Backbone Ranch
Well-known member
We weaned all 26 of our spring calves last week. We had 19 bulls and 7 heifers. The majority of the calves were sired by Tony, but we had 5 AI sired bull calves as well. As a whole, this is our best calf crop to date. I am just hoping for more heifer calves this coming year.
801 Bull- This calf is in line to be our next herd sire. He is an AI sired calf by Ballee Thumbs Up. He had a birth weight of 70 lbs and a weaning weight of 622 lbs. He is pictured here at 8 months of age.
These next three photos show some of our replacement heifers. We ended up retaining 6 of the 7 heifers as replacements. All of these are sired by BB Uncle Tony.
805 Bull- This bull is another AI sired calf. He is sired by MCC Trigger's Champion and out of our oldest Tony daughter. He was 78 lbs at birth and over 51% of his dam's body weight at weaning.
The rest of these bull calves are sired by BB Uncle Tony. The first two are purebred and the other two are mostly Murray Grey, and part Angus. All four of these calves were between 70 and 76 lbs at birth and out of proven cows. They range in age from 7 to 8 months here.
And this fall, we calved out six heifers and two cows. We ended up with 3 heifer calves and 5 bull calves.
This photo shows the group of first timers. All of these calves are sired by BB Uncle Tony and averaged 64.25 lbs at birth.
816 Heifer- This heifer was the first calf of the fall calving season. She was 58 lbs at birth and she is one of our best two calves of the fall calving season. She is pictured here at 1 month of age.
820 Heifer- This calf was an absolute surprise. Her mother, OK Sadie, is a 15 1/2 year old nursemaid to our heifers that we retired from production in 2015. We tried breeding her 18 months ago, and after two months, she came up open. Tony was in with our heifers last winter and we had to combine his group of heifers with the bred cow group to conserve our grass. Sadie was running with the bred cows at the time and got bred. We've got two full siblings to this little heifer in production and they are already among our best and they are 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 years old currently. This heifer is one day old here and was 60 lbs at birth.
And this is Sadie. She will be 16 years old in March. Most of our herd goes back to her at some point or another, as our last three herdsires have been her descendants. In fact, the 816 heifer is her great great great granddaughter.
849 Bull- This is a 14 day old bull calf sired by Tony and out of a MCC Trigger's Champion heifer. He is probably the best bull calf out of all of the first calf heifers. He was 64 lbs at birth.
After weaning calves this year, our cows were in the best shape that they have been going into winter. We even kept the calves on them for an additional two weeks because they cows were holding such good condition.
OK Bee Happy- This is a 7 1/2 year old that is phenotypically one of our best females. She also weaned one of our heaviest bull calves this year. We have AIed her for the last two years, and she has taken both times, but she is bred to Tony for a spring 2019 calf.
BB Uncle Tony- Tony will be 7 years old this March, and he has had a tremendous impact on our program. We have retained 27 of his daughters, 1 of his sons, and 5 of his granddaughters for our herd.
And this is Tony with one of his sons, BB Inkitobah
I realize that it's a lot of pictures, but thanks for letting me share!
801 Bull- This calf is in line to be our next herd sire. He is an AI sired calf by Ballee Thumbs Up. He had a birth weight of 70 lbs and a weaning weight of 622 lbs. He is pictured here at 8 months of age.
These next three photos show some of our replacement heifers. We ended up retaining 6 of the 7 heifers as replacements. All of these are sired by BB Uncle Tony.
805 Bull- This bull is another AI sired calf. He is sired by MCC Trigger's Champion and out of our oldest Tony daughter. He was 78 lbs at birth and over 51% of his dam's body weight at weaning.
The rest of these bull calves are sired by BB Uncle Tony. The first two are purebred and the other two are mostly Murray Grey, and part Angus. All four of these calves were between 70 and 76 lbs at birth and out of proven cows. They range in age from 7 to 8 months here.
And this fall, we calved out six heifers and two cows. We ended up with 3 heifer calves and 5 bull calves.
This photo shows the group of first timers. All of these calves are sired by BB Uncle Tony and averaged 64.25 lbs at birth.
816 Heifer- This heifer was the first calf of the fall calving season. She was 58 lbs at birth and she is one of our best two calves of the fall calving season. She is pictured here at 1 month of age.
820 Heifer- This calf was an absolute surprise. Her mother, OK Sadie, is a 15 1/2 year old nursemaid to our heifers that we retired from production in 2015. We tried breeding her 18 months ago, and after two months, she came up open. Tony was in with our heifers last winter and we had to combine his group of heifers with the bred cow group to conserve our grass. Sadie was running with the bred cows at the time and got bred. We've got two full siblings to this little heifer in production and they are already among our best and they are 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 years old currently. This heifer is one day old here and was 60 lbs at birth.
And this is Sadie. She will be 16 years old in March. Most of our herd goes back to her at some point or another, as our last three herdsires have been her descendants. In fact, the 816 heifer is her great great great granddaughter.
849 Bull- This is a 14 day old bull calf sired by Tony and out of a MCC Trigger's Champion heifer. He is probably the best bull calf out of all of the first calf heifers. He was 64 lbs at birth.
After weaning calves this year, our cows were in the best shape that they have been going into winter. We even kept the calves on them for an additional two weeks because they cows were holding such good condition.
OK Bee Happy- This is a 7 1/2 year old that is phenotypically one of our best females. She also weaned one of our heaviest bull calves this year. We have AIed her for the last two years, and she has taken both times, but she is bred to Tony for a spring 2019 calf.
BB Uncle Tony- Tony will be 7 years old this March, and he has had a tremendous impact on our program. We have retained 27 of his daughters, 1 of his sons, and 5 of his granddaughters for our herd.
And this is Tony with one of his sons, BB Inkitobah
I realize that it's a lot of pictures, but thanks for letting me share!
