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Walker

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What are 3 traits that a heifer must have in order for you to consider her for breeding stock/ what are 3 traits she must not have.
 
off the top of my head

3 must haves
1. Femininity
2. Good, sound udder
3. Capacity

3 must have nots
1. Short, couse neck and shoulders
2. Excessive bell curve navel (mainly because of the breed)
3. Excessively late maturity
 
She must have:
1. Shown good performance as a calf.
2. Have servicable conformation
3. A good temprament

She Must not have
1. Too much frame
2. Poor quality udder
3. Poor feet and legs
 
Walker":56sjaql5 said:
What are 3 traits that a heifer must have in order for you to consider her for breeding stock/ what are 3 traits she must not have.

Performance
Pedigree
Good Disposition

Slow breeder
Bad feet/legs
Bad disposition
 
Frankie touched on it, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned fertility has a must have trait. Isn't that considered the #1 economic trait in the beef industry?
 
VanC":3cq2m2qi said:
Frankie touched on it, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned fertility has a must have trait. Isn't that considered the #1 economic trait in the beef industry?

It is important, but when you are choosing heifers in the fall, and even in the spring before breeding, it is a very hard thing to know. The stuff I listed is all quantatative, you can see it. You don't see fertility until they are bred and you can preg check them. So it is quite easy to keep a subfertile heifer, although she would usually be culled out for not breeding on time.
 
randiliana":gy3drps7 said:
VanC":gy3drps7 said:
Frankie touched on it, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned fertility has a must have trait. Isn't that considered the #1 economic trait in the beef industry?

It is important, but when you are choosing heifers in the fall, and even in the spring before breeding, it is a very hard thing to know. The stuff I listed is all quantatative, you can see it. You don't see fertility until they are bred and you can preg check them. So it is quite easy to keep a subfertile heifer, although she would usually be culled out for not breeding on time.

The same goes for good sound udder. As weanlings and even as yealrings being bred, there's no way of knowing.

Must have:
Good feet and legs
Width through out
Depth of body

Must nots are the opposite of the must haves.

Trouble is trying to just come up with 3 things in each category
 
Its pretty tough to narrow it down to three.

Good disposition.
Acceptable conformation and structure.(feet, legs, depth, length, dam has good udder)
Good performance. (Including ultrasound data.)
 
Must haves,

Easy Doing
Good Conformation
Good Momma
 
1. Good temperment...If she acts up, she won't be there long enough to worry about anything else.
2. Come from a cow that is known for producing and raising good calves...By keeping her, I'm hoping to get a younger version of her mother.
3. She needs to grow out without much help...If she's sick alot or has more than average fly problems, or whatever else that might cause her to need to be pampered, I dont' want her.

1, 2, 3...The reverse of what I just said.
 
brandonm_13":29rv9m5q said:
1. Good temperment...If she acts up, she won't be there long enough to worry about anything else.
2. Come from a cow that is known for producing and raising good calves...By keeping her,
  • >>>>>I'm hoping to get a younger version of her mother.<<<
3. She needs to grow out without much help...If she's sick alot or has more than average fly problems, or whatever else that might cause her to need to be pampered, I dont' want her.

1, 2, 3...The reverse of what I just said.
havent had any luck with one that can reproduce herself..but agree with the known cow families . as one too use the right maternal bull to make one aleast as good,,but hopefully better than her mother. i dont want too add a quality here, and remove one there.like to match the bull as close as i can nothing too excessive to try and overcome a undesired trait
 
Of course we would have to get some Alabama humor in here. :banana:

But seriously, I've noticed that the old saying, keep the best sell the rest generally applies. I seldom keep a replacement anything(whether it be cow or goat), but if I find one good line, I'll keep every female I get. Like breeds like, and I just try to keep or improve the bull/buck for the next rotation. So far, has worked pretty good for me.
 
randiliana":t5u6jyu9 said:
She must have:
1. Shown good performance as a calf.
2. Have servicable conformation
3. A good temprament

She Must not have
1. Too much frame
2. Poor quality udder
3. Poor feet and legs
randiliana-

It would be more definitive if you could define "good" and "poor" terms when referring to both phenotype AND genotype!

