Shorthorn cattle pictures (lots)

[turning grass into beef]

We are at the tail end of calving and won't start haying until next week so we had some time to snap some pictures. If you like cattle with some color... enjoy.

83N and calf


83N


114L


114L again (oops, sorry for the dupicate)


73R


59P


50R


212R


59S


154R


2U

 

[tamarack]

Great looking shorthorns!! you have some real broody looking cows and bulls are real meat machines i used saskvalley pioneer 126 to ai some of my cows this year hope to get some cows similar to yours next year.Used belmore jackaroo from diamond shorthorns last year an have some very nice heifer calves breed them to saskvalley ?? next should be some great cows in the future.?

 

[KNERSIE]

turning grass into beef, I am curious as to how you see the three bulls and their use in your breeding program?

 

[bigbull338]

those are some fine looking shorthorn cows you have there.

 

[Hereford76]

grass 2 beef

how much would you say the last cow u pictured weighs... she looks like a big ol cow but its tough to tell.

your cows look good

 

[turning grass into beef]

Tamarak; your calves look good. It is tough to tell how thick they are from a side view picture, but it looks like they have a good amount of muscle.

Hereford 76; we don't weigh our cows but the last cow probably weighs around 1700 lbs and is 5 years old this spring. That is to big for my liking, but as long as she produces on the forage that our ranch grows, and nothing else, she gets to stay. The big ones that can't convert grass into beef come up open and cull themselves. Over the years we have learned that the hard way.

Knersie; I see all 3 bulls having the same purpose in our breeding program. To produce daughters that complete the yearly production of a cow, on forage alone, and to produce bulls for the commercial cattleman.
You might say that we are very narrow minded. The only reason to raise purebred cattle is to supply commercial ranchers with quality bulls. Easy fleshing, structurally sound, good tempered bulls. This our only source of income from the purebred herd (other than culls). We don't sell females for breeding purposes. We believe very strongly that the shorthorn breed is a maternal breed. The bulls we sell are bred to go out and sire cows that produce on a minimal amount of inputs.
All of our mature bulls get grass in the summer and hay in the winter. Nothing else. If a bulls can't hold his condition eating that, then his daughter's won't either.

 

[KNERSIE]

Knersie; I see all 3 bulls having the same purpose in our breeding program. To produce daughters that complete the yearly production of a cow, on forage alone, and to produce bulls for the commercial cattleman.
You might say that we are very narrow minded. The only reason to raise purebred cattle is to supply commercial ranchers with quality bulls. Easy fleshing, structurally sound, good tempered bulls. This our only source of income from the purebred herd (other than culls). We don't sell females for breeding purposes. We believe very strongly that the shorthorn breed is a maternal breed. The bulls we sell are bred to go out and sire cows that produce on a minimal amount of inputs.
All of our mature bulls get grass in the summer and hay in the winter. Nothing else. If a bulls can't hold his condition eating that, then his daughter's won't either.

Thank you, but I was hoping you'b be more specific on how you use each bull and on what type of cows, each bull's strengths, etc

 

[Roan]

Nice pics, cows just a little to big for my taste. Would take a lot of pasture to fill those momma's up.

 

[Keren]

Your statements confuse me somewhat.

You say the shorthorn breed is a maternal breed first and foremost. Yet you wont sell females for breeding purposes.

If it is such a maternal breed, why cant your females go into commercial herds as brood cows, in a crossbreeding program with a terminal breed bull?

I really admire your females for their depth and capacity, however I must admit I am surprised that they do well on grass as they dont appear the 'soft' type that I associate with easy keeping cattle.

I hope you can tell us more about your bulls, three very different phenotypes

 

[Durham Reds]

TGIB- Thanks for posting these! Very functional cattle. If you have any photos of daughters of the red bull, it would be interesting to see them. I would very much like to see pictures of his dam also if you can. How is the Roan bull bred? Very nice.

