Replacement Heifers & a few other pictures

[creekdrive]

Got a few pictures of some of the replacement heifers yesterday. They've sure grown in the last month or so.

The heifer on the left (881) is one of my favorites of the group. The one on the right isn't a keeper, but has sure done a lot of growing the last while. She's a twin that was born to a heifer on pasture sometime in July. They are both purebred red angus.

a profile shot of the 881 heifer that is pictured in the above pic

This one is tame as a dog and loves attention. She's sired by a RA bull out of a RA X Gelbvieh cow

This one is Gelbvieh X SimAngus

These ones are all purebred angus

Really like this one too, just wish she had a tidier navel

Gelbvieh x Sim

It's hard to get good profile shots - they all want to turn and watch me

Herd bulls, just chilling

We should start calving the end of March! Can't wait for the new calves to start hitting the ground. Had one calve on Friday (bulls had gotten out once last spring for a few hours - oops). Lost both the cow and the calf. Can't be 100% certain what happened, but it appeared coyotes attacked her while she was calving. When we found her they had already ripped her apart really bad, but you could see where she had been kicking and struggling to get up on the ice. They had attacked her from both ends. The calf had a couple of bite wounds but was curled up in a ball so we assume it had been alive too. Had we found her a bit sooner, most likely one or both would be alive. There's always been lots of coyotes around but this is the first time we've had anything like this happen. Hopefully they arent this bad by the time we actually start calving... Your always prepared to lose some, but not quite in that way.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures - hopefully I haven't bored you all to death with them yet.

 

[dryfork2]

Creekdrive, you got some nice replacements coming on. Like pics of northern cattle in their winter coats. Your Bulls look good to.

 

[Nesikep]

Not a bad looking bunch... #75 heifer is a lot like one of mine that I'm not so fond of.. too much leg for the her chest and length, second picture of her doesn't show her in a much better light either, not much meat on the back . 881 does look good, looks like she'll have quite a belly, I have a bunch like that and it doesn't bother me none. The tame one, for as much as I can see looks fair, though I would like to see more meat on the butt, especially with the gelbvieh influence.

 

[glacierridge]

Pretty decent set. Like how wide that top heifer is

 

[Chuckie]

I really like the 881 heifer too. It is difficult to pick the others after picking a favorite out of the bunch. Then you start comparing them all to her.
The heifer that you said was really tame is nice. 579 looks thick, and so does 75.
If you can weigh them, that can help you make a choice.
When you get a calf that weighs 680 and one that weighs, 745, that would for sure help you make a choice.

If are saving these a commercial cattle, you don't have to make a call on everything being show perfect. But you want them to be sound. A little cow hocked, lightly sickle hocked, etc...makes good commercial cattle. That is what I do with my light defects. You have taken good care of them and they are a good looking bunch of cattle.

 

[JWBrahman]

Enjoyed looking at your photographs, thanks for sharing.

 

[inyati13]

Nice cattle. Enjoyed the pictures. The bulls have attractive heads.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Nice herd of money makers...

 

[double v]

Good bunch, with gelbvieh influence :nod:

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Loved the pictures, thanks for taking the time to post them.

Good luck this calving season.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Enjoyed your pictures! Thanks for posting them. Bad deal with your cow and calf!! I had a domestic dog eat on a calf when the cow was down giving birth. Really, really, hard to take!!

 

[Rosielou]

Nice heifers! Like the thickness. In the 10th picture, does that black heifer have small white eyebrows for markings lol?

 

[creekdrive]

Thanks for the comments! I know they aren't perfect, but we are pretty happy with them. I'm still pretty new at this, but the bf's family has been raising and selling purebred red angus bulls since the 80's. Pretty much all these animals (all the purebred reds) descend from their stock. They stopped registering them sometime in the 90s but have always kept perfect track of everything just like they were a registered herd. They aren't the biggest animals by any means but they seem to do the job and we rarely hear a complaint from the customers. Easy calving/light birth weight heifer bulls has been the main goal on the purebred side. A lot of the selection basis for the heifers is also based on how well the cow & her relatives has done in the past. Temperament is also very important. Flighty animals don't get too many chances around here...

We always had one cow that was 7/8 Gelbvieh (the bf's very first cow of his own actually). She gave him 14 calves over her life and only 3 of them were heifer calves. He kept two of them and so far they are looking like they will be around for a long time to come. One will be 6 this year and the other will be 3. That cow was one of the main reasons we decided to try a gelbvieh bull. Last year was his first group of calves and we were quite impressed. They calved easy and got up right away and sucked. I think its safe to say we will continue to use a gelbvieh on the commercial herd for quite awhile.

Nice heifers! Like the thickness. In the 10th picture, does that black heifer have small white eyebrows for markings lol?

This is a close up her face. She actually has the small white markings on her eyebrows, her cheeks, just above her nose, and in her ears. She's not one of the best in the group, but she's decent and her dam has raised some dandy calves and is getting up there in age, so that's one of the main reasons she got to stay.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Thanks for the comments! I know they aren't perfect, but we are pretty happy with them. I'm still pretty new at this, but the bf's family has been raising and selling purebred red angus bulls since the 80's. Pretty much all these animals (all the purebred reds) descend from their stock. They stopped registering them sometime in the 90s but have always kept perfect track of everything just like they were a registered herd. They aren't the biggest animals by any means but they seem to do the job and we rarely hear a complaint from the customers. Easy calving/light birth weight heifer bulls has been the main goal on the purebred side. A lot of the selection basis for the heifers is also based on how well the cow & her relatives has done in the past. Temperament is also very important. Flighty animals don't get too many chances around here...

We always had one cow that was 7/8 Gelbvieh (the bf's very first cow of his own actually). She gave him 14 calves over her life and only 3 of them were heifer calves. He kept two of them and so far they are looking like they will be around for a long time to come. One will be 6 this year and the other will be 3. That cow was one of the main reasons we decided to try a gelbvieh bull. Last year was his first group of calves and we were quite impressed. They calved easy and got up right away and sucked. I think its safe to say we will continue to use a gelbvieh on the commercial herd for quite awhile.

Nice heifers! Like the thickness. In the 10th picture, does that black heifer have small white eyebrows for markings lol?

This is a close up her face. She actually has the small white markings on her eyebrows, her cheeks, just above her nose, and in her ears. She's not one of the best in the group, but she's decent and her dam has raised some dandy calves and is getting up there in age, so that's one of the main reasons she got to stay.

You'll run yourself ragged looking for that perfect one.......

 

[Limomike]

Those really are some very nice looking heifers. I love those red angus, and I think that Gelbv influence is great for them.

 

[strihafarms]

Beautiful heifers. Same genetics that I am going for with the red angus/gelbv cross. Love the dispositions of both breeds. They look like they should make some outstanding cows.

 

[3waycross]

Nice set of heifers. Looks like you are on the right track.

 

[Nesikep]

Those are quite the markings!

I have a cow, OK, she's going to be having her 5th calf soon, but she's a cow I'd like to keep something from but she's given me nothing but bull calves.. and this is her last chance to have a gelbveih cross heifer (Limo after that). I had an old cow who was really good.. 16 calves, 11 of them heifers.. I have 4 of them. I put her down last year, and her last heifer was probably the best as far as build.. good length and stride.. but she's an assymetric brockleface which takes away from her appearance a bit.

Perfection doesn't exist... you can look at a bull catalog consisting of only the best animals and you'll still be saying "I don't like that one as much as this one"

As long as they don't cause you headaches and work for you, that's what needs to be