8/22 Photos

[Deleted]

Did what I could to get some photos this past weekend when we worked cows and pulled the bull from the pasture.  Critique if you feel like, they aren't perfect but there are some nice bull and heifer prospects in the bunch I think.

Probably my favorite calf in the pasture right now but I'm probably a little biased since he is out of one of the cows I own. He's sired by a Revolution son who we kept in-herd semen rights on and sold full possession to Wiese & Sons. His dam is a World Class granddaughter.  Named him after the big Hereford bull statue "Albert the bull" in Audubon, IA and my 16th month old daughter old knows exactly who he is when I show her pictures on my phone as she will say "Albert!" when she sees him.

TS ALBERT 73Z 52C (P43576156)

Next 3 are also sired by the same Rebel bull, first 2 are full sisters with the yearling heifer being our top YW ratio.  They are the 1st 2 calves by her dam who is a R Puckster III 5080 daugther and really disappointed we didn't catch her in heat with our AI group this year to breed her back to Rebel again.  3rd one is a heifer out of a Boomer 29F granddaughter

S REBEL'S TORI 73Z 51C (P43576153)

TS REBA 73Z 87B (P43478102)

TS SUSAN 73Z 53C (P43576147)

Here's the On Target 936 section.  First 2 are full sisters out of a Revolution 4R daugther and the 3rd is our yearling herd sire.

S JANE 936 55C (P43576152)

S ANNIE 936 83B (P43478103)

S MARKSMAN 936 84B {DLF,HYF,IEF} (P43478104)

This is a picture right off the trailer after pulling him from the pasture.  He's a yearling that had 23 cows in pasture, would guess we maybe settled 6 of them AI and he broke in with the AI group and bred 2 heifers so our first calf next year will likely be his.

Only got one SHF York 19H Y02 calf in this calf crop out of a first calf Revolution 4R heifer.  He looked a lot better this spring I thought would like to see more masculinity up through the front but we'll see how he grows out I guess.  Anything we have AI next year will probably be all York calves

CAMBRIDGE Y02 54C (P43576134)

Only 1 Revolution 4R heifer this year, we have a full sister to her from last year who I think is better but their dam has had nothing but solid heifers for us.  She isn't exactly posing very well here either

S REVA 4R 56C (P43576157)

And here is some of the last calves we'll have out of R Puckster III 5080:

S LIDSTROM 5080 57C (P43576151)

S LEMIEUX 5080 60C (P43576130)  His dam is the dam to our 936 herd sire

S TREY'S PARISE 5080 61C (P43576126)

 S ESPOSITO 5080 63C (P43576150) He's playing peek-a-boo with his ears!

S TREY'S DIONNE 5080 66C (P43576131)

S MARY'S MAGGIE 5080 69C (P43576125)  This is our May orphan bottle calf

[Deleted]

There is potential in the group, and some that should be fine non registered commercial cattle. With exercise and quality forage you can expect to see an improvement with the structural issues. It is hard to tell from the coat color pattern but it appears you may be locking in straighter than normal front ends.

A lot of us wanna see what is going on when you look at cattle from the front, too.

[Deleted]

Because so many Hereford operations tend to be north of Interstate 40 I thought it might be a good time to point out:

deseretranchflorida.com/Home/RanchingBusiness

Deseret Ranch in Florida is the largest cattle ranch in the US.

If you were lucky enough to sell them 50 bulls, how would your bulls improve their herd? To me a registered bull should be synonymous with herd improvements. And most people with large numbers run it just like the Mormons. Cattle are on their own and calves are collected twice a year.

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2015 2:59:41 GMT -6 @jw said:

There is potential in the group, and some that should be fine non registered commercial cattle. With exercise and quality forage you can expect to see an improvement with the structural issues. It is hard to tell from the coat color pattern but it appears you may be locking in straighter than normal front ends.

A lot of us wanna see what is going on when you look at cattle from the front, too.

