A.I. Sires maternal

[MtAngus50]

What constitutes a "maternal herd"?

 

[Mike]

http://www.ag.unr.edu/AB/Extension/Cattleman/Cattleman2000/03.htm

A study of Terminal and Maternal sires.

 

[Faster horses]

Well, mtAngus, if you are who I think you are, you know the
answer to that question already.

Growth is detrimental to milk and milk is detrimental to growth.
Your job then, is to find the balance in the middle.

When we were disussing maternal cattle and I posted my
thoughts, I forgot about scrotal measurement. I think we all must
really pay attention to this when raising replacement heifers.
Good scrotal measurements usually indicate fertility in the
daughters.

 

[WB]

A very good point about fertility FH. It is one more reason to crossbreed Angus and Hereford for me. While Angus are considered to be the maternal breed the Herefords are more fertile. And with the addtion of heterosis you get the best of both worlds. FWIW I plan to breed my baldies back to Angus.

 

[MtAngus50]

Growth is detrimental to milk and milk is detrimental to growth.


quote]

So Faster Horses you would recommend keeping your lightest hfrs (lowest growth) for replacements? They would have the least growth, hence the most milk?
So what is the purpose of milk if you don't have growth?

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I keep a even middle of the road package of Hfrs. I won't select the biggest from a contempary group big not the smallest.


Last spring after 125 hfrs were picked from my herd for replacements I still sold some hfrs bigger then the ave. of what was picked.

 

[Northern Rancher]

A good set of heifers doesn't have a huge set of spread between them-I keep mine from cows that raise a good calf and don't cause me any grief. They get an earnotch at birth when we take a sample to test for BVD.