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PPRM

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I've got some heifers I want to AI next month. All have great Pelvic Measurements, but they are heifers.

I search and search, but keep coming back to Rito 616 as the bull of choice. He has low birth weight, decent growth and pretty good carcass traits. Guys I talk to that have used him say the disposition of the calves is great. Plus, the Acc. of the EPD's are really high.

I know one poster here pulled a 616 calf, but that seems to be the exception,

Anyone here with any thoughts on 616??? Most of the Angus blood in my herd goes back to VDAR lines. What has been the experiences with Rito 616?


PPRM
 
PPRM-I think you could go either way with 616, depending on what you bred him to. Do you have some birthweight in your cattle now? Do you want absolute calving ease or do you not mind if you have to help a heifer now and then? What I don't like in his pedigree is the Rita OFB1 of 5H11 Fullback.

Bruce Weeter, who used to be the Mt. Angus rep told me that if you cross Traveler with Band you could get a genetic explosion on birthweight.

Have you looked at DeBoos DDA Fahren 21X? He is a bona fide calving ease bull. His EPD's are not all that good because he is linebred Wye but you would see some hybird vigor by using him. I know lots of people that are very satisfied with him as a heifer bull and as a replacement heifer sire.

Just a thought. You'd probably be just fine with 6I6.
 
FH

I have generally had real light calves that explode in growth and no calving problems until this year. I can trace this to the bull I used last year and only had trouble with two heifers, first pulls in maybe 5 or 6 years. My heifers all have great Pelvic measurements and I'll be calving between Christmas and New years on these ladies, so I'll be around to watch.

long winded way to say that I feel with moderate birthweights or better, I have no fear. So i am not looking exclusively at Birthweights. Interesting thing is my main Bull supplier sells Sim/Angus composite bulls and eliminated the night calving crew several years ago as he really built calving ease in. Last year the bull I was using from him got injured so I bought a straight Angus Bull from a freind and needed pullers on a couple heifers. These heifers are from my main cow lines that I am very familiar with and have never had any troubles with.

So, I feel the luxery of looking to some growth and carcass traits also. Disposition is very important to me.
 
I understand where you are coming from, I think. Interesting that someone has SimmxAngus composite that is easy calving!!

21X is SUPER GENTLE. He has a plus .33 on scrotal while 616 has a minus .26 if that is of any interest to you. 616 had an actual BW of 85 lbs. 21X was 68 lbs. Mature scrotal on 21X is 44, 616 is 40cm. 616 had a much heavier wean wt. than 21X, but I would expect that because of 21X being line-bred Wye. 21X's calves sold at DeBoos last year for an average of $3300. He scores really good on the new energy EPD that the Angus Assoc. put out. He was a 21 and the average is 9 so he was a plus 12. I'm not sure how that all works and I can't find the catalog right now so I can only post the numbers, not the meaning!!

Anyway, it was fun looking them both up!
 
Yeah,

This sure beats a lot of other topics in my book,

This bull you are talking about, is he from the company you mentioned for semen sales???

Are you up night calving or doing bookwork for taxes??? LOL


PPRM
 
I am just up--need to be doing taxes--yikes--why did you mention that? It is something I feel guilty about because I have been putting it off. My office is a MESS. This is way more fun!! We don't start calving until March 25 but we usually have some heifers calve a couple of weeks early.

Yes, 21X is in Universal's catalog. You might find him on their website. I think it might be diamonddangus.com. Not sure tho. I will go check it out and get back to you.

The DeBoos have a definite program, they haven't followed the fads and it is paying off for them now. They have pretty much Wye breeding and it came from the Wye plantation.

They are going to a fall sale this year for the first time as they are calving later. They have weighed their cows for years to get the wean wt. to cow wt. ratio and they udder and temprament score their cows. They have alot of longevitiy in their cowherd. I have a lot of respect for what they have done. Functional cattle with good feet, good udders, easy-fleshing. I have never been to their sale, now perhaps with it being held in Nov. we can get there. I have watched with great interest for over 12 years. I have recommended them to other cattlemen who have bought bulls from them and been very pleased.
 