DOC HARRIS
 
1.fert-if a heifer or cow isnt fertile.she wont be in the herd long.
2 temperment-if a cow is crazy or dumb.she wont stay in the herd.
3.milk-if a cow doesnt have milk.she cant raise her calf.
4.if the cow/heifer dont have those things.she dont deserve to stay in a herd.
5.breed-to get the 3 things you need in a cow.you must chose the breed or croos that fitts your needs.
6.that breed must also fitt your country pasture an management style.
7.for the reasons above i raise beefmasters.
i know i carried it out further than your q asked for sorry.
 
Good Conformation
Good Weight
Good Disposition

These essentials will allow a heifer to be put with a bull. As others stated, the opposite is what I do not want to see. Taking it a step further, the following will allow a heifer to remain in the herd:

Good Fertility (Breeding on time to calve at 2 yrs and breeding back on time)
Good Milk (Raising an acceptable calf)
Good Hardiness (Staying in condition to breed back while raising a calf with little or no supplement)
 
Three things I look for in any animal:

1. FERTILITY/REPRODUCTIVE ABILITY - which takes into account femininity, neck extension, shoulders, pelvic capacity, angle from hips to pins, udder and vulva development (or scrotum and sheath in bulls). The number one thing needs to be the ability to put a calf on the ground.

2. STRUCTURAL SOUNDNESS (for longevity) - which takes into account correct leg angulation, feet structure, walking ability and topline. The second most important thing, after putting a calf on the ground, is to be able to do it year after year for 15 years.

3. CARCASE CHARACTERISTICS - because after all, we are producing meat. This takes into account length, depth and width of body, muscle expression, meat and waste carriage, amount of bone.

If you wanted me to be absolutely particular about what I DONT want, it would be:

1. Poor structure in the legs (eg. post legged)
2. The combination of short neck, coarse shoulders, bully face, and underdeveloped vulvu and udder.
3. Low pelvic capacity, and hips level with pins.
 
DOC HARRIS":1sh6pird said:
randiliana":1sh6pird said:
She must have:
1. Shown good performance as a calf.
2. Have servicable conformation
3. A good temprament

She Must not have
1. Too much frame
2. Poor quality udder
3. Poor feet and legs
randiliana-

It would be more definitive if you could define "good" and "poor" terms when referring to both phenotype AND genotype!

DOC HARRIS

OK, I'll try,

Must Haves
1. Good performance as a calf. She must grow better than the average heifer calf in the herd. I will keep heifers off of 2 year olds, if they grow as good as or better than the average cows' calves.

2. Servicable Conformation. She doesn't have to be "pretty" or have perfect conformation, but I want to see traits in her that I want passed on, thickness, length and depth. She can have faults in any one of those, but the other traits must make up for it. The rest of it, she must have good feet, and reasonably good leg structure, she will eventually have to cover ground, and if she can't do that she will either not breed back, or continually be in poor condition.

3. Good Temprament. She should be calm, not overly excitable, and definitely not aggressive towards humans. The agressiveness, can be hard to discern before they calve, but on some you can tell. If she is bouncing off the corral fences every time you work with her, I don't want her. She will either end up wrecking corrals, or hurting someone.

Must Not Haves.

1. Too much Frame. We try to keep our cows in the 5-6 frame range. This one is pretty much a deal breaker, right now we have a good, growthy heifer in the sale pen. She was one of the top performing heifers, she is quiet, and she has pretty good conformation, BUT, she is too big, she weighed in at 852 about a month ago, and she is far, far from fat. I expect, she would mature above 1500 lbs as a cow, and she is not short in stature. Just too big for our operation.

2. Poor quality Udder. Dun mentioned that this was another hard to tell trait. And he is right, but I try not to keep heifers off of cows with poor udders. For me, this means big teats, that the calf cannot suck on its own, or swing bags, the kind that hang so low that a calf has a hard time figuring out where to suck.

3. Poor feet and legs. Narrow based, cow hocked or sickle hocked, are the kind of traits I want to avoid. Sickle hocked usually leads to a cow that has poor hind feet, and that can have difficulty getting around. The other 2 generally indicate a cow that is not as wide as we like. Feet are kind of hard to tell about on a calf, but by yearling time you can usually start to see whether they may over grow.
 

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