This has been an interesting thread and one that I've enjoyed. I just want to throw my 2 cents worth in before my market value crashes. :lol: For us a "Good" cow has been one just as Dylan and others described - fertility, feet, udders, fleshing ability, disposition, mothering, survivability, etc. I would suggest though that fertility and survivability are 2 different things, and Grassfarmer eluded to it in an earlier post when he referred to deer in natural settings. Lots of deer are open and dry every year, it's just part of their being. They have a rough year/winter, and come up dry the following year. Maybe they stay dry 2 or 3 years running, maybe they never miss again, who knows? All I know is that we have had cows that are too easy fleshing that didn't milk, and skinny cows that milked themselves out of a job ie, came in open. I cull both, and I believe that in doing so we will breed fertility AND survivability into our herd over the long haul. We select for numerous traits and don't expect to see substantial improvement overnight, because evolution is a real slow dance.
I think that far too often we want things to improve so quickly that we jump at anything "different", instead of being patient and letting things develop in time. I have a herd sire for instance that is the best footed Galloway bull I have found to date. He has alot of muscle and thickness, is puppy dog quiet, throws excellent daughters and powerful sons. His one fault that has been obvious for years is that he is not as easy fleshing as I would like. Other bulls we've had are better than he in that regard, but we have continually used him because no other bull we've found has as much to offer in an overall package....until 2007. I had been mating this herdsire to several of our easiest fleshing Galloway cows hoping to get a son that all his traits plus the fleshing ability of these cows that have survived our winters on Prairie Wool and promises. In May of 2007 we got what we were waiting for - a bull calf out of an ideal cow, an almost ideal sire, born in the first week of the first cycle, and has been a standout to this day. These success stories of genetic Roulette happen every few years with cattle, every few months with hogs or poultry, and every few minutes with bacteria(I assume). Herein lies the lesson of patience - we have to accept the fact that these cattle developed over thousands of years, and we are not going to get what we want in every cross every breeding season.
Our project took a few years to develop just to a point where we feel we have the individuals to form a breeding program. In a few more, who knows where we'll be. But for now we have a herd of very consistent cows that are smaller than most people like, easier fleshing than most people have, and more fertile than the cows we used to pump alot of expensive inputs into. Are we raising the ideal beef animal? Not for all of you - but for us, we're getting there.
Our frame 4 herdsire weighing 2100lbs and his frame 2.5 son may be too small for some, but their sons and daughters are hardy enough to survive on stockpiled grass and very little hay, fertile enough to breed back in that system, and productive enough to give us calves that finish on grass, providing $2000-2500 per head in beef sales. They're not everyone's cup of tea, and no one cow is that for everyone. Ours work for us, so I guess that's what I call a good cow.
