Which bull? which bull?

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As much as it pains me to say this. If it were me I would go with the 48Z. I think he would nick well with your cows. Smooth em out some and Hopefully insert a little moderation in the size of your calves. I sure would love to see him this time next year!

My next choice is a tossup between 5z and 2z.

just my 2 cents. I am sure the real breeeders out there will set you on the right path!
 
I think 48Z is spoken for, according to the breeders he isn't as fast a gainer, lower BW... he does look good, and seeing them in person may reveal things that the pictures don't.. both good and bad.

my shorthorn cows need the smoothing out, but the ones that are 1/2 Gelbvieh are pretty smooth for the most part... I'm look forward to what the daughters of my old girl will make with this guy, 3 of them are 1/2 GV 1/4 Saler, and one is 1/2SH 1/4 Saler, but looks all Saler... time will tell, and it'll take patience.. another 17 months until I start to see the results, and a couple years before I know how good they *really* are
 
Well, we went, we saw, we came back with a bull, #48 wasn't the one that was spoken for, it was #2, and #48 didn't impress me... #2 was nice, great butt, and definitely well built, but when we stuck our hand in the pen, he snorted, shook his head and walked off, while #5 came an licked us, so he's the one we loaded up, and he is a very well behaved boy. On the way down, he had his nose out of the horse trailer window most of the way, and didn't mind people giving him a pat on the back. When I backed up to our corral and opened the gate, he just calmly walked out. Yesterday I brought up my whiteface long yearling heifer, and he was very happy for company, and a butt to sniff... I think he hasn't had any in a while.. Roma wasn't very happy about the whole idea, but they're getting along well now.

Here he is




And this is his mother... I find she's decent, perhaps a bit prominent shoulders? Good udder and hooves, good back, and docile too
 
With the disclaimer that I know little about limousins.... I liked him better before you posted those numbers.

While it appears your girls can handle a harder calving bull, and his weaning weight number is at least average, he may get you some good terminal calves, but he is by the numbers not a maternal bull, and tho they are low accuracy his dam and sire are just as poor. What concerns me the most is the CEM on both sides of the pedigree. Your cows might make up for the milk. Dam is a pretty nice little cow though.

Edit: Checked out their website, they seem to have a program that fits your needs (docililty, calving ease) and though the numbers fail to bear out the calving ease part, they have been using herd bulls only for many generations, which depending on their herd size and how much info they report, will affect the EPD accuracy. That being said I would still not use him on my heifers the first year and pelvic score his heifers. I hope he pans out and proves his EPDs wrong in five years!
 
I think he will be alright Nesikep. 3.1 bw is not bad. Any thing under a 3 I will use on heifers and not worry about it. CEM could be better. Just not a bad little bull at all.
 
Should do the job for you. I like him just fine. I however do not like his mother. She has some length and a good udder and i will leave it at that!
 
Stocker Steve":uqakyw7e said:
What would you usually expect from a GV x Limi cross?

First of all they will be whole lot more croessed than that. But they will be 1/2 limo, 1/4 GV and the rest is a dog from every town.

What i would expect is some big butted calves with decent milk from the GV side and hopefully none of the heifers get their grandmothers open shoulders or short hip! I am definately curious as to what his birthweights are going to do!
 
We have high BW's at our place regardless of which bull we use, an 80 lb heifer calf is about as small as they get, 90 for bull calves, and it goes up to 110/120 pretty routinely, My average last year was 100 lb on the button.

I'll keep a close eye on the heifers I get from him, I think the ones that have more Shorthorn ought to have pretty decent hips, while the ones that are more Gelbvieh I might have to look at closer.

I will also have to watch that they don't get too leggy with the SH's though, This guy is going to make a lot more frame than our GV bull did.. I think I may end up with more heifers that look like the leggy one I decided to keep this year.


This new bull and my old bull are now together with the rest of the cows, and everyone seems to be getting along just fine, which is certainly a relief.