 

[turning grass into beef]

Durham Reds; As far as I know we don't have any pictures of the red bull's (154R's) mother. But for information's sake 154R and 114L are maternal siblings. 154R is also a half sibling (same sire) to 83N, 59P (83N and 59P are full sisters) and 50R. We don't have many daughter's from 154R. We raised 154R and 59S, used them lightly as yearlings and sold them in our bull sale as 2 year olds. When 154R became available for sale and after seeing some of his daughters we decided to by him back for our own use. 59S was being used in a commercial herd. When we saw our calves off him we bought him back as well. So this year is the first year we will have a significant amount of calves from both 59S and 154R. 73R and 212R are half sisters (same sire) to 59S.
2U is sired by Alta Cedar Prairie Storm 47R and out of a AltaCedar Signature 119N daughter. His tattoo number is NHL 2U if you want to look up his full pedigree.

Keren; 7 years ago we decided to start having our own bull sale and only sell 2 year old bulls. A long time hereford breeder gave us some good advice. Stop selling females. If you don't have a good cow herd how can you produce good quality bulls to supply your sale? That is the reason that we don't sell females from our purebred herd. Shorthorn females work great in a crossbreeding program mated to a terminal sire. We did that in our own commercial herd for a few decades.
I guess my opinion of the bulls differs with your opinion ... and that's o.k. . I would not say they are very different phenotypes. 59S and 2U are slightly larger framed than 154R and 59S shows slightly more muscle expression than the other 2.

Knersie; Quite often the first consideration as to which cows we mate to which bull is 'how closely are they related? We don't often mate half siblings to each other. If they are related a little farther back in their pedigree that is fine. I don't see huges differences in chartacteristics of these 3 bulls (see above). They all show adequate length, depth, and width. They all are very structurally correct and move very fluently. I like 154R's head sightly better than the other 2. His head is slightly shorter and slightly wider. In our experince that often translates to easier keeping cattle. The other 2 bulls are not extreme in that reagrd (if they were we would not use them). We do have some cows that are slightly larger framed than the ideal (like 212R and 83N) so they will be mated to sires that are sightly smaller framed.
One other consideration that we have to keep in mind is color. Buyers that come to our sale often are looking for either a red bull or a roan bull. It seems that red bulls with white marks don't sell as well (everything else being equal). For that reason we may use 59S on crossbred cows this year bcause he seem to throw more white marks.

 

[R.N.Reed]

I sure like your cattle TGIB!A bull from one of those cows would sure ad the Shorthorn maternal power to a herd real fast.I remember when I was in Canada almost 12 yrs ago now,someone told me about an old breeder who had a no female sales policy and spayed every heifer that did not go in the herd.I guess he had a phenominal bull sale every year.

 

[uluru]

What is the sire of 83Ns calf?

 

[turning grass into beef]

Uluru; The calf is sired by 59S and is about a month old in the picture.

 

[quiet cows]

Tgib
Have you any photos of this years offspring from these fine looking beasts?

 

[turning grass into beef]

quiet cows; I had just a few minutes to slip out to the pasture today and got a couple of pictures but ran out of time. When time permits I will get some more pictures of this years calf crop and post them.

 

[turning grass into beef]

The last time I posted pictures it was quite an ordeal. Let's see how it goes this time.

quiet cows; here are the pictures you inquired about

Sire is 59S and Dam is 83N


Sire is 155R and Dam is 50R


Sire is Saskvalley Pioneer 126P (No photo available) and Dam is 73R


Sire is 155R and Dam is 114L


Sire is 59S and Dam is 59P



This bull is Saskvalley Ramrod 155R


These are some of his calves

 

[Kingfisher]

Hi. What flavor of grass are those cattle eating? Thanks in advance.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

nice looking cattle

 

[turning grass into beef]

Kingfisher; the cattle have access to numerous fields at the moment. It depends on which picture you are looking at. Some pictures were taken on cereal crop stubble, some on brome grass and some were taken right near the water. The grass that naturally grows near the water is what we call quack grass. If you are a farmer in this part of the world then quack grass is a weed, but the cows eat it just fine.
I just noticed that I posted the wrong picture for the calf off 83N. Sorry. Oh well, you get the idea of what the calves look like.