breeding them next fall, should I cut my losses on the one and just get rid of it?
From what I've read and gathered they are not worth as much if you send them to the sale barn, can she be bred and be a worthy cow or am I just wasting my time? I can take better pictures when I get home.
Much appreciated.
I found several threads out there about the rat tail defect in some cattle, just couldn't quite find what I was looking for.
I recently bought 2 yearling heifers from a friend to add to my herd as I am slowly trying to build mine. He has a closed herd and it's pretty much a mixed bag of cows, He runs them with a nice black angus bull. One of them is a very nice looking black angus heifer her mom was angus, the other one is like a brown/smoke colored her mom was Charolais.
Due to my inexperience and lack of knowledge I didn't even know there was such thing as a rat tailed calf maybe he didn't either as he never said anything about it. I noticed the tail didn't have a switch and just thought maybe it was because she was young and it hadn't developed yet. :bang: Regardless I now own the calf and am not sure what to do with it.
All of my other cows are black angus cross of some sort and some are sim angus x
I bought these two with the intentions of breeding them next fall, should I cut my losses on the one and just get rid of it?
From what I've read and gathered they are not worth as much if you send them to the sale barn, can she be bred and be a worthy cow or am I just wasting my time? I can take better pictures when I get home.
Much appreciated.