Replacement Heifers

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Replacement Heifers eating their first meal that isn't grass, hay, or milk. Might be the most uniform set we've kept. Hopefully they will do well, time will tell just thought I would share a pic.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Nice!

 

[Williamsv]

Nice heifers. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ohrmundt Simmentals]

Nice group of heifers!!

 

[inyati13]

Sweet looking heifers. Are they PB Simmentals? I know you have visited with the Double Diamond folks. Red ones are their top Simmentals. They always have some red ones in the bulls or belles of the bluegrass.

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Thanks everyone! Ron, both heifers on the ends are PB Simmentals the middle heifer is 1/2 Simmental, 1/4 Gelbvieh, and a 1/4 Red Poll. They are sired out of my Black Invasion son I purchased at the Bulls of The Bluegrass Sale from Indian Creek Simmentals out of Ohio. Double Diamond at that sale had only black ones consigned, maybe sometimes or the other I'll get to see some of their red ones. Really did enjoy talking to them and they did have some nice bulls there. We've said here for years that our red ones tend to grow quicker than the black calves for some reason or the other, therefore the red calves get just as much of a chance on becoming replacements as the black counterparts. Our herd is pretty much 50-50 with reds and blacks, well there is 1 white. I really like running Heterozygous Black Bulls giving me opportunities to keep or offer red and black calves. Don't know yet if my new Packin Heat blaze face bull will be Hetero or Homo but maybe he'll add a star or blaze occasionally.

 

[inyati13]

Thanks everyone! Ron, both heifers on the ends are PB Simmentals the middle heifer is 1/2 Simmental, 1/4 Gelbvieh, and a 1/4 Red Poll. They are sired out of my Black Invasion son I purchased at the Bulls of The Bluegrass Sale from Indian Creek Simmentals out of Ohio. Double Diamond at that sale had only black ones consigned, maybe sometimes or the other I'll get to see some of their red ones. Really did enjoy talking to them and they did have some nice bulls there. We've said here for years that our red ones tend to grow quicker than the black calves for some reason or the other, therefore the red calves get just as much of a chance on becoming replacements as the black counterparts. Our herd is pretty much 50-50 with reds and blacks, well there is 1 white. I really like running Heterozygous Black Bulls giving me opportunities to keep or offer red and black calves. Don't know yet if my new Packin Heat blaze face bull will be Hetero or Homo but maybe he'll add a star or blaze occasionally.

Mike, their gelbvieh are the red ones. Got my breeds mixed up. They are high on the Gelbvieh, Shannon has been telling me for two years that she may give them a slight edge over the Simmentals. It won't be long till the Belles of the Bluegrass in Mt Sterling. Do you go to that every year?

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Ron that's ok. Come to think of it I remember seeing the Gelbvieh on their website. They are really nice and probably nicer than their Simmentals. I really like the Gelbvieh cattle, a little of me wish we were raising Gelbvieh and we had stuck with them. Larger amount of Simmental breeders in our area, our purchase of a State Fair Grand Champion Simmental Bull, the opportunity for blaze faces etc... has sent us down the Simmental route. Plus I like them as well. Don't own enough property to raise both breeds and we want to be more than just commercial cow calf operation therefore we're sticking with the Simmentals to raise some purebreds. Haven't been to a Belles yet, just to far away to go. My uncle wants me to take him to a Simmental sale to help him pick out some bred cows or heifers, possibly may end up there this fall. Hope Double Diamond will continue to raise both, love both breeds. I tell people I like the black simmental better than the black gelbvieh and the red gelbvieh better than the red Simmental.

 

[cowgirl8]

Thanks everyone! Ron, both heifers on the ends are PB Simmentals the middle heifer is 1/2 Simmental, 1/4 Gelbvieh, and a 1/4 Red Poll. They are sired out of my Black Invasion son I purchased at the Bulls of The Bluegrass Sale from Indian Creek Simmentals out of Ohio. Double Diamond at that sale had only black ones consigned, maybe sometimes or the other I'll get to see some of their red ones. Really did enjoy talking to them and they did have some nice bulls there. We've said here for years that our red ones tend to grow quicker than the black calves for some reason or the other, therefore the red calves get just as much of a chance on becoming replacements as the black counterparts. Our herd is pretty much 50-50 with reds and blacks, well there is 1 white. I really like running Heterozygous Black Bulls giving me opportunities to keep or offer red and black calves. Don't know yet if my new Packin Heat blaze face bull will be Hetero or Homo but maybe he'll add a star or blaze occasionally.

So you guys do about like what we do. We had a red sim bull that died this winter. But, almost every red calf we have is out of him. I've been told on this forum that our calves are not uniform, but it appears that many on here have red and black cattle also. I like keeping the red sims to bred to our angus bulls. And then from there i like keeping those crosses as replacements also. We arent 50/50 red black anymore, we started our mixing around 10 years ago. Most of our cows from 2006 and up, will be angus/sim, black, black w/f and red, red w/f...but we get mostly black, black w/f calves..

 

[inyati13]

Mike, here are their red Gelbvieh. That is Mike and Shelley Meyer. Shannon of course looks identical to Shelley. I cannot tell them apart.

 

[Gators Rule]

Nice heifers. I like the two purebreds the best primarily because I can't see the middle heifer, other than her head.

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Gators Rule, I was going to post individual pics of each heifer, but they haven't settled down real well to their new location and I was in a hurry therefore just took a pic of them at the bunk feeder. I'll try and hopefully add some individual pics later. The commercial middle heifer is around a month to two months younger than the purebreds. I think she is a little softer made, with a bit less thickness, and a little less depth of rib. But their isn't a huge difference between the three. Again the most consistent matching group we've kept.
Ron, impressive Gelbvieh's in that pic.

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Have had good luck with our heifers over the last several years. We have sold a few to other operations, and we tend to retain a few each year for replacements as well as purchasing some from time to time. Can't recall of having any calving trouble from any of them and have had no bad reports from the other operations we have sold some to. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself and these will continue the trend. I usually will have our heifers in a lot to watch them at calving to be there if assistance is needed. Sometimes I feel lazy and just want to leave them in the pasture. But then I'll remember all the ones we've had to pull before in the past from heifers and how hard it is to help one in the pasture and that motivates me to get them in the calving lot. Here's the latest heifer that has calved, she's a commercial that got bred later than we had thought but had no trouble with her little 7/2/14 bull. As long as I find them like this I'm a happy guy. Calling the little bull Independence or Cotton Ball. He has a white tip on his tail but night black everywhere else.

 

[inyati13]

Have had good luck with our heifers over the last several years. We have sold a few to other operations, and we tend to retain a few each year for replacements as well as purchasing some from time to time. Can't recall of having any calving trouble from any of them and have had no bad reports from the other operations we have sold some to. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself and these will continue the trend. I usually will have our heifers in a lot to watch them at calving to be there if assistance is needed. Sometimes I feel lazy and just want to leave them in the pasture. But then I'll remember all the ones we've had to pull before in the past from heifers and how hard it is to help one in the pasture and that motivates me to get them in the calving lot. Here's the latest heifer that has calved, she's a commercial that got bred later than we had thought but had no trouble with her little 7/2/14 bull. As long as I find them like this I'm a happy guy. Calling the little bull Independence or Cotton Ball. He has a white tip on his tail but night black everywhere else.

I like the looks of that cow. Nice picture.

 

[Chuckie]

Nice group of heifers!