Thoughts on these herf bulls

[rocket2222]

I agree, I think BF is directly related to "doing ability".

Are you two saying that you actively look for a higher BF EPD?

As soon as you've bred the BF away you've bred the hereford out of the bovine.

I definitely have the last few years, would not have gotten the Churchill bull if is fat epd was above breed average. Happily it's down in bottom 90%, much like Harland's. Gives a little safety net, even if the epd's off some, he's probably not going to take away from what I have, he just might add a little.
I'd bet money that back fats directly related to doing ability, I think milk part of that too though, got to balance the two of them. It has to be the biggest downside to the chase to add carcass quality, they're encouraging a lot of breeders to breed away the fat.

 

[AudieWyoming]

I think you guys are dead on with the back fat issue. I built my angus cow herd as performance cows trying to hold the marbling together while building ribeye area. I knew the packers wanted less backfat but I never selected for or against it thinking that if I got the other things I wanted including maternal, the back fat would average out and if it trended lower for the packers and didn't hurt me, great.

What I have found out is even though some of the bulls I used were positive for backfat many were very negative, and the breed as a whole is dragging me towards thin rhined, high milk EPD cows. Even as I believe the 16 - 23 milk EPD cow today is the same Milk as the 10-13 EPD cow 20 years ago and the frames are going down, I find I am going to have to select for back cover to hold the cow together. @

 

[W.B.]

AudieWyoming: That last pararaph is 100% dead on in my book.

 

[JHH]

Thanks for all the good replies, it did give me plenty of food for thought and a bit of an eye opener on how to further look at cattle. while I have gone down the road of good carcuss traits and quality I have also been working on moderate framed fast growing cattle. One of the many pieces of info I got was not to throw too many bulls in the mix each year. So thanks you again, I think I'll probably add some 3027 to the tank and hope for the best. Harland is a widely used bull by some of the top Hereford breeders but the 6.4 ended my thoughts on him, I would like to see more calves from Revolution, and the past post on him really was not that helpful other than he hasn't been used too much, I was hoping for new info on him. I'm not a big fan of the "young bull of the day" market, Although I really like my Red Obsidian daughter, moderate and easy fleshing, too bad I lost the Progress heifer out of her this year.... a bit of a set back I'm afraid. The only thing I can think of that happened was she was stuck in the birth cannal too long and may have developed some brain damage..... but only guessing and grasping at straws. Back to Red Obsidian, I really like what I'm seeing from him, but I have M326 in the tank as well as Rib Eye, at this point I can't justify putting more M326 genetics in the tank... so 3027.

Thanks again,
Alan

So Alan did you get 3027?

 

[oakcreekfarms]

One things to remember about ribeye is that he has been breeding something since he was a yearling. The bull studs don't feed the bulls heavy, He then has either been breeding cows in Penn. or hauled across the country to clean up a bunch of cows in kansas. Not saying you should like or dislike the bull, but there is a reason for the questions regarding the pictures. He has obviously been used heavily through AI and natural, he does do some things very well. As to whether those are the things you need to accomplish in your herd is up to you.

 

[Alan]

Yes I put 3027 in the tank as well Harland, ABS had them both on sale for $16 per straw.... I'll try 3027 on some of my M326 genetics while trying to avoid horns. As far as Harland goes I have no plan to use him at this point but he was cheap enough and now he's in the tank for future consideration.

Oak thanks for the good info on Rib Eye.

Alan