Still making the cut

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

A lot of people like to criticize others that show cattle. I will be the first to say, there are a LOT of extreme people/cattle/products/fitting, etc. I show cattle. I use showing as a tool to advertise my breeding stock.
Whether you show or not, you should be looking at the phenotype of your herd. Structure, volume, do-ability. "Most" judges actually pick cattle that are "useful" in a herd. I know. I know. Lots of cheating, and politics, and lots of bad judges. But, all in all, the majority of the people that show and the judges are good. I take my lumps sometimes, but I know the general population of people can SEE through a lot of the fakeness.
Everyone should learn how to evaluate cattle by phenotype - not just look at papers/pedigrees.

 

[coachg]

Cowgirl if you like the calf and you know what kind of progeny he'll sire , go for it . You can't tell everything from 2 pictures. There are some folks on here that are a lot better cattlemen and women than me but if we all chose the same thing our cattle would all be the same color and look exactly alike . I like butter pecan ice cream , I hear some folks only like vanilla or chocolate. Glad we all have different tastes .

 

[Chuckie]

I like Cowgirl 8's cows as well. The two she is showing in this thread, I like a lot. I am not saying this to be mean. Her cows deserve the best bull she can get. I bought the most expensive bull one time, and he had very slight movement in his hock joint. I bought him by video and blew that video so big and watch it so many times. I could not see it. Got him home and loved the bull, and a little time passed, I could see that hock join sliding up and down ever so slightly. At first I was not sure if I was seeing it because I pick them down so badly; even my own stock, I was not sure if it was there or not. If you stood behind him when he walked, you could detect it. When I first saw that, I was one sick puppy. I knew it was a matter of time. He was only with a hand full of my best cows, and then came the time that his hocks hurt too bad to mount. They were not swollen, but he just could not use them. He would stand guard with the cow as she was in heat like he was going to mount, but he just could not do it. He lasted 2 breeding seasons. He was so far away I could not drive it. Without getting out a lot of discs to find his picture, I do have one where he is at the hay ring with his girls. To put that expensive bull on the trailer and send him off was so hard to do. I screwed up.