I'm wanting to do it so bad. I'm having a hard time finding people to do it in our area though. I bet you would hit 80 or 90%.
I want to take a set of our best commercial cows, put them on a good property, and implant them.
Retained Heifer Percentage ?
- Thread starter Stocker Steve
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I want to take a set of our best commercial cows, put them on a good property, and implant them.
For around 3 yrs, I AI'ed my very best cows with the intent of getting some great replacements. I was mostly disappointed because I found that I culled more of the AI heifers than those out of my herd bulls whenever I picked which to save. Decided not to fool with it anymore: too much time and money for too little reward.
What do you attribute the disappointment to?
I'm worried that what other people, especially purebred people, dont value the same things or raise the cattle the same way we do.
I would much rather partner with some one I know who raises good cattle like we do and flush a cow, maybe even a bull, that we know are good and just multiply the volume.
We do it with good dogs and split the litters and stuff all the time.
Dave
Well-known member
I knew two guys who retained nearly 100% of their heifers. The first guy bred all his heifers. He had 400 cows so I will say 200 heifers. Bred them all to calving ease bulls. He had a vet who was real good with ultra sound. So at some point they ultra sounded all the heifers. He selected from the earliest bred heifers who had a bull calf in them. I am certain he looked at other things too but the early calving with bull calves was the first cut. Generally kept about 40 of them. He sold the rest as bred heifers.
The other guy kept all his heifers. About 200+ of them. Bred them all. Calved them all out. When the calves were about 3 months old he made his selections. The cull heifers got the calves pulled and sent to a feedlot where he retained ownership. This was before the 30 month rule. I am sure doing this now would push that 30 month thing pretty hard.
These and other ideas may or may not work but there certainly is more than one way to skin a cat.
The other guy kept all his heifers. About 200+ of them. Bred them all. Calved them all out. When the calves were about 3 months old he made his selections. The cull heifers got the calves pulled and sent to a feedlot where he retained ownership. This was before the 30 month rule. I am sure doing this now would push that 30 month thing pretty hard.
These and other ideas may or may not work but there certainly is more than one way to skin a cat.
I'm not sure why but the AI'ed heifers often didn't have as good conformation as the naturally bred calves. Maybe I just wasn't picking the right AI sires..
Josher
Well-known member
Which bulls did you use?
Several. All angus (ABS sires: Bruiser, Hickok, Black Pearl, broken bow, Consensus 7229, CC&7, etc) except 1 hereford (Thor from ABS). I was most pleased with the hereford crossed AI calves, but they also probably had more hybrid vigor due to my angus based brood cows. Of the angus, I liked bruiser and consensus calves the best.
Josher
Well-known member
Ive found that the AI calves might not always look that much better than the others but the quality shows more and more with time. Providing ur using the right AI bulls. I tried bruiser amongst a handful of others this year hope they turn out.
The bruiser cows won't win any beauty contests but will be productive with thick, smaller frames
Gcreekrch, great plan!
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Been there, done that. I now consider most AI bulls to be terminal. Even if you pick around that - - you are still usually dealing with an outcross.
Define good first, we all have a different eye.
While I do envy your enthusiasm, I do wonder at times if you tend to overthink things.
Not all heifers were cut our to be Momma cows. Only nature with us helping a bit can make a perfect cow.
We find there is very little correlation between bought and home raised heifers as far as how long they stay as long as they aren't the overproductive kind that take more maintenance than we are prepared to give.
We likely test our heifer calves the hardest as they go to grass a very green 650 to 700 lbs, have 5 weeks to be on the gain and 30 days with bulls to decide who gets to stay. It is very surprising how many of the big end sort themselves off at preg check. Then we keep the calving season short to save labour and keep uniformity.
We sold 340 s/c in 2019 that were sorted into two weight groups with a 100 lb range from high to low in each bunch.
While I would sure like to be cowman enough to say which heifers will end up being productive cows here, I have not yet achieved that status.
Nesikep
Well-known member
You and me both!! I feel pretty good when I get it right though
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Born to optimize.
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Still thinking a lot about what is optimum...
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Dave, what is the " 30 month rule"?
Thirty month rule means they grade as cows regardless. Took a lot of money out of feeding heiferettes.
They don't grade as cows but none of the spine can be cut it has to be removed whole and disposed off. That doesn't fit with today's standardized way of doing things so yes they would end up going through a cow plant.
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Even before the 30 month rule - - there was little interest in feeding heiferettes here. I was told it was because it was hard to put together a big enough group.
I bought a few fancy ones once for a rebred experiment. The problem was they kept on growing because of their terminal genetics, and became huge cows.
