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Went Red Angus shopping yesterday and today.

BRG

Well-known member
I have been watching The sire to this bull calf for a few years now and he has been pretty impressive. I was up in Canada twice now and have seen him and progeny both times. He is plenty fat in this photo but I saw him after breeding a bunch of cows last fall. Then I saw his son as well after breeding cows and he looked very good. I liked him a bit better, but he sold for $36,000, and his sire sold for $70,000. A bit to spendy for me. Anyway I put on around 2500 miles yesterday and today in the Midwest by prop plane and saw some sons, daughters and a bunch of other good cattle. This bull calf is by far the best calf I saw on my trip out of any sire group. He is an early March bull calf. He has a super dam as well, I have seen her several times as well. In fact, I raised and sold a few sons out of her a couple years ago. She is a very soggy made cow with a good udder and great feet. The little heifer in the bottom is a full sister to this bull calf. In this pasture I saw 3 full brothers and 4 full sisters to this calf. I realize he is young and alot of things can change between now and turnout time, but we decided to take a bit of a gamble we now own 50% and full possession of him.

Sire


Paternal Brother that Genex has


The bull calf - He was born on or around March 5


The bull calf


The bull calf


The bull calf


Full Sister - I would like to clean her up a bit and make her a bit more feminine, but her body structure is awesome for a March baby. All 4 sisters were very impressive.
 

Silver

Well-known member
That's a fine looking bull calf, and the sire has calving ease written all over him. Cattle with structure like that would look good in any herd.
 

bverellen

Well-known member
Goodmorning BRG!!!

I really like those red cattle!

Two off topic questions for you. First, what does "Soggy" mean? And for my next question, how tall and what spacing are you using on your hi-tensile fence behind your new bull calf?

Thankyou for posting.

bart.

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BRG

Well-known member
bverellen said:
Goodmorning BRG!!!

I really like those red cattle!

Two off topic questions for you. First, what does "Soggy" mean? And for my next question, how tall and what spacing are you using on your hi-tensile fence behind your new bull calf?

Thankyou for posting.

bart.

<><

When I say soggy, I mean, deep ribbed, bigger middle, deep flank, wider top line, and easy doing. To me, it is important to have this, the way we winter cattle, the easier doing, the better.

The photo of where the calf is, is not at our ranch. it is at the ranch who raised the bull. So I really don't know what it is and how tall it is. I didn't really pay attention to it. If you ae trying to figure out his frame size, The 3 of us all thought he was between a 6 and 7 frame at this age. His sire is at or under a 6 and his dam is right there as well. So I am figuring he will end up in that area as well.
 

BRG

Well-known member
Grassfarmer said:
Isn't using a FS 6 or 7 bull counter productive to producing easy keeping, easy wintering cattle? :???:

Not at all. Our cow her is around that 6 area, and we winter and summer graze our cows without any supplement besides salt and mineral. If they have the body mass, they will do it. In fact, I have seen ALOT of cows over the last couple years that are small framed and are harder doing because when they went down in size, they also lost the mass, length and muscle. Sure if you use a bull with this frame and he and his pedigree are gutless wunders, then you have trouble. Look at his sire (5.5 frame)and his brother (6.5 frame), they are easy doing cattle.

I said we thought he was that frame, but I think he will mature out around the 6 area, maybe even a bit smaller as his parent are both 5.5 to 6 frame. Plus he his sire was pushed pretty hard as he was growing up, he won several shows in Canada, so I think naturally he would be even a little smaller than what he is.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
GrassFarmer from your pics you have a whole pasture of frame six cows lol. BRG I bought my first red angus bull ever from that outfit-the daughters lasted a longgggg time and there's no warm blankets on my place.
 

BRG

Well-known member
BRG I bought my first red angus bull ever from that outfit-the daughters lasted a longgggg time and there's no warm blankets on my place.[/quote]

NR,

I have been to their ranch and liked what I saw. But that is not where this bull is at, just out of his bull.
 

Grassfarmer

Well-known member
Yep NR I do have quite a few FS 6 cows on my place - among the older cows anyway. The younger end are less because we are using two FS 5 bulls and 1 FS 4 bull. I think the smaller cow will work better for me in our environment.
I totally agree with BRG on the body type though - you can get hard keeping cows of any size if they are the wrong type.

BRG - I'm confused with the Frame Score thing. I thought the whole point of it was that it gave a truer indication of skeletal size than weighing. I thought this was a tool to show up what was a big calf genetically versus one that the size was fed in through grain? If you reckon that calves can be pushed hard enough to influence frame score does that mean the system doesn't really work? Also if the cattle are being fed hard because they are being shown won't that conceal who are naturally easy doing and who aren't?
 

BRG

Well-known member
Grassfarmer said:
Yep NR I do have quite a few FS 6 cows on my place - among the older cows anyway. The younger end are less because we are using two FS 5 bulls and 1 FS 4 bull. I think the smaller cow will work better for me in our environment.
I totally agree with BRG on the body type though - you can get hard keeping cows of any size if they are the wrong type.

BRG - I'm confused with the Frame Score thing. I thought the whole point of it was that it gave a truer indication of skeletal size than weighing. I thought this was a tool to show up what was a big calf genetically versus one that the size was fed in through grain? If you reckon that calves can be pushed hard enough to influence frame score does that mean the system doesn't really work? Also if the cattle are being fed hard because they are being shown won't that conceal who are naturally easy doing and who aren't?

I am convinced that extra feed or lack of will change frame. Cattle that are out in very tough country and have to go a long way for water and a full belly will not mature out as big as some in better conditions. In fact, I have seen mature cows raised in WY and hauled to SD, put on good grass for the rest of their lives and they actually grew a whole frame score.

Also I think the enviroment will change frame as well. I have seen our cattle's pedigrees in Florida, GA, TN, and AL and they all have a humid climate, with alot more washy grass than what we have. They fight more bugs than we do as well. These cows are smaller than ours by a couple hundred pounds. I really think this type of enviroment holds them back to their actual potential.
 

BRG

Well-known member
The guy who raised the bull calf emailed these photos to me in May. I thought I would show you what he looked like at 2 months of age





By the way, the brother in the first photos was recently crowned champion Red Angus bull at the World Angus Forum in Canada.
 

RSL

Well-known member
I agree on the frame score thing. You can hold a heifer back quite a bit in terms of how big she matures, by her diet in the first year or two. Early maturity is probably conducive to smaller frame in a specific environment, but that same animal in a different environment can be very different frame wise in our experience. If the environment is good enough, you can't really tell the difference in maturity/fertility between the larger and smaller framed animals.
 
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