Tex Playbook or Baldridge Bronc

[Air gator]

I have one heifer with a milk epd of +22 and a cow with a milk epd of +18.
I want to add milk so my cows are at breed average or slightly above.
Who would you go with? There are a lot of bulls coming on the scene that are impressive but a lot of them are well below breed average for milk. I will probably get all bull calves but who knows.
The two females I am thinking of are by sons of OCC Emblazon.

 

[elkwc]

IMO if you have old bloodlines especially I don't pay any attention to milk EPD. I looked at a bull out of a cow with a 9 milk EPD. She had raised 7 calves. Every bull was over 700 at 205 days with no creep and heifer avg was around 650 no creep. I asked the breeder about it and he said she had t he best udder in the herd and he wouldn't want one that milked any heavier. He said her sisters had similar milk EPD's. He said it goes back to the sire who was non mainstream bloodlines. I've seen several more instances very similar. I have a cow with a 20 milk EPD that starved her calf some as a heifer and as a cow is very marginal. Otherwise she raises nice calves. Calved the first heifer out of her and she has a perfect udder and plenty of milk. Again I try to look at the cow when selecting bulls and heifers.

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

JMB Traction has a high milk index.

 

[Air gator]

I wanted to go with a calving ease bull for the heifer. Traction wouldn't fit her.
I also looked at Fortress and I like Stevenson Turning Point but he doesn't have enough milk.
The problem with the older bloodlines is that they seem to lack growth and milk.
They add eye appeal for sure.

 

[torogmc81]

I would go with Playbook. Seen calves out of both and Playbook calves are the real deal

 

[Midtenn]

The problem with the older bloodlines is that they seem to lack growth and milk.

On paper , yes.....
Most of my older bloodlines epd's stink, but they outperform many of the newer big numbers.

 

[elkwc]

The problem with the older bloodlines is that they seem to lack growth and milk.

On paper , yes.....
Most of my older bloodlines epd's stink, but they outperform many of the newer big numbers.

I agree. What we see is the progeny of the bulls we retain and those of bulls of older or linebred bloodlines wean heavier and milk in the range we desire and sounder than those of the EPD wonders. We had a bull with modern bloodlines and very good EPD's but overall his calves weaned lighter than those of the bull with less flattering EPD's.

 

[LCBulls]

We really like our Playbook calves. They were probably my favorite sire group of this years calves.
We also used Charlo, Acclaim, LD 316, Cowboy Up and some others. They were CE and had great shape immediately at birth.

(Playbook calf off a first calf SAV Seedstock Dam)

 

[boondocks]

I like Bronc but having a hard time getting heifers bred with him. Dunno if his swimmers have anything to do with it but we're using our usual protocol and heifers are in good condition.

 

[LCBulls]

I like Bronc but having a hard time getting heifers bred with him. Dunno if his swimmers have anything to do with it but we're using our usual protocol and heifers are in good condition.

Playbook seemed to have better than average conception on our Heifers, but it was when he was collected prior to Select Sires leasing him.

 

[Luckiamute]

I haven't used him yet, but I've seen some Tex Playbook calves and they looked very nice. Have also heard reports from people who have used him that are very happy with the early results.

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

I just went and looked at their EPD's....and this would come down to a milk question for us in central/west Texas. We can't risk too much milk...we don't have the forage to maintain that cow and get her re-bred consistently. Baldridge is in North Platte, NE. They get 20in of rain a year...so they are similiar to us (Connealy even more so).

Between those two, we could not consider the Payweight son based on that milk epd...regardless of growth potential. Baldridge would better fit our program I believe.

 

[LCBulls]

I think the Milk EPD is one of the least accurate EPD's.
We run in Utah where we probably get half of the rainfall of Nebraska. I guess only time will tell on whether his Milk EPD is accurate.
We also used Cowboy Up whose milk is on the polar opposite scale.
I'd probably rather have a little to much milk for our environment than not enough.

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

I think the Milk EPD is one of the least accurate EPD's.
We run in Utah where we probably get half of the rainfall of Nebraska. I guess only time will tell on whether his Milk EPD is accurate.
We also used Cowboy Up whose milk is on the polar opposite scale.
I'd probably rather have a little to much milk for our environment than not enough.

Agree on too much rather than not enough...and agree that the milk epd isn't super accurate all the time. That being said, we rarely ignore it but it is just one factor in a multi-factor model we use to assess bulls before seeing them.

We see ranches that chased $B to the exclusion of everything else using HA Cowboy to fix their high milk index. He also has one hell of a BW...he was 98lbs at birth! It looks to me like Connealy is using him to bring UP some small birth and wean weights of the dams used (looking at their preliminary information for their fall sale they just put out). I think his milk epd is drifting lower?

 

[Air gator]

LCBulls,
I like the cow and the calf. I have wondered whether Seedstock or Sensation was the way to go but I am leaning Seedstock.
I saw some other bull today that was a +45 for milk. Playbook is young enough where that number could drop a bit.
I know I don't want a cow high 30's, if I can help it. But, if I do have one there are options to drop it down (I think I could fix that with Confidence 0100 or Butkus). I hate to hear a bull is not getting pregnancies but I know there was a question about Hoover Dam and the person having problems was in Australia.

 

[LCBulls]

LCBulls,
I like the cow and the calf. I have wondered whether Seedstock or Sensation was the way to go but I am leaning Seedstock.
I saw some other bull today that was a +45 for milk. Playbook is young enough where that number could drop a bit.
I know I don't want a cow high 30's, if I can help it. But, if I do have one there are options to drop it down (I think I could fix that with Confidence 0100 or Butkus). I hate to hear a bull is not getting pregnancies but I know there was a question about Hoover Dam and the person having problems was in Australia.

We have never used Sensation. I know that Sensation is more Calving Ease. Kelly really liked Seedstock because he didn't sale many females. He said he kept most of them. We used him because he combines Schaffs two best cows.
We really liked our Cowboy Up calves also. They are built a lot like the Playbooks

 

[frieghttrain]

I wanted to go with a calving ease bull for the heifer. Traction wouldn't fit her.
I also looked at Fortress and I like Stevenson Turning Point but he doesn't have enough milk.
The problem with the older bloodlines is that they seem to lack growth and milk.
They add eye appeal for sure.

https://vimeo.com/135930094

 

[Air gator]

Freighttrain,
Pretty good looking bull.
I know there was a debate about his milk epd but someone on here wrote that
his mature weights were moderate so his calves would be easy keepers.

 

[frieghttrain]

Yes he really has shaped up, I think he might be a solid bet for some large framed females. I would like to hear reports on his daughters