Thanks for the comments. I usually take most photos from the profile side but will keep in mind to shoot some more shots from the front too in the future.  I might add they haven't been on creep up to this point either, we just set the creep out that they'll be on for about 6 weeks then weaned.  As you might be able to see in the pictures we have a fair amount of fescue in the pasture too to deal with too.  We do notice a lot of change in how they look once we get them weaned and onto feed and they start growing out.  One thing we've been trying to work on is improving the spring of rib and more bone to our calves which I think we're seeing some improvement in with the Rebel 73Z and 936 lines we're using more of now.

[Deleted]

Albert and Lidstrom are the two that stand out in the photos.

All you have to say is FESCUE. Hahaha Seriously glad we don't have to deal with it.

[Deleted]

The photographs from the front are nice because you see a good number of Angus that look like WOW! from the side but are slab sided and pinched at the heart girth.

[oldduffer]

sph: If you can produce cattle that are purchased by Wiese & Sons you gotta be kicking out some good, sound, correct cattle that work in the REAL world. That is a top notch Hereford outfit ran by high integrity people. If all Hereford breeders produced and marketed breeding stock backed by many generations of honest working cattle Herefords would be the King of cattle breeds again.





"Extremism to protect Liberty is no Vice."

[Deleted]

jw: yeah those 2 bulls are the ones that caught my attention in the pasture too. I'm pretty confident the LEMIEUX and ESPOSITO bulls will not disappoint either as they mature, they are out of 2 of our best dams whose bull calves have always done well and made our sale pen. Dad likes to call the mid to late summer time the "ugly phase" for calves because they change so much in the upcoming months as they mature.

oldduffer: thanks for the kind words, we're pretty proud of the Rebel bull and need to get over to Wiese's again sometime and see their first calves out of him. We've only had 6 calves by him and unfortunately I don't think we'll have anything by him next year but I think he's proven to us that we need to use him more in the future with the results we've seen so far.

[Deleted]

SPH you seem like a decent person so I am going to be honest in a way that is intended for you to be financially successful.

Save the registration and blood test money and sell most of the group as commercial. That doesn't mean they are crap and you should give them away. In business it is never a good idea to put your name on anything less than your very best. Is Esposito the best bull calf on HT this year?

This guy is in the nothing special Hereford business and his reputation took a pounding. Think he was even banned from the site for a while.
www.cattlerange.com/508C307-201/508C307-201.html

[strojanherefords]

I don't know anything about fescue but it seems that endophyte has affected some calves more than others. I wonder, are certain cow families affected by the endophyte fescue more than others?  I believe that cattle that can tolerate the fescue endophyte will always have value no matter which way the wind blows.  That being said if I where in your shoes, I would spend my creep feeding budget on reducing the fescue endophyte.

[btlrupert]

You can develop cattle that tolerate fescue. Trouble is you have to have years of selection and only buy genetics that demonstrate the same ability . That's why I feel cattle here need years of HARD selection to get it done. Tough to bring "non southern" non fescue type blood in. You can do it and I've seen it done but be ready to cull hard!

[postoak1]

LOL, I have to have cattle that are adapted to Bahiagrass. It takes an easy fleshing cow to keep body condition and raise a calf on Bahiagrass with little or no supplement. That being said, the fescue adapted cattle work great on Bahiagrass as long as they are slick hided.

[elkwc]

I like the first two heifers out of 936. Would like to see more rear end shots. Hard to tell much about musclind with side shots. I feel several of the others will look a lot better as they grow. I would rather look at them in that condition than mud fat like so many have them. Then when the fat comes off you find way more issues with them than what I see in your cattle.

[btlrupert]

Postoak you are correct. Mature Bahia requires three sets of teeth to bite. IF you can keep it in that 3-4 inch level it will grow cattle. Aggressive rotation works.

[jayh]

Aug 29, 2015 21:09:07 GMT -6 strojanherefords said:

I don't know anything about fescue but it seems that endophyte has affected some calves more than others. I wonder, are certain cow families affected by the endophyte fescue more than others?  I believe that cattle that can tolerate the fescue endophyte will always have value no matter which way the wind blows.  That being said if I where in your shoes, I would spend my creep feeding budget on reducing the fescue endophyte.[/quote]

I don't know about where SPH lives but here you can put in any kind of grass you desire and in two to three yrs it will have endophyte fescue right back in it. But no tilling clover in the fescue pasture sure helps. With that being said there is nothing wrong with it IF THE CALVES ARE RAISED ON IT. A cow born here will adapt to it with out any problems. A cow trucked in will work her self out of a job. Meaning she wont breed back. Been there have that t-shirt to.

