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Post by jayh on Feb 25, 2015 17:01:31 GMT -6
Ok as far as breeders how do we sell our product and make it better than angus or at least sound better?
Biggest problem I believe with the Hereford bull on black based cows is birth weight. How do u produce the Glossy picture phenotype with low birth weight bulls . Or should we just educate the angus guys to not breed the pelvic area away, just how do we do it? Or can it even be done? or is it being done now? Not around here it isn't.
They have been burned so many times with the sleep all night bull that they wont try it again.
( I keep hearing this ) I will have to pull every calf, or the heifers I keep will prolapse. I really think this old generation around here has made it very tough on the Hereford breed but we don it ourselves it didn't just happen. Another favorite of mine is they all get pinkeye easier.
How do we show these guys those days are mostly gone. How can we prove our product without sacrificing monitary value. ( I don't think we can ) The history is there so it remains.
( HEREFORD THE NEW GENERATION OF COW MAKERS) Lets move forward and not back again.
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Post by picketwire on Feb 25, 2015 17:16:51 GMT -6
Once we started reminding people who would show up to look at bulls that pinkeye is a disease not a genetic defect they dropped it, and a disease easily managed by anyone who is already paying attention to the mineral needs of the cowherd.
This will probably draw some discussion but if you want to sleep all night during calving season you had damn well better be paying attention to the cows not just expecting the bull to carry the load. I would think one has to search pretty damn hard and have their head firmly entrenched somewhere else to find a cowkiller Hereford bull anymore.
And finally, if they just plain do not understand simple economics then the best sales pitch out there will not change their hardheaded mind. Afterall, getting outa bed in the morning carries risk just like that no birthweight angus bull does.
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Post by randy on Feb 25, 2015 20:41:36 GMT -6
Once we started reminding people who would show up to look at bulls that pinkeye is a disease not a genetic defect they dropped it, and a disease easily managed by anyone who is already paying attention to the mineral needs of the cowherd. This will probably draw some discussion but if you want to sleep all night during calving season you had damn well better be paying attention to the cows not just expecting the bull to carry the load. I would think one has to search pretty damn hard and have their head firmly entrenched somewhere else to find a cowkiller Hereford bull anymore. And finally, if they just plain do not understand simple economics then the best sales pitch out there will not change their hardheaded mind. Afterall, getting outa bed in the morning carries risk just like that no birthweight angus bull does. Smoke this up in your pipe.... Angus calves... I pulled one 122#..... The other 14#carried to the house in a 5 gallon bucket. EDIT: I cannot get the dwarf angus calf photo to post.... will work on that today... Attachments:
452.bmp (147.05 KB)
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Post by Carlos (frmaiz) on Feb 25, 2015 20:56:32 GMT -6
Once we started reminding people who would show up to look at bulls that pinkeye is a disease not a genetic defect they dropped it, and a disease easily managed by anyone who is already paying attention to the mineral needs of the cowherd. . What's the relationship between pinkeye and minerals? Lack of some one increases susceptibility?
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Post by picketwire on Feb 26, 2015 0:59:22 GMT -6
Most variability/range of birth weights I ever saw was in purebred Angus herd I managed, low of 38 to high of 135, both didn't wean worth a damn!!
Mineral balance speaks directly to herd health and resistance to all disease, once we found the right mineral package that the cows would utilize we have not had anymore troubles.
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Post by strojanherefords on Feb 28, 2015 16:21:02 GMT -6
Ok as far as breeders how do we sell our product and make it better than angus or at least sound better? Biggest problem I believe with the Hereford bull on black based cows is birth weight. How do u produce the Glossy picture phenotype with low birth weight bulls . Or should we just educate the angus guys to not breed the pelvic area away, just how do we do it? Or can it even be done? or is it being done now? Not around here it isn't. They have been burned so many times with the sleep all night bull that they wont try it again. ( I keep hearing this ) I will have to pull every calf, or the heifers I keep will prolapse. I really think this old generation around here has made it very tough on the Hereford breed but we don it ourselves it didn't just happen. Another favorite of mine is they all get pinkeye easier. How do we show these guys those days are mostly gone. How can we prove our product without sacrificing monitary value. ( I don't think we can ) The history is there so it remains. ( HEREFORD THE NEW GENERATION OF COW MAKERS) Lets move forward and not back again. It is simple, all we have to do is raise a Hereford cow that is better than an Angus. If we can make money without selling genetics eventually the rest of the world will catch on. I believe that it is much easier to introduce people to Herefords by selling females than by making prospective customers commit to having a hundred hereford sired calves from a bull.