Terry Anderson is my Simangus source. He went to all Private treaty, I am glad as I have a hard time hitting bull sales. Look forward to seeing what you come up with as far as source,

PPRM
 
We have used the bull for the last 3 years and I can not remember ever pulling a calf. But, his feet went bad, whether that was from being fed to hard or if it was the bull, I don't know... He had a wonderful disposition, quite calm, pretty laid back... I don't think his numbers really helped us, but if you don't keep any hiefier calves for replacement then he might work. We back ground our calves and I don't remember any of them being that outstanding... Hope this helps... :hat:
 
FH,

Looks like DDA has a good program, I especially appreciate the longevity built into the program. It is a very important component to have cows that will produce for a long time. This Bull does have the BW, WW to do well.

I have to pass in this bull, he has negative IMF EPD's, I sell my calves on the grid and have the forage to raise carcass calves and keep cows in good condition. I have been actually getting breedbacks within two month of calving. I am trying to move my cows up to a fall calving (October) from Feb Calving, so I turn the bulls in early.

Carcass evaluation is funy. I look for very positive REA and IMF. If I were in the Oregon Country Beef Program, I'd look for Moderate REA, as that hits their target,
 
I pulled and lost a 100+ pound 6I6 calf this year. I still like 6I6 for my heifers though. The heifer that I pulled the 6I6 calf from was a 598 grand daugther and has a birthweight EPD if 4.7 and was a little fat to boot. I think Select Sires is selling 6I6 for around $18 so he is still a good chouse for me. I will continue to use him on my heifers till I run out of his semen then I may look around for a better of newer heifer bull. If you want to spend more for the semen I recomend SAF Focus of ER. He has given me some of my best cattle but at $50 bucks a pop you sure better be good.
 
One thing I've learnt after a.i'ing thousands of heifers is that there isn't a 100 percent heifer bull. Remember every calf has a mother that influences it's BW too-every A'I company has some great heifer bulls that the majority of time work well. LT Bando 9074 and AAR Really Windy have worked very well for my customers.
 
Faster Horses, if you want one/ten of those LT Bando 9074 sons the sale is April 16, 4 miles north the big city of Isabel, SD. I hope to be there.

Well said NR.
 
NR, are you coming down to A.I. Wally Sloboshian's cows again this year? He had a whole bunch for sale this winter, never heard if he sold any or not.
 
Yeah he was trying to move about 200 older cows-those are sure a sweet set of heifers to A.I.-this year should be a bunch of CA Future Direction daughters. You never know with Wally but I imagine I'll be back down there-just got two herds confirmed in the Outlook area so maybe the kids will eat this spring lol.
 
Maybe we'll run into each other at the coffee shop. It'd be nice to meet someone from ranchersnet. And you can give Tori, the yappy blonde waitress, a bad time. She loves that. When we go there, it's like dinner AND a show for the price of a meal!
 
Yep, she can sure come up with some good one-liners! She loves to razz my husband but always defends me when he has some smartass comment about me. The place sure wouldn't be the same without her. She told me the other day, her and her husband are trying to sell their place out here and move to Saskatoon, but she's still going to keep her job at the cafe because she likes the people around here and she'd miss them.
 
Nebraska is the best calving ease and growth comboination bull I have found. We breed a 150 hfrs every year ccalve in Jan. 15 and they bounce off the ground. When you wean they will probaly be the heaviest. I have used him on hfrs. and cows to get get a fair representation of what Nebraska can do. I have used 9074 and 004 (not again on hfrs.). on the Nebraska hfrs I use Lead On and we are really impressed with the first months growth. I would also consider Danny Boy I did not use him on any hfrs this time but for sure will in April.
 

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