FH, that's what I was thinking, especially after losing the milk cow's heifer and her half Hereford calf this spring. Sure would hate to have the same thing happen to Tillerie......

And since Al's not doing the CattleWomens' program this year, it wouldn't make any difference if we wait to breed her. I'm hoping, though, that when we get her to the house, and he starts feeding her more than once or twice a week, and letting her scrounge for the rest of her upkeep (not a lot of feed out there this time of year here yet), that she'll get some more growth on her.
She was born the end of March, and it was too early for here. It was blizzarding when she arrived, so she's had a hard time from the start. We bred Blondie for an April calf this year, and left her down at the in-law's where it's warmer and there's more to eat. Hopefully the bull calf will do better than Tillie did.
I really don't know if she's started to cycle or not, yet. She's been with the Holstein steer for about 6 months, but I think he's brain-dead and wouldn't know if she was, or not. Also got the old milk cow in with them now, too, but she's no help, either. They're pretty much the only cattle in that vacinity.
ACS, we are actually having out CA (County Agent :wink: ) check for exactly what you suggest, and A. I. her........haven't heard back from him yet, though. Her daddy was Brangus, and she was a tiny little thing when she was born! I think she was bigger than your 20# calf, though...... :wink:
I think why Al's having such good luck working on her, is she's just got a really nice even temperament. Her mother :roll: had him so buffaloed (and me, too, to be honest) that we didn't even want to mess with her. She kicked every chance she got, and was just hard-headed as all get-out. She's ok out......but get her confined, and she just goes ballistic. That's the main reason we decided he shouldn't take her to the Fair, either of the two previous years. She'd have hurt someone, and we'd have ended up gettin sued, or something. Not what we need........
So I really don't think that he's a heifer whisperer, cause he did run into one that nothing could help, but Tillie's just a great little heifer.
Jinglebob, we're headed that way, to look at a job up there. We started to SD last weekend, and the transmission went out on the pickup before we got to Albuquerque, so had to call that trip off. Hopefully, we'll get things ready and go check it out in the next couple of weeks.