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Post by jayh on Mar 1, 2015 12:24:36 GMT -6
Ok as far as breeders how do we sell our product and make it better than angus or at least sound better? Biggest problem I believe with the Hereford bull on black based cows is birth weight. How do u produce the Glossy picture phenotype with low birth weight bulls . Or should we just educate the angus guys to not breed the pelvic area away, just how do we do it? Or can it even be done? or is it being done now? Not around here it isn't. They have been burned so many times with the sleep all night bull that they wont try it again. ( I keep hearing this ) I will have to pull every calf, or the heifers I keep will prolapse. I really think this old generation around here has made it very tough on the Hereford breed but we don it ourselves it didn't just happen. Another favorite of mine is they all get pinkeye easier. How do we show these guys those days are mostly gone. How can we prove our product without sacrificing monitary value. ( I don't think we can ) The history is there so it remains. ( HEREFORD THE NEW GENERATION OF COW MAKERS) Lets move forward and not back again. It is simple, all we have to do is raise a Hereford cow that is better than an Angus. If we can make money without selling genetics eventually the rest of the world will catch on. I believe that it is much easier to introduce people to Herefords by selling females than by making prospective customers commit to having a hundred hereford sired calves from a bull. I think most Hereford cows are better than angus. I have only had a handful of bottle calls over the yrs. I dont babysit my cows at calving I know for a fact I have only pulled 1 calf for being to big. Have pulled a few backward calves though. My neighbor I bet pulls 40% and has to get them started on the cow. I do think most Hereford cows are a maternal machine that doesnt need to much fixing. I think our problem is the angus cows have bred low birth weight for so long that u about need a longhorn bull to ooen them up. So when Joe Blow uses our Hereford bull he ruins a bunch of heifers. Most cows I ever had was 95 head in 2009. I had some baldys , Simms and rest straight register herfs. I baby sat all but the herfs. I have A-I a bunch of angus cows with a good friend of mine and he has since quit using low birth weight bulls and he has had less problem since doing it. So selling female will work but u still have to convince Joe Blow that they wont prolapse, get cancer eye , or have udder problems. Its mostly a stigmata that keeps us down. So how do u overcome that.
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Post by jayh on Mar 1, 2015 12:34:20 GMT -6
And as a side note I would rather have a couple hundred head of Hereford sired calves than crazy angus calves. Just my personal opinion.
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Post by bookcliff on Mar 1, 2015 13:43:54 GMT -6
once upon a time I was sitting at BIF and Steve Radocovich was on the panel about genetic selection and got asked a question in a very condisending manner by a big hotshot multibreed seedstock man for his home state about "just what DO YOU think is the most important part of what the commercial man needs"..............
well Steve ponders a minute and then says..............
"I've got a big outfit in Nevada that bys a potload of bulls from me each year sight unseen. every year I ask em wht they want and he says just send me good ones so I try and pick out what I think will work in that country. finally one year when they called I asked em again and they said the same thing. this time I said, no what kind are you looking for and the manager replied.........I got to contend with the gov't, teh forest service, the BLM and the state for all for water rights and grazing rights, the help, the ranch owners and heirs. just don't send me any wrecks and make sure they will sire calves that won't get discounted."
I've never forgotten that...........don't sell em any potential wreck-makers and make sure they are the kind that don't sire discounters.
in otherwords, no convient trait issues, no fertility issues and at the end of the day value in the marketplace, pretty damn simple ain't it, but yet it seems like a sizable portion of purebred folks have forgotten it or never learned it in the first place.
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