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Bull ? for Soapweed, or others

We have been ultrasounding our heifers for 9 years. You can't compair data from one herd to the next. So all you are really doing is picking out the bad IMF and REA heifers. Ultrasound is a valuable tool but you need to use it correctly. If you are going to ultrusound your heifers I believe you should also get carcass data on the steer mates.
 
I was one of the first breeders in Canada to use CUP ultrasound, and do my heifers.

The data was interesting, but we saw the previous numbers affected the numbers we got more than the actual scan.

The technician was impressed that we could have bulls that scanned higher than 4% imf (choice) with less than .2 backfat.

Our heifers were similar, but had .3 or .4 backfat.

Compare this to most bulls for sale at .5-.75 backfat with 2.5-3.5% imf.

We have discontinued the ulrasound scanning because of cost, and lack of buyer interest. We continue to select A.I sires on high accuracy traits including above average imf rea and below average fat cover, if possible. Sometimes we will sacrifice one of the carcass traits before we will sacrifice traits like bw or gain.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Is it much use ultasounding heifers that are just raised on hay and grass-do they have enough fat cover to make realistic comparisons-just curious. I know in our situation we've got marbling pretty well covered but could use some more yield. Don't want to lose out on doability etc looking for it-it takes awhile to find cows that are adapted to my shoddy management.
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It doesn't matter if they are raised on grain, grass, or tumbleweeds. :lol: Ultrasound is used in a contemporary group situation to be able to discriminate outliers in the group for the carcass traits you desire.
 
I wish they had an E.P.D for 'Right Out Liars' in the purebred business can you imagine- Cowboy X has 90 percent chance that his Bw's are bogus and his yearling weights are fudged-might do us more good than all the weights and measures we take now. I know alot of sale catalogues are better works of fiction than Louis L'Amour ever wrote lol. We sell on a carcass grid and I can't see how selecting for it much on the cowherd side would help much. Most high ribeye bulls leave steery daughters and most top marbling bulls are kind of dairyish.
 
We sell on a carcass grid and I can't see how selecting for it much on the cowherd side would help much. Most high ribeye bulls leave steery daughters and most top marbling bulls are kind of dairyish.[/quote]

Maybe thats why our ultra sound tech said to shoot for breed average. I don't know but I know the kind of cattle you are talking about.

have a cold one

lazy ace
 
I work for a major stud and it's hard to get bulls that are just average-it's a paradigm shift to market genetics that aren't the biggest,milkiest etc. There is a large segment of the business that can and will use bulls that are right in the middle E.P.d wise-in large segments of the industry E.P.D's are alot more about marketing than they are about breed and inherd improvement.
 
Northern Rancher said:
I work for a major stud and it's hard to get bulls that are just average-it's a paradigm shift to market genetics that aren't the biggest,milkiest etc. There is a large segment of the business that can and will use bulls that are right in the middle E.P.d wise-in large segments of the industry E.P.D's are alot more about marketing than they are about breed and inherd improvement.
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well put and good point.

have a cold one

lazy ace
 
In the last Drovers Journal Lee Leachman of Colorado, says each .20 increase in REA decreases mature cow size by 9 pounds. He says this results in cows that mature earlier and smaller. I find that info surprising as I would like to keep my mother cow size down. Seems to me it would make a bigger cow.
 
Lee may have seen that in his cows, but I can argue that my small effiecent angus cows have the smaller REA and the larger crossbred cows have larger REA.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Isn't selection for inches of ribeye/cwt that will slowly result in a decrease in mature size. Larger cattle will usually have a bigger ribeye.
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That could be, I have seen some sales list that measurement. Always wondered why.
 

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