They have about 40 cows at Hi Valley
 
Well, though I'd post a new picture of him.. He's 28 months now, and has really changed in the last couple of months, really gained a lot of weight and length.
20140617_100455_zps10a9a2d1.jpg
 
If you are planning on keeping replacements from your new bull I would take the time to see the dam and as many female relatives as possible, especially in light of the fact that the only criticism of your old bull wasin regards to udder quality. You would hate to regret a bull purchase years down the road because of udder quality. I am late to the party, oh well. :D
 
I did look at the dam (I think I posted her picture in a previous post), and her udder was fine... The old bull's daughters all had good udders, just extra teats on them, some working, others blanks. I don't think 1 bull will cure all the little things I have that bug me on different cows... Big tailheads, big heads, imperfect udders, not enough meat on the hips, too short, too tall, etc.. I'm happy if I can not lose too much ground in one place while I make it up in others.

I didn't see bags that stuck me as inferior in the pics you posted.
 
Well, I thought it would be a good time to update this thread.. I'm probably going to be selling him this weekend
Current EPD's are here https://cla.digitalbeef.com/modules.php ... CXM4074065
One thing I find interesting is he has better than average CED despite the higher than average BW. I don't put a whole lot of importance on the YW and WW since I know the herd he comes from is a low-input herd, and neither them, nor their customers would be graining them.. I am pretty happy with the way the calves have been growing.

Now for the quality of his daughters? I'd call them average.. I have a few that are looking like they stand out from the rest, but that is because of exceptional dams. For the most part, My concerns I brought up a while back were justified, he worked very well with the GV cross cows, but the SH's without GV never really were much to look at.. Lots of frame, but rather 2 dimensional... Add some GV influence and then you have much better. The two better daughters I have that have calves are raising respectable calves for first timers, they definitely both have potential to raise whoppers even if they don't do it on the first attempt.

Also, he wasn't a heifer bull.. my first year I needed to use a calf puller on 2 of the 4 heifers, however I never needed to pull one from any *cow*. (I stopped using him on heifers after that). Udders, they look alright, perhaps the teats are a little long, but not problematic by any stretch of the imagination, udder suspension, etc is all very good.. Of the 3 daughters of his that have calved, the two "good" ones didn't need any help calving, while the one I didn't like anyhow did need some help.. she's going on a truck this fall though.
Here are two promising looking yearling daughters of his, Yotta (From Mega), and Sigma (from Chroma)

Yotta is the stouter type of animal, certainly will mature a full frame score less than Sigma


Sigma has the legs and pretty good length, both ought to make good cows, I'll tell you more in a year :)


You might remember this steer, probably one of the nicest I've ever raised, though I think the dam should take at least 75% of the credit there, since her heifer this year is absolutely outstanding but from my homeraised bull.. so she's really contributing to it.


Docility on him and his calves has been great.. this year just about every calf is a pest that wants attention, Sigma and Yotta are real sweeties, they both just want to hang out with you just for company. He likes his attention as well, a little back scratch is very welcome... He's a lousy fighter though, My homeraised bull whoops his arse at 3 years old (2 years younger) and about 500lb weight disadvantage

I'll work on getting a better picture of him, but here he is stuck on babysitting duty by the looks of it


If my management was different and I could tolerate having a snotty bull around, I think the 2Z bull would have been more suited for the herd of shorthorn cows, being a little stouter and less framey.. On the other hand, I live to write this!
 
When are you going bull buying again? Looks like he filled a role. That is what I look for when I either buy or keep a bull. I don't expect one bull to correct all the faults in my herd. If they can improve some and not go backwards on any I'm happy. The calf I kept and have put with a few cows isn't perfect but he adds some qualities we need on some of our cows.
 
elkwc":382uj73w said:
When are you going bull buying again? Looks like he filled a role. That is what I look for when I either buy or keep a bull. I don't expect one bull to correct all the faults in my herd. If they can improve some and not go backwards on any I'm happy. The calf I kept and have put with a few cows isn't perfect but he adds some qualities we need on some of our cows.
That's what I do (I pretty much said exactly that a while back)

I'm not sure.. I'm thinking maybe next fall I'll get a new one.. I'm trading my homeraised bull for another that I raised a few years back. His sister was my best cow and I lost her this spring, so there's part of my reason for wanting that one back

Here's the replacement for now
 

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