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Replacement cows

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Jakes

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Have always kept our own heifers for replacements but when I see bred cows selling for less than what that heifer calf is worth it makes me think twice about doing that. Has anyone had good luck switching from raising replacements to buying bred cows?
 
done it a time or two on short term cows, knew the owners. came out ok. The year that we had the really high calf prices, my wife bought out a small herd, 2-year-olds to old cows, they calved easy, and calves sold for more the next fall then the cows' cost. Bought 40 head of 2-year-old pairs gate cut, one brand (Was only one brand per cow but brand inspection was for 2 states and 5 different brands). Calving them the next year, a few man killers got culled that fall. Still got most that of that last bunch. Yes, you lose genetics but those you buy if same owner have been under their own genetic plan, but then the right bulls are still half that next calf.
 
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We usually keep our own hfrs but have bought a few cows in the past,
One year I bought 38 second calves that had all lost their calves the spring before and they ran them over and bred them. (i didn't know the whole story when I bought them) but they turned out okay. A little bigger frame then my home raised but I bought them on a Thursday for under $1200 and went to a sale of second calvers on Saturday and couldn't touch one for under $1800,
Last fall I went to the first bred cow sale that had a dispersal. Bought 55 Hereford cows for my son at $1200, They have done him well, only one open one this fall, I went back a couple sales later and bought 38 black cows, they weren't as good as the Herefords but cost less, Some culled after their calves sold and some are still in the herd.
This year they were harder to by good cows cheap compared to the price of feed,
 
I don't think you can buy cows/heifers as good as you can raise. Why would anyone sell their BEST, unless they were dispersing?
On paper, it shows it is economically feasible to sell your replacements and buy back. We never could do that. We had to add money we didn't have to buy the cows. We built our herd numbers by keeping our own replacements.

We bought 3 cows from someone who bought cows to resell. One was mean as a snake, she calved and when we went to check on the calf, she took us and she meant business. We were glad it wasn't at night. One was okay and one was a super cow in our herd.

We just had this conversation with a friend/customer who sells their heifers to buy cows. They've been doing that for some time and it works for them. Once in awhile they get into some high-headed cattle but they weed those out (they are young so they have time to do that). They can use terminal cross bulls since they aren't concerned with maternal genetics. That does make bull selection easier.

Good luck!
 
I bought 6 bred cows on Wednesday for one bid over kill price. They are all checked to be 7 or 7+ months bred. They are going to make me money. But that is my program which is different than most people.
It is a good program. Are you still able to buy broken mouths for a lesser price? Buying this close to spring is certainly a win-win if they have enough teeth left to get their calf to weaning.
 
It always looked attractive to buy a bred cow and cash in after a few months, rather than feed them for a year and a half waiting for the pay day! My cows maternal line trace directly back to the ones my dad had when he moved here in 1942 so I have no first hand experience with purchasing replacements. I do relish the perceived bio-security benefit of not exposing the herd to outside cattle. I can isolate any purchased bulls for 3 or 4 months before spring turnout for a little added peace of mind. I have discovered during the drought that it isn't necessary to pamper the replacement heifers quite as much as we sometimes had in the past. Last year, we wintered them on just limited hay (instead of free choice) with very little supplement and they grew and bred up nicely. I have a neighbor that had leased several places before he came here. He said that buying cows worked well for him until he moved up here. He found that cows raised elsewhere didn't adapt well, raise as big of calves or breed back adequately. However, if he retained their daughters, they often became some of his best cows.
 
It is a good program. Are you still able to buy broken mouths for a lesser price? Buying this close to spring is certainly a win-win if they have enough teeth left to get their calf to weaning.
There is 47 of them out there now. Define a lesser price. The kill cow market has raised the floor a bit. The 6 I bought last Wednesday worked out to $0.94 a pound. That was one bid over kill price. Had the first calf today, Black bull calf. It is always a guess what the calves will be. What did old Forest Gump say about a box of chocolates.
 
To Me it all depends on your program. In our desert country a cow better learn from her momma where water is and know how to chase feed on the ridges. I watched a train wreck this summer when a ranch brought in three year olds from Montana and they walked the low fence line all summer and lost weight and their calves looked like crap. I'd bet money a 1/4 didn't breed back. It's a different story running cows in irrigated pasture or meadows all their lives.
 
To Me it all depends on your program. In our desert country a cow better learn from her momma where water is and know how to chase feed on the ridges. I watched a train wreck this summer when a ranch brought in three year olds from Montana and they walked the low fence line all summer and lost weight and their calves looked like crap. I'd bet money a 1/4 didn't breed back. It's a different story running cows in irrigated pasture or meadows all their lives.
Not all Montana cattle are run on irrigated pasture or meadows. But I have to say, your cattle do well where others would have a problem.
 
Now I keep my own hfrs even though buying replacements makes better sense on paper but have you ever noticed when you buy a group of hfrs that the real fancy best looking one of the group will normally end up being a cull for one reason or another?
 
Now I keep my own hfrs even though buying replacements makes better sense on paper but have you ever noticed when you buy a group of hfrs that the real fancy best looking one of the group will normally end up being a cull for one reason or another?
Seems like fancy heifers work pretty good if you can feed your cows pretty good but not if they have to make a living in the real world.
 
Back in 1992, I bought a scale and started individually weighing my calves when giving preconditioning shots in the Fall prior to weaning. I have kept individual records on each cow since then. Every calf's sex, birthdate, actual weaning weight, nursing index and (in more recent years) a docility score. In comparing 30 years of data, I can see that the highest milking cows tend to fall out of the herd during the more severe drought years. I also find a surprising consistency in the production of individual cows. A few raised an outstanding calf every year. Many raised a good calf every year either from being a reliably early calver or from having fast growing calves. Some are more variable and a few probably should have been culled long ago! Usually, the poorest calf they ever raise is when they are three years old. Picking the daughters of those more reliable producing cows seems to increase the odds even though they may not be the fanciest ones there. Many of the top producers of each year's heifer crop came from consistently better than average producing dams. Sometimes, the plainest, more average looking calves develop into the best producing cows. I retain a few home raised bulls each year for my own use and the dam's production consistency is near the top of the list for picking them too. Even with all that.... If I had to bet on which would be the best ones, I would be lucky to win over 50% of the time!
 
Not all Montana cattle are run on irrigated pasture or meadows. But I have to say, your cattle do well where others would have a problem.
I never meant to imply they were. I've seen Florida heifer fall apart out here too. My point was raising heifers specific to EACH environment has a lot of positives.
 
Our neighbor in the 60's and early 70's kept and bred ALL his heifer calves. He never selected his replacement heifers until they had raised their first calf. He maintained that if he had selected them as calves, he would have sold some he should have kept and kept some he should have sold. He had a really nice herd of cattle. I realize that it is hard to keep all your heifers these days, but he did it and was very successful.
 

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