Terminal bull or herd sire?

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andybob

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No subsidised feeding, produces 70-75 lb calves, would you use him to produce heifers, or do you consider him too heavily muscled? I have been having a discussion on this bull,and would value some wider opinion.
 
We don't have nearly enough information to make that call. To say whether or not we want to keep heifers out of a bull we need to see his dam, his sisters, and (preferably in a perfect world) his daughters. If I know nothing at ALL about the cow family that produced a bull and he is a virgin (or I have no knowledge of his daughters) I can't recommend him for anything other than a calf getter. EPDs are important information, but not as important as knowing the phenotype of the females he produces/comes from.
 
Avoid using him because he has too much meat? It is one spectacular bull! I would use him even in a hot climate. Give him a fair chance, his daughters might do fine. And as we are talking heat resistance; are tulis not known to be heat tolerant?
 
Andy, was he at HBH Tulis last year by any chance? If so I have seen him in person and he is one helluva bull, I don't think he is excessively muscled, just very well muscled as long as his daughters milk and is fertile he is exactly what you need in a herdsire.
 
KNERSIE":p8d0iy3u said:
Andy, was he at HBH Tulis last year by any chance? If so I have seen him in person and he is one helluva bull, I don't think he is excessively muscled, just very well muscled as long as his daughters milk and is fertile he is exactly what you need in a herdsire.
Yes, this is the same bull Knersie, I just wondered how he would cope in the typical Kalahari environment if he were too heavy, the typical medium framed Tuli and Afrikana did well without supplimentation, it didn't take much extra weight to have poor doers, further south these larger ones would cope well enough, the Tuli/Simmental crosses thrived in Pienaars rivier/Hammanskraal area, they were too heavy around Plumtree in Zim.
 
He isn't a big bull by any means, just very well muscled. I have photos I have taken of him somewhere, will try and find him. At HBH conditions are tough, its very cold and windy in winter and the cattle graze on top of the Stormberge in summer, if he couldn't walk he would have starved there.
 
I would like to see some other 'photos Knersie, I am just concerned about the breed being 'spoiled' by breeding to extremes or crossing since they became internationally available. While there are some good composites, I don't believe pure strains should be crossed then passed off as pure, or function bred out of them because size or heavier conformation is being selected for.
 
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