regolith
Well-known member
These are some that I like:
My first reaction to this one after she calved was "where the he11 did she come from?" Then I looked up who her mother was... I'm expecting good things from her.
Her mother was an unrecorded heifer (not AI-sired) I picked up for $NZ700, she never looked either productive or healthy so I was surprised when I started herd testing her to find that she was consistently at the top of her age group for production.
These are all bred from cows currently in the herd. I have 35 bought-in heifers, but haven't started taking photos of them yet. Weather's been poor and they're looking rough.
If (unlikely) the cashflow alllows it, I'd like to schedule a herd test before Christmas to find out how they compare for production. My initial impression is that there's nothing in the bought-in line even close to matching the production the home-bred heifers are doing. They were well grown heifers, just not quite to the standard of mine which were with an excellent grazier last year. I'm not sure if the difference is genetics or youngstock management, so far I'm swinging towards it being genetics, but can't establish what difference there might be without herd testing.
More heifers:
187 (third heifer) is from a low production bull and while I like her, she isn't an improvement on her mother. As her mother is one of the best cows in the herd I haven't a clue how to breed her to improve her... but she's given me a heifer every single year so far.
My first reaction to this one after she calved was "where the he11 did she come from?" Then I looked up who her mother was... I'm expecting good things from her.
Her mother was an unrecorded heifer (not AI-sired) I picked up for $NZ700, she never looked either productive or healthy so I was surprised when I started herd testing her to find that she was consistently at the top of her age group for production.
These are all bred from cows currently in the herd. I have 35 bought-in heifers, but haven't started taking photos of them yet. Weather's been poor and they're looking rough.
If (unlikely) the cashflow alllows it, I'd like to schedule a herd test before Christmas to find out how they compare for production. My initial impression is that there's nothing in the bought-in line even close to matching the production the home-bred heifers are doing. They were well grown heifers, just not quite to the standard of mine which were with an excellent grazier last year. I'm not sure if the difference is genetics or youngstock management, so far I'm swinging towards it being genetics, but can't establish what difference there might be without herd testing.
More heifers:
187 (third heifer) is from a low production bull and while I like her, she isn't an improvement on her mother. As her mother is one of the best cows in the herd I haven't a clue how to breed her to improve her... but she's given me a heifer every single year so far.
