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Rancher Value

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
This "ranchers value" discussion has sure intrigued me. We are in the process of starting a small registered Angus herd to produce bulls for our commercial cows. We have had a small horned Hereford herd, to produce our own bulls for the past 47 years so we know what we want in our bulls.

After reading this thread I went back and ran the "RV" numbers on the Angus cows we have already assembled and they average in the low forties. The bulls we are using are around +70 so we feel better about our selection process.
 
I do pay more attention to $W.
Cows with good EN numbers are generally small cattle
Cows with neg En numbers are usually bigger cattle

A local rancher with 800 cows says he feeds his cattle well and can use a neg EN to get the much bigger calf at weaning. We read the En number as one would have to feed the cattle to get larger weights. Several will disagree but thats how read that number in a practical manner.
 
Negative EN tend to be too milky and too growthy for my neck of the woods-I get acceptable feedlot performance from easier keeping lines of cattle. If you breed for steers you get females that are about as fertile after a few generations.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Negative EN tend to be too milky and too growthy for my neck of the woods-I get acceptable feedlot performance from easier keeping lines of cattle. If you breed for steers you get females that are about as fertile after a few generations.
Click to expand...

Yep-- about what I've seen over the years..
 
It all depends how fine you want to cut the "just enough" feed line. There isn't a lot of cheap feed in these parts the last 15 years, and you see very few dairies out here either. I think there is a reason for that.

Even if feed was cheap I am cheaper, and I want to stretch every cow day I can from whatever it is I am feeding, cheap or not.

Select hard for fertility, udders and feet, use easy fleshing, decent muscled, moderate framed (4 to 5), moderate milk, and moderate growth sires and your cattle should work as replacements, on grass, in the feed yard, on the rail and on the plate.
 

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