More on “heiferette”.

[Sir Loin]

More on "heiferette".

Why is knowing the definition important?

I have been attacked and beaten and accused of

on another board for discussing the definition of "heiferette" at length.
Well here is why you need to know the new definition.

If you go to an auction with the intent of buying replacement "heifers"
And the auctioneer says " next up we have lot 33, 20 heiferettes and I am correct in saying they could be spayed heifers, you will not be buying what you think you are buying.
And when you get them home and they don't even come in heat, much less breed, I would think you would be just a little POed.
SL

 

[Anonymous]

More on "heiferette".

Why is knowing the definition important?

I have been attacked and beaten and accused of

on another board for discussing the definition of "heiferette" at length.
Well here is why you need to know the new definition.

If you go to an auction with the intent of buying replacement "heifers"
And the auctioneer says " next up we have lot 33, 20 heiferettes and I am correct in saying they could be spayed heifers, you will not be buying what you think you are buying.
And when you get them home and they don't even come in heat, much less breed, I would think you would be just a little POed.
SL

#1- don't ever believe the line an auctioneer puts out from the sales block...I've seen auctioneers scream "a true heifer bull" during his chant on a bull that the owner/breeder just got thru telling you a few minutes earlier would NOT work for heifers...

#2-locally at least- the auctioneers and sales staff are smart enough to know that most local folks recognize heiferettes as young cows- usually that has lost their first calf---- and that spayed heifers are called spayed heifers....

#3- If you are buying "replacement" heifers- it would be well worth your effort to take some time- and do more prior research on them than just what the auctioneer shouts out--since those future momma cows are the key to having a good herd....

It may be a regional or area terminology difference- which takes me to #4-- when buying replacement cattle/heifers buy them from your own region/area/enviroment- or at least from someone you know and know their cattles reputation...Otherwise you are buying a pig in a poke- and taking a very big gamble on the most important part of your herd....

 

[Sir Loin]

Oldtimer,

Excellent advise and I wouldn't dispute a word of it.
I am old enough to remember those good old days myself.
But with all this video and volume buying and selling going on and trucking across country, it's hard to do.

I remember the days buyers and sellers would meet once a year at the county fair, lean on the pen gate together and you got to know everything there was to know about the animal before the action even started.
And the action was held right at the pen, not in a ring.

I guess I too am getting old! :wink:
SL

 

[Silver]

Well, I know what heiferettes are in western Canada, and until there is a memo I'll stick with that :lol:

 

[Kato]

Not a good idea to buy heiferettes for replacements anyway. If they're not the spayed type, then at they are breeding heifers who didn't make the cut. Lose lose situation however you look at it.

 

[Sir Loin]

Kato,
Re:

Not a good idea to buy heiferettes for replacements anyway. If they're not the spayed type, then at they are breeding heifers who didn't make the cut. Lose lose situation however you look at it.

I am going to have to disagree with you on that one.
Some of the best heifers I ever owned were" heifers who didn't make the (Reg. breeders) cut " on a breeders ranch. .
And some of the best bulls I ever owned didn't make the (Reg. breeders) cut on a breeders ranch.
As a matter of fact those animals are exactly the animals I want to buy.

Breeders sell/cull for many different reasons and not all mean the animal is not an excellent animal for a commercial rancher.

That is exactly why breeders started a spade program in the first place. To keep their bloodline out of commercial breeders hands without buying it as they do with castration with their extra bulls.
I have bought many heifers and bulls from both actions and breeders ranches as $ per lb beef animals and took them home and put them in my commercial herd or sold them as breeding stock.
One time I bought a 8 mo old bull from a breed for $750 and sold him a year later, after he breed my 20 heifers, for $1500.

SL

 

[Anonymous]

Not a good idea to buy heiferettes for replacements anyway. If they're not the spayed type, then at they are breeding heifers who didn't make the cut. Lose lose situation however you look at it.

AMEN Kato-- the ranchs with the type cattle I want cull hard... I don't want the ones the sluff off (which happens to often with some of the BIG name ranchs that sell off their heifers/cows that don't get bred to calve in the spring as "fall calvers")...

And I just can't think of/or no of any ranch that has "good maternal" heifers that spayed them to keep them from being sold as breeding stock to keep the bloodlines from getting out... Usually those that don't make registered stock/or aren't registered stock are sold as commercial heifers if they have the maternal breeding...
All the spays I've seen have been heifers out of terminal type bloodlines- that do better as grasser/feedlot cattle than they will as momma cows...

 

[Silver]

If you can buy "heiferettes" from a reputation dispersal, that's what I'd take every time. Short of that, I would agree with OT and Kato.