Weaned bull calf

[BILL CLAYLAND]

These are some pics of my first calves born at this place.
I really like the looks of this bull, let me know what yall think.

He will be 7 months on Oct 2nd, just off his dam.
his sire is the bull in the background.
they are commercial.

This is another calf almost 8 months, out of a registered cow that i bought and was pregnant.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I kinda like the lil feller.

I really like his daddy.

*Disclosure: I don't know squat...yet.

 

[bigbull338]

those are some goodlooking calves.

 

[texast]

Nice cattle the dad sure looks nice from what I can see.

 

[herefordlover]

i am going to put my 2 cents in.. by far not that well trained in judgin cattle. here i go the calf is an ok calf wouldnt keep him as a bull. from what i can see i like the sire would like to see more pics of him. i know that some of the more trained will let me know if i am close

 

[suzorse]

the 1st one is a little more masculine then the second one, to my eye and what I can see of them
I know my spelling is probably bad but I do not have a spell check button
Suzanne

 

[KNERSIE]

I'll be blunt and say what others are afraid to say, both are rather sorry calves and definately not bull material. Time to rethink the genetics.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Do you like the sire at all Knersie?

 

[KNERSIE]

Not particularly from what little I can see of him, but if this calf is typical of what he sires then it wouldn't make any difference if he was the best looking bull in the world.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Couldn't part of the problem with the calves be with the mommas?

 

[BILL CLAYLAND]

Well I was looking for blunt. The Sire Bull is on loan and will be going to the packer, he is 10.
I have three cows that are bred by him at this time and are due to calf in the spring.

The calves will not be a bulls long either,
I am New and we are happy to have a healthy calves at this time.
Thanks for the comments.

We hope to AI come spring.

Bill

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Best of luck to you Bill.

In case you didn't know it Knersie is quite the expert on cattle especially Hereford.

 

[KNERSIE]

Couldn't part of the problem with the calves be with the mommas?

Definately, they didn't do the best of job raising them, but the bull didn't correct much if anything. There is no real muscle, bone or anything really positive conformation wise, both has very plain heads, poor eye set and absolutely no base width. If there isn't base width you can feed them all you want the potential to pack on retail product will be limited.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I get the eye set and the capacity.

My herfs are not real muscular either - - and my weight lifter cows tend to have over 100 lb. calves... How much muscle should a maternal breed have?

I was told the "really wide" cows are not feminine and tend to come open more. Any comments on this?

 

[KNERSIE]

The absolute opposite is true, for a cow to be feminine she needs width between the hips that carries through to the pins, you need spring of rib to have capacity to be easy doing and still milk during tough times. It is true that muscle and milk and muscle and femininity/fertility are antagonistic, but there is an optimum. We need to be breeding maternal BEEF cattle, looking at the calves the cows certainly wasn't muscled to the extreme as they have very little muscle and judging by the lack of sogginess there wasn't enough maternal quality either.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Well I was looking for blunt. The Sire Bull is on loan and will be going to the packer, he is 10.
I have three cows that are bred by him at this time and are due to calf in the spring.

The calves will not be a bulls long either,
I am New and we are happy to have a healthy calves at this time.
Thanks for the comments.

We hope to AI come spring.

Bill

sometime blunt,, aint a setback,,,but can put you miles ahead......................course theres some get about half hot :cowboy:

 

[hillsdown]

I think AI'ing is a great way to go when you are first starting your herd, sometimes it can move you ahead years of work in just a couple. Best of luck and you are right, healthy average calves are much better than a beautiful calf that died ,ain't no money in that . :tiphat:

 

[IluvABbeef]

To add to Knersie's criticisms, I also don't like the leg structure on either calves. The redder calf's back legs really bother me, as they are too closed-in to each other for my taste, making the back feet turn out, and obviously that's partly from lack of depth in the hind quarters. The lighter calf's front feet also don't look straight like they should.

They'd make good (not great) stocker steers, but not herd bulls.

My :2cents: .