Your choice for a carcass merit bull

[hornedfrogbbq]

What AI bulls would you select if you wanted to ramp your carcass merits? I could put all sorts of parameters around that for our herd but i'll leave it open to see all the thoughts folks have. Thanks for the input.

 

[Ebenezer]

Akaushi of some sort.

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

Oops. Sorry. I should have given one restriction: black angus please.

 

[T & B farms]

If your looking to retain heifers I would use SS Niagra. I have a handful of fall calves out of him that look very nice.
If you were wanting something 100% terminal I would go with something deer valley or Gar.

 

[Lazy M]

I had a 9Q13 son that we used for butcher beef steers and their meat quality was excellent. Here is a grandson that would probably do well:
https://bullsearch.absglobal.com/en-us/beef/bull/detail/2270225/breed/12/proof/6/country/222

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

SAV Priority has given me some beefy calves. The last bull calf looked special at birth, sold him at 13 months for breeding. Gentle also.

 

[NEFarmwife]

Byergo Blackstone. LOVING his calves. They are coming a little bigger (90lbs) but he makes EVERYTHING here look feminine. LOL. His calves are little tanks. From birth to present, they are the operations favorite overall sire group. We are just getting calves on the ground from him but if he is everything his numbers say he is, he's going to bring us some dollars at finish. I see he is now $45 a straw (we got him for $17 last year at their sale).
https://www.angus.org/Animal/EpdPed...bQGlJEyfEu9QWOoiuAGBc+MDcE6ZPCn/1Zjys9728w=%3


This year, we're collecting on our own bull and AI'ing him to a good portion of our operation. He'd make a nice clean up too but we spend thousands each year AIing commercial cows... we're going to tie it back a bit. He really offers everything we're looking for and I'd like to see what kind of calves he throws. We finish our cattle, so carcass is important. Yes, he's unproven (Today is his 1st birthday!)... but he'll be fine on most our herd.
https://www.angus.org/Animal/EpdPed...hzeYMNG4ssAMSC3w+KsVWbNqNCI+asOBls7ebcDLd4g==

 

[T & B farms]

https://www.angus.org/Animal/EpdPedDtl.aspx?aid=FAAAAMEqPh9wM%2bHumpv1BFnWEJz0kN55AHEA25VKg0Oz3xqX&time=KgAAAMX2%2bOH%2fdDJ%2fJi4RO92FVC91SzPnLNAZs9Z%2fRmOjsNpoa5XvpBLXJRx2gjRwxoKS6w%3d%3d

Here is a bull I've been using pretty heavily. I have some 15 day old calves now that seem to be growing very well. I have not saw the bull, but have been told his phenotype is great. I'm using him in hopes of good terminal calves, and also some good heifers.
If he interests you,message me I can fix you up.

 

[Lucky_P]

If we'd continued using Angus genetics, Rito 9Q13(AAA 16408438) would have gotten the nod... and principally for his carcass traits.

Still hard to beat the combination of high marbling, ribeye and tenderness that Gardens Wave (AAA 13818764)brought to the table, along with high $EN. Wish I'd used him more... the Wave daughters out of 3/4AN-1/4 SM cows have been really good.
Haven't looked at the Green Garden Angus offerings lately, but they may have some newer ones that are as good or better.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Are you retaining your calves to feed out yourself, or selling direct to the feedlots?
Or are your calves just going to the salebarn?

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

We have not had the set-up to feed them much past 600lbs. We just added acreage that has approx 250 acres under 3 pivots, so when we get that program figured out, we'd like to carry the steers to 800lbs and ship to a feedyard.

Considering the genetics we have added over the last 6 years thru AI and a wicked strict cull program, we think we should consider retaining ownership through the feedyard and possibly thru processing and selling on a value grid.

We have a test load going thru a yard in KS and they are going to give us both the yard data and the kill sheets/grading and yield data. That should give us some useful info to help us make these decisions.

 

[jscunn]

Hornedfrogbbq ,
Are you getting paid for grid premiums or just getting paid for weight only?

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

Right now we truck them to OKC west and sell in the auction there...which is weight based. We have not tried to capture anything else and we all feel like we are leaving money on the table. We crush the pricing there and set the top of the market for the last 3 years straight but someone is doing REALLY well with these steers I think. I'll know more this spring.

 

[NEFarmwife]

Hornedfrogbbq ,
Are you getting paid for grid premiums or just getting paid for weight only?

Just want to add from personal experience... we took 97 head to a feedlot at around 1000lbs to just finish them (retained ownership) hoping for a higher premium since they were part of NHTC and promised $175hd bonus. We got that head bonus but paid way more to finish them. They took forever! Only gaining 2lbs a day whereas we had 4. What should have been 3 months, turned to 5 (small bunch 6) and lost 5 head (1 railer). We opted to never do that again. Had corn there that we pretty much lost. It was awful.

No one will care for your cattle the way you do and no one can feed them cheaper than you can (if u have the resources).

I'm currently getting tax stuff ready and it makes me sick to see what we paid for them to finish our cattle out.

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

All of our older friends that have been in the business decades are warning us of this danger. Some have never really had the capital to build a herd like we have but their caution is telling and we are taking our time to learn as much as possible before retaining anything. I'd almost like to retain 10% just to get the data!

 

[NEFarmwife]

All of our older friends that have been in the business decades are warning us of this danger. Some have never really had the capital to build a herd like we have but their caution is telling and we are taking our time to learn as much as possible before retaining anything. I'd almost like to retain 10% just to get the data!

That would be good. I can tell you the data you're able to collect is very telling of your program and what direction to take your genetics.

 

[jscunn]

If you are using the bull strictly for feedlot use, pick a bull with some frame, some CW and some Marbling if getting paid on the grid. Sort the EPDs by top 30% for YH, CW, and Marbling.. lots of good bulls come up, use one that fits your goals and maybe not your desires for the "perfect" bull. The bull you select should have more frame than you like to see in a replacement female.