Spring Pictures

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SPH

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Iowa
It's been awhile since I've shared some pictures, hope to get some more pictures now that everything is out in the pasture and happy after the rough winter and cool spring we had.

This is one from early April of a week or so old calf. Showed this to a breeder we were visiting this weekend and he just loved it and says it belongs on the cover of something so had to share it.
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One of our best cows that has a really nice late Feb. AI bull calf. We hope he turns out well so we could use him to replace our herd bull who we are using for the last time this summer since we'll have too many daughters of his
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Bull calf above by himself
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Young cow with a mid to late April bull calf. Finally got her to not calf in late May which drove us nuts because we like to be done calving around May 1. Her and another young cow were just about to calve the same time we turned the bull out the past 2 years, we pulled the bull earlier this year and said if they didn't get bred they were going to the sale barn. She was able to make the cut, the other one didn't.
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Mid March heifer calf. We're 2:1 ratio bulls to heifers this year so probably going to have some disappointed heifer buyers this fall since we probably will have to keep what we had this year for ourselves.
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Cow with the heifer calf in the very top picture. She's also the mother of the bull in the next picture
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Two year old bull we sold to a large Hereford breeder here in the state (they breed just under 500 females) We kept semen interest on him and have 3 calves by him plus using him AI some this year too. Pretty proud of this guy, may be the best bull we've ever raised. He's out of MSU TCF Revolution 4R for those of you that may know who that Hereford bull is.
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Our 3 sale bulls, picture is probably from March I think. The 2 on the right have been sold to commercial breeders to breed for black bladies. If the other guy is still here in a week or 2 we'll probably use him cleanup on some heifers. Unfortunately they will be 1/2 sibs to him but its better than breeding them back to their sire.
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Great pictures! :clap: Thanks for sharing them with us. Your cattle look good! I love that first calf photo also. Yes it should be on a magazine cover.
 
SPH":9ib9b6gp said:
Our 3 sale bulls, The 2 on the right have been sold...the other guy we'll probably use him cleanup on some heifers.
Unfortunately they will be 1/2 sibs to him but its better than breeding them back to their sire.
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Thank you for sharing your pics.
I like the bull in the center. The one on the left would be my 3rd pick of the 3.
A bit puzzling though, you sell breeding bulls, yet it seems you'd sooner force 1/2 sibling matings than buy a bull
from another breeder.
 
Son of Butch":2jtyev3y said:
SPH":2jtyev3y said:
Our 3 sale bulls, The 2 on the right have been sold...the other guy we'll probably use him cleanup on some heifers.
Unfortunately they will be 1/2 sibs to him but its better than breeding them back to their sire.
side_zpsde275a26.jpg

Thank you for sharing your pics.
I like the bull in the center. The one on the left would be my 3rd pick of the 3.
A bit puzzling though, you sell breeding bulls, yet it seems you'd sooner force 1/2 sibling matings than buy a bull
from another breeder.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. We're located in Central Iowa for the person that asked.

Regarding the sale bulls, the middle one was probably the thickest of the 3 but he only framed as a 5 so he's going to be a thick compact bull but the guy that bought him was going to use him on heifers and he was the lightest BW of the 3 so he should do just fine. The bull on the left actually is the top weaning bull of the 3 and the next thickest. He's out of that cow in the first picture with the bull calf. He's sired by our herd sire who we're using for the 4th summer so the only reason we even plan to use him briefly this summer if he's not sold yet is that we have some daughters sired by our herd sire we have AI serviced, if the come in heat 1 more time we'll AI them again and after that we won't mess with AI anymore if they don't settle and will use him as cleanup as we don't want to have them calving too late.

Not worth buying an outcross bull for just 4 females, last year we had that 2 year old bull pictured we used cleanup as a yearling on the daughters of our herd bull and a few other cows. Kept semen interest in him so we can still AI a few cows to him. Our hope is that nice bull calf pictured turns out well and we retain him to use because he's out of an AI sire and his dam is not related to anything in our herd either so he would be a complete outcross of genetics and only be related to his mother and a 1/2 sister. We try to synch the top end of our herd to breed AI for late Feb calves and then turn then out with the bull as we like to be done calving around May 1 so we want to make sure we can get the cows settled to calve in March if they do not settle to the AI service. Herd is only 25 females so rarely do we run 2 bulls because we don't have enough pasture to do that every year as we try to save some pasture for fall grazing so we don't have to feed hay too early.
 

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