• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Dilema

N

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
12,247
Location
saskatchewan
I've got a pretty good six year old black bull I'm toying with the idea of drawing semen on. He throws really good females and has alot of longevity and soundness bred into him. Fraser's used him and his calves were AAA marbling at 3 mls of backfat on a pretty cool ration. The dilema is he's only about frame 4.5 and isn't a real eye catching bull. He's good footed and everything but just not very big. I've probably got enough semen banked for my own use but I think he'd work well for people that like lower input type of cattle. He's a 011 out of a Minert's Fortune daughter-his grandmother is a Rainmaker 340 and is great grandmother is out of a son of New Trend 315/Traveller 23-4 so he's bred to make cows. I'm pretty sure when we cross him on our Lad daughters we'll get some tough productive little cows. He's always wintered on hay and snow so he can rough it.
 
P1012561.jpg


Here's a daughter at Fraser's-this is typical of what they look like.
 
I wouldn't mind a herd of cows like her. Who cares about the size? Look at the balance, the barrel, the hip and a feminine head. Can't really see her bag but it looks square too.
 
It all depends on what you think the chances are of you finding a better bull in the next 2 to 5 years. A proven bull that ties a lot of good traits together is pretty valuable. Don't worry about his frame, measure him by what his calves do in the feedlot and on the rail and by how his daughters do in the pasture. Thats all that really matters anyway.

Just my way of thinking

Brian
 
WELL Rainie if he lives to six at my place he's tough enough. The udders are perfect and the are good dispositioned. I'm wondering if a working clothes ranch bull is marketable. Our last pen of fats gained 4.45-converted at 5.25 and C.O.G was .63/lb. They weren't all his calves but he had a bunch in there.
 
P1010184.jpg


There's the 'wee beastie' in action-that's as thin as he'll get even running out licking snow and wintering on hay. Hopefully he puts some guts in that Future Direction daughter he just bred.
 
Northern Rancher said:
I've got a pretty good six year old black bull I'm toying with the idea of drawing semen on. He throws really good females and has alot of longevity and soundness bred into him. Fraser's used him and his calves were AAA marbling at 3 mls of backfat on a pretty cool ration. The dilema is he's only about frame 4.5 and isn't a real eye catching bull. He's good footed and everything but just not very big. I've probably got enough semen banked for my own use but I think he'd work well for people that like lower input type of cattle. He's a 011 out of a Minert's Fortune daughter-his grandmother is a Rainmaker 340 and is great grandmother is out of a son of New Trend 315/Traveller 23-4 so he's bred to make cows. I'm pretty sure when we cross him on our Lad daughters we'll get some tough productive little cows. He's always wintered on hay and snow so he can rough it.
Click to expand...

Good thing we don't use that criteria for culling people or you would be long gone :wink: :lol: :P :P
 
Oldtimer said:
Northern Rancher said:
I've got a pretty good six year old black bull I'm toying with the idea of drawing semen on. He throws really good females and has alot of longevity and soundness bred into him. Fraser's used him and his calves were AAA marbling at 3 mls of backfat on a pretty cool ration. The dilema is he's only about frame 4.5 and isn't a real eye catching bull. He's good footed and everything but just not very big. I've probably got enough semen banked for my own use but I think he'd work well for people that like lower input type of cattle. He's a 011 out of a Minert's Fortune daughter-his grandmother is a Rainmaker 340 and is great grandmother is out of a son of New Trend 315/Traveller 23-4 so he's bred to make cows. I'm pretty sure when we cross him on our Lad daughters we'll get some tough productive little cows. He's always wintered on hay and snow so he can rough it.
Click to expand...

Good thing we don't use that criteria for culling people or you would be long gone :wink: :lol: :P :P
Click to expand...
:D :D "Giggle"
 
NR, I like the looks of the bull, and more important, I like his pedigree, soundness and longevitity. He must have a good disposition if you are still using him as a 6 year old. Many times bulls that old, get nasty.

Where was he is relation to his contemporaries as a yearling?

Remember, they throw back to the average of that line of cattle.

That's why extremes in cattle don't work (I doubt if this bull was an extreme) according to Larry Leonhardt. He says he bought the highest gaining, highest indexing bulls at the bull tests for years. He spent a lot of money which did nothing to improve his herd. Cattle breed back to averages, not extremes. So he quit the performance bandwagon and breeds for FUNCTIONAL females. He says people won't pay much for his bulls, but they will pay alot for his cows. And what a great set of cows he has. He says he quit the performance deal in 1979.

FWIW
 
Ohh I have no plans to sell him-he makes too good a females for that-I'm just wondering if he'd be a bull to market semen on. His disposition is good-I'm not big on petting but he's easy to handle. I actually found him at Fraser's-they weren't going to put him in their sale because of his frame size-I got him ultrasounded and he AAA marbled at 4ml's of backfat. He was on a chopped straw and barley silage ration-they were just shaping those bulls up to go to grass. He indexed just over a 100 if I remember right-what tripped my trigger was his dam,granddam and great granddam were still good productive cows.
 
P1010171.jpg


Here is his great granddam at Fraser's last August-that isn't typical of late August pasture there but they had some good rain last year. Pretty solid old range cow-I think she's 13 in that pic-never had any porridge or warm blankets.
 
I've got a bit of a semen bank on him-I'm just toying with the idea of trying to market him. No he definately isn't a funnel butt lol. You liked him when we looked at him last summer.
 
Id draw on him . just market him with pictures of his daughters and his pedigree. longevity is what the majority of the cows in this world lack. cows that breed back and produce a marketable product for 10 plus years are the cows that make a guy money and that make up for the ones that go to the kill floor at 5 to 8 years of age.
 
Well on udder's alone I would use him.Funny thing about people most everyone talks they want the elusive 1100# cow but when a bull comes along that makes them all of a sudden their not big enough.

None of my bulls weigh over a ton our 9 year old bull tips the scale at 1840#s and is a 4 frame.I've always liked him but this winter has been damn tough on our cows and his daughters really stand out right now.I have 6 year old daughters now from my old bull and will be doing some mateings with him and the cows he clicked with to get those daughters.Out of our 250 cows close to a 100 are his daughters.

000_0005-1.jpg


Sire is Whitestone FlyTraveler Maternal Grand sire is VDAR New Trend 315
 

Latest posts

Back
Top