I believe if they can tolerate fescue they can go anywhere and go straight to work with out falling apart.

[jayh]

BTW SPH nice group of calves.

[postoak1]

Aug 30, 2015 10:30:21 GMT -6 btlrupert said:

Postoak you are correct. Mature Bahia requires three sets of teeth to bite. IF you can keep it in that 3-4 inch level it will grow cattle. Aggressive rotation works.

If you get plenty of rain on Bahia like in 2013 it will outgrow the rotation and lignify. I tried the stockpiled Bahia thing that year and said the hell with and put out hay about November 15.

[Deleted]

Aug 29, 2015 3:24:27 GMT -6 @jw said:

SPH you seem like a decent person so I am going to be honest in a way that is intended for you to be financially successful.

Save the registration and blood test money and sell most of the group as commercial. That doesn't mean they are crap and you should give them away. In business it is never a good idea to put your name on anything less than your very best. Is Esposito the best bull calf on HT this year?

This guy is in the nothing special Hereford business and his reputation took a pounding. Think he was even banned from the site for a while.
www.cattlerange.com/508C307-201/508C307-201.html

Nearly all of our bulls sell to commercial breeders actually but our heifers sell to both registered and commercial and especially in the case if a junior was buying a heifer they would want papers on that calf to be able to show it as a purebred. We do not register the entire calf crop, usually just ones we feel have potential to make the cut for our bull pen or as replacement heifers and by registering them before 4 months of age it only costs $10.50 each compared to what it would later as the registration fees go up every 4 months in age all the way up to $50 if you wait till after 12 months of age. We're also using only natural or non-certificate AI sires so it's not costing us anything additional to register the AI calves since we aren't paying for expensive AI certificates that depending on the bull could cost up to $100 each.  The only DNA testing we do are on bulls we either retain for our own use or sell to a registered herd.  We're a TPR breeder and aren't ashamed to put our name on our cattle and nor should anyone be for that matter if you believe in the kind of cattle you are breeding.  Why would anyone want to buy from a breeder that doesn't even believe enough in their own cattle to not want to have their name associated with it?

No the Esposito bull is not the best bull calf I've seen posted here and he's not even the best bull calf in our calf crop right now and I don't recall claiming that either.  I do like to share here from time to time and I do like it when others share theirs as well, would be nice if more here would do that actually.  His dam is a DOD and we have sold 2 full brothers of his as well as 2 other bulls out of his dam so we're confident that as he matures he has a good chance to make our bull pen so we went ahead and registered him based on how his dam has been a solid performer for us over the years.  If he doesn't make the cut he'll be steered and sent off to the feedlot with the other bulls that didn't make it.  We're a small herd and we do not register every calf as we have a good idea by 4 months which ones probably won't be worth registering, so the $10 is not a huge issue when we're talking about maybe a dozen or so calves to register if we do miss on a few.  I respect your assessment, its a fair one. We do sell to a lot of commercial breeders already but in my opinion if you are running a registered purebred herd that regardless where your cattle may be sold to having your calves registered regardless if they were to sell to a registered or commercial breeder.  We do retain some replacement heifers for ourselves so especially with the heifer calves it makes more sense to register them before 4 months of age instead of sometime after they are weaned because then it will cost twice as much to do so.

[Deleted]

Aug 30, 2015 9:01:09 GMT -6 elkwc said:

I like the first two heifers out of 936. Would like to see more rear end shots. Hard to tell much about musclind with side shots. I feel several of the others will look a lot better as they grow. I would rather look at them in that condition than mud fat like so many have them. Then when the fat comes off you find way more issues with them than what I see in your cattle.

They are full sisters out of a Revolution daughter actually. Right now I think this years calf is showing a little more muscling than the yearling was at that age last year.  I think I might have taken a photo from behind of our 936 bull that I'll upload later if I find it.  He definately has some good muscling and for a working yearling we think he came out of the pasture in pretty good condition compared to how some of our other bulls have looked coming out out of the pasture after their first breeding season.