mitch2":1do59gt2 said:
cowboyup216":1do59gt2 said:
If the bull has a low enough birthweight that you dont think heifers will have problem then why are you having 100 to 100+ pound calves? Unless you are feeding them in the last months of their gestation there should be no reason their birthweights are this high unless both the cow's and the bull's birthweight are high.
1 was 100+, the rest have been under 80#...bull's bw was 74#... please explain why both parents have to have high bw to get a high bw calve? Sorry, but I am still new at this....
Michele
In theory both contribute, but in fact, sometimes you get the throw back or exception. I know folks are tired of this story, but a cow bred to a Lincoln Red Had a 100 plus pound calf when every other cow bred to him had little bitty calves. The next year we bred them all to a Gert bull and every calf was within maybe ten pounds, even the cow with the monster calf had a small calf that fit in with the others. The owner decided it was fluke so we bred them all to the Lincoln Red bull again. All the calves were tiny, except that one cows calf, another monster. No matter how well we think we understand this stuff (the we being scientests, etc.) Ol Ma Nature will toss a curve hust to keep everyone on their toes.
