Sire question

[BRG]

Something else you need to look at is his weight at time of ultrasound. They recommend that the ribeye shoulds be around 1 inch per hundred pounds of weight. I personally don't ever want to go to a restaurant and sit down to a 16 inch ribeye. The portions are to big the way it is.

Also, I think we should stay in the middle of the road on everything. To many fads going on and if you chase one you will loose something somewhere else. Like rib eye for example. You get to big of rib eyes and then you will loose back fat and marbling ussually, then you will have harder keeping cows and then more opens in the fall. You can't make any money on an open cow. We haven't ever chased the carcass deal and we always kill around 85% choise and almost all of the yeild grades are 2's and 3's. Never big premiums, but never big losses either.

[Faster horses]

I'm still trying to figure this out (it must be my age!). This bull weighed 1193, so he should have 11.9 ribeye, correct?

None of the other bulls we bought have been ultrasounded, so they might have a 10 ribeye, or 14. We just don't know. Now, about he marbling, should I find out the marbling score? The ratio of 117 only means he marbled 17% higher than the rest of this particular herd, right?

Does a small ribeye mean more fat over the back? Ribeye, is the size of the T-bones, right? Does that correlate to anything else?

As I mentioned, I'm pretty much in the dark here. Our cattle do grade mostly choice, that is why the same buyer feeds them out every year. Some make CAB. Would that be selling on the grid? He doesn't always sell that way though. I think he has sold through US Premium Beef. If he doesn't sell on the grid is he just taking averages? They do go for restaurant trade, I think is what he has said. I guess I need to pay more attention, OR understand it better; which is what I am striving to do.

I am serious about trying to figure this out.
Thanks!

[PPRM]

Andy,

Great reply, liked the way you quantify things.

FH, you look at it as too much information. I look at th time we are in as one where there are enough real good bull out there that I shouldn't have to waste my time with one that doesn't measure up. Hitting the average o where you need to be is ok, but going down really isn't in my book.

I look at bulls like hoses, too many good ones to waste my time with a bad one,

PPRM

[BRG]

You also have to look at that bull. If he qualified for every other requirement you have. Then maybe he will work. Remember, their was no ultrasound a few years ago and we all did just fine. Sometimes I think we would be better off without all of these things because it is in peoples nature to go to extremes. Don't let everyone dictate how you need to run your cattle. We need the buyers and feeders, but they don't know your enviroment. We still have to raise them in our own pastures. You know better than anyone what your pasture and feed situation will let you do.

[PPRM]

BRG,

I would think within the context of the environment FH has to work with, she can do better.

Do just fine my tail. I do a damb good job sorting cattle, mainly bought cattle to sell on the grid. My percentage that hit choice is high. Saleyard cattle on a lot of this. Every so often there will be one that I find out was all "Bark", couldn't yeild for anything. Last one was a YG 4 and I got docked $20..0/cwt. I have had some select calves with YG3, heaven help you if you get a select YG 4. Be down to getting about $65/cwt on the hoof.

If I could have sourced this calf back to his sire, it would save me from making that mistake again. As it is, best I cn do is give the ranch it came from a label. I would rather we were in a world of enough info we could all improve and all make more.

I did great on a pen of Charlais calves, but I do well on others. I can buy moderate and even smaller calves and do well. But stick me with a small ribeye and I am sunk, the discounts will put me in the red. I am not saying they have to be giant, but can't be small,

my 2 cents

PPRM

[Andy]

FH"I'm still trying to figure this out (it must be my age!). This bull weighed 1193, so he should have 11.9 ribeye, correct?"
I would like a 1200lb bull to have a 14.4in Ribeye (1.2 per 100lbs).

FH"None of the other bulls we bought have been ultrasounded, so they might have a 10 ribeye, or 14. We just don't know. Now, about he marbling, should I find out the marbling score? The ratio of 117 only means he marbled 17% higher than the rest of this particular herd, right?"

The marbling score would be nice to know, but also the backfat. I have seen bulls with high marbling scores, but they have .4in backfat so they are as fat as our steers going to kill. They 117 ratio means he was 17% higher than the average of his contempary group, some herds may have 3-5 contempary groups.

FH"Does a small ribeye mean more fat over the back? Ribeye, is the size of the T-bones, right? Does that correlate to anything else?"

The ribeye correlates to only two things. The size of the ribeye, which makes up only 9% of the carcass. It also correlates to the redmeat yield.

BRG, A 16 once ribeye is very big, but just because the ribeye is big doesn't mean the other cuts will be any bigger, because most other cuts are cut down to size anyway.