Your ugliest cow

[cowgirl8]

My ugliest cow, here is the place to post a picture of your ugliest cow.
Here his Humpy. My husband hates her, scoffs every time we go into this pasture. I think she's sweet. She always has a nice calf, gets along in the herd and is never a problem. When we culled back in 2011, she went up for consideration. Cows were bringing a very low price and the only reason she'd go to sale is her roached back. She wouldnt have brought what a good cow would have gone for, and I dont care that her back is roached, she still made us money like the other cows. She was only 4 at the time and she had a very sweet face. So Humpy got to stay. Now its just a topic of discussion between me and my hubby, jokingly. He makes fun of her, i take up for her.

She has a very nice bull calf, he's already following cows in heat so couldnt get a picture of him with her. Dont worry, wouldnt keep a bull out of her. But since we dont castrate until the calves are around 5 months, we have to put up with them following cows in heat for a few months.

 

[inyati13]

I don't consider her ugly. In fact, if I had more time I would like to discuss the whole issue of what looks good in cattle. I think appearence is over-rated. Form and function are important. If the form includes a hump but the cow functions well; not a problem. I happen to like diversity. I like my short cows; I like my tall cows.

I think you have opened a great topic but I got to go and remember it is Derby Day here in KY!!!

 

[bigbull338]

she is just a good calf raiser in her working clothes.

 

[Rafter S]

I had a heifer some years ago that I weaned along with my keepers, intending to butcher her. She just wasn't a pretty heifer. Kind of raw-boned, nub horns, just not the kind I usually keep. Before I took her to be butchered I happened to look back at the records. She was six or eight weeks younger than the rest of the heifers, but about the same size. I decided to give her a chance.

She still isn't much for looks, but she raises a good calf, and is usually one of my first cows to calf.

 

[Nesikep]

I can't remember who it was, but when I posted this pic, they said it was one of the worst cows they'd seen... She's about 12 years old in this pic, and had 13 calves for me... She was the mother of my old girl Rosie, and the one that had the stroke last year, Tizia... I've got 5 granddaughters and they're all looking pretty good, the 2 oldest are 8 and 4, and both are among my top producers.
This is Josie


Humpy would be a pretty good looking cow if she didn't have her hunchback... Certainly has a good udder

 

[Aaron]

If I can find my transfer cord for my camera, I have a cow that makes those first two look like show-ring winners.

EDIT: Found it. Here you go.

This girl brought home the biggest calf in the fall herd every single year and always had steers except for one year. I kept that one heifer as her sire was a real meat wagon and it looks like she is going to keep her flesh a lot better. She just calved the other day and is doing a great job as a first-timer. I sold this girl last Saturday as she finally come open (never missed a beat up until this point) - 90 cents on 1285 lbs.

So now I need to find a new ugly cow in the herd. It's going to be a hard time picking one out.

 

[CravinGrazin]

You know, I used to sell feed and it was mostly to big range outfits. Many would call me mid winter to come take a look at their cows - get a fresh set of eyes on them, someone who hasn't lived with them all winter. I remember noticing a really scrawny, kinda ugly cow on one place who didn't seem to be running after the cake truck and I mentioned her to the guy as being one who might need some TLC. Real quick he said no - she never eats hay or any kind of supplement, always winters in that condition, but is in the first cycle every year and weans at least 50% of her body weight.

Made me think so I started looking for the same type on every ranch and there was always the same response and maybe a bunch like that cow.

Now I'm not saying keep the poor cows, but I did wonder about cloning a few of them......

 

[Nesikep]

We had one cow we called "Pity"... she just looked so miserable the name was natural to her.. raise a heck of a calf, we bought her with some miles on her and had her 4 years before she was open

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I can't remember who it was, but when I posted this pic, they said it was one of the worst cows they'd seen... She's about 12 years old in this pic, and had 13 calves for me... She was the mother of my old girl Rosie, and the one that had the stroke last year, Tizia... I've got 5 granddaughters and they're all looking pretty good, the 2 oldest are 8 and 4, and both are among my top producers.
This is Josie


Humpy would be a pretty good looking cow if she didn't have her hunchback... Certainly has a good udder

She's not ugly at all! That's my kind right there.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I think I should have the ugly cow contest wrapped up here, but she does her job good enough so I don't tell her she ain't pretty.

 

[branguscowgirl]

None of those cows are "ugly" per say. (May not win a beauty contest either though.) Each one has some good qualities, even if they are not perfect. As has been said many times on here, "if they raise a good calf it really doesn't matter"!
I don't have a ugly cow picture to post. I am not saying mine have all been perfect, I just never owned one that I thought was ugly I guess. :mrgreen:
Now I could come up with the ugliest horse picture I'm sure!

 

[branguscowgirl]

Cowgirl, did you raise Humpy? How do you think her back ended up that way? Is it an actual curve in her spine or is it muscle?

 

[Nesikep]

Since we got out of herefords we have a lot less ugly cows :hide: A nice herf is really nice (and all their calves are the cutest), but there's few things uglier than a bad one... I saw lots of them at the indian reserve when I shipped a bunch for them! For me to find more ugly cow pics I'd have to go looking through REAL photographs and scan them.

 

[cowgirl8]

Cowgirl, did you raise Humpy? How do you think her back ended up that way? Is it an actual curve in her spine or is it muscle?

Yes, we raised her. I dont recall her being like this before her first calf. We've had cows that if they had a difficult delivery, something in their back gets sprung and they have a hump somewhere along their spine the rest of their life. Not all with difficult deliveries do this, just some. I'm assuming that maybe this happened to her, since she's probably mostly sim, she could have had a difficult first calf...

 

[backhoeboogie]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Checking account looks nice too! If they make money, they can get uglier.

My ugliest would have to be one of the nurse cows, simply because of the dairy influence.

 

[crossbredcalves]

backhoeboogie, The cow I would pick as my ugliest is that way because of her dairy influence. She does her job well, but it still doesn't make her pretty.

 

[cow pollinater]

Beauty is only skin deep. My ugly ones get that title with their dispositions. :lol:
DM, I've got a decent hereford I'll swap you for your grey cow if you want to do some hauling.

 

[Nesikep]

hehe, Josie had the disposition of an queen.. and she's passed it along down the line too... When she was a long yearling heifer, she was haltered and tied up by an apricot tree, my mother went to her and gave her some treat, then she got excited and ran off, my mother caught up in the rope.. My mother yelled for her to stop, and she stopped in her tracks... saved my mother a good fall

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Beauty is only skin deep. My ugly ones get that title with their dispositions. :lol:
DM, I've got a decent hereford I'll swap you for your grey cow if you want to do some hauling.

Thanks for the offer, but I guess I'll stick with her. I bought that cow last fall with a 300lb rat tail steer on her and gave 1300$ for the pair, I sold the calf a month ago for 1260$ and now the cow is bred back to one of my brangus bulls.

 

[kenny thomas]

You guys are not even in the running. I won the contest a few years ago so I just gotta hunt a picture of her. Im talking ugly. :lol2: