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Windbreak Question, need your help

Jim has good cattle. Do you know the pedigree of the bull from him? He used a couple bulls from us A.I. We have Red Angus / Blk. Angus and some South Devon crosses and the South Devon cows will produce more gain than the others. They sure do taste good too.
 
NR,

These are Red Devon's, not South Devons. I think both are reasonable breeds to use for beef production. Neither is a silver bullet, like the hype would make out. In fact, I think SD are under-rated.

LOL, I bet I could sort them. Of course, maybe a slight margin of error. I bet I can pick 90% of them. Assuming of course that your bulls are really SD, say at least 7/8. :D The "black" part gave it away, how much SD is he?

Badlands
 
He's registered as a purebred but it's with an American Association so who knows lol. Gerald Fry is nothing but a snake oil salesman trying to reboil Jans Bonsma's research in my opinion.
 
Group, Been lurking but feel I need to relate my experience with Mr. Fry.

I have a good friend who has bought into his program, and I think he's setting himself up for failure.

My friend has changed his calving season (summer) and is convinced this Grassfed program is the silver bullet we all look for. After AI'ing his herd we had approx. 20% failure rate with this Red Devon bull "approved" by Mr. Fry. When we put the straws in the water bath, stoppers would blow or straws would split. Also, found out this bull is owned by Mr. Fry so I believe this is a conflict in my view.

I sat down with Mr. Fry at lunch, My friend flew him out, put him up etc. And I related my concerns about semen quality, his program etc., and was told I was doing the thawing wrong and didn't know how to do it. I may not be to smart, but with 20 plus years AI experience I think I might have an idea of what I'm doing.

After more proding of Mr. Fry, I found out that Mr. Fry bases his whole program from a 1860's book called The Milch Cow. I think thats how it's spelled, pronounced "milk". Anyway, most of the theorys presented have been disproved by modern science. I agree after talking with Mr. Fry that he is a snake oil salesman, and I'm worried about my friend. Check out his website. www.bovineengineering.com especially the newsletters.

I may be wrong and stuck in my ways, I think grassfed beef is a good thing for the beef industry, but Mr. Fry's program is not.

Respectfully, Rick.
 
Well, Gerald Fry tried changing the mineral too, but this man knows
how much our mineral has done for him and he did balk at that.
Amazing how someone can sell snake oil...

The cattle belonging to our customer had grazed out mostly all
last winter. We got that bad storm this spring (the one that caused
Tap and others in SD so much misery). Gerald Fry got there not
long after and he sorted the cows. Had the customer get rid of a lot
of 2 year olds because of their body condition.
When this was related to me (during the call about
mineral) I said that we certainly wouldn't let someone come in and
cull our heifers for us; especially after they had been through a
major storm like that. Heck, I think he should be pleased he didn't
lose any. Long story short, he culled them as Fry recommended.

Your posts regarding G. Fry have caused me a lot of concern. I'm a 'fixer', yet I don't think I can do a thing about this. The guy is already into Fry's program pretty deep, breeding to the Red Devons,
changing his calving from Mid April to May and June.

I wonder if he knows Gerald Fry owns the Red Devon bull?
It was so hot when he was AI'ing, I hope that turns out okay for him.
This is a scary subject.
 
It's scary how some people who know better hop on those things-I'm sure there are some worthy Red Devon bulls out there time will tell. As for straws blowing their stopper it happens maybe .01% of the time and the semen is replaced at the very least in my neck of the woods. Mr. Fry would of got a lineally measured kick in the ash from yours trult if he'd blamed it on the thawing technique lol.
 
I called up Gearld a couple years ago, wasn't there and never heard back from him. I doubt I would have used him, and know I wouln't have used his Red Devon bulls, but I was interested in talking to him. Since than I have read enough of his stuff that more often leaves me scratching my head in disbelief than leaving me feeling as if I learned something of value from him. I know he is a big wig in the grassfed circle but that can't change my opinion of him and I consider myself fairly open minded to new ideas.....

My Dad gave me a book shortly after I started raising cattle. Said it was written by a gentleman he met a few times when he was working more in the Ag sector with Dekalb back in the early 80's... It was a book by Lassater's son about the development of the beefmaster breed and the philos of his father about culling, selection and such.. I found it much more interesting than Frys writtings... I think if I want to do the Linear measuring stuff I will just read Bosnma and make my own decisions..
 
My friend has bought Mr. Fry's program hook,line and sinker, and I worry about him,but there's no changing his mind. My salesmanship isn't as slick.

I'm not knocking the Devon breed, just this program which I don't believe will work in our area. As far as straw failures I only have 1-2 a year with all my other clients combined, and the AI company's always made it good. I told Mr. Fry that 20% failure rate was not acceptable and showed a lack of quality control. He told me that there was nothing wrong with the bull and they are addressing the problem. This happened two years in a row with this bull. He reimbursed the failed straws, but my point was you shouldn't have to buy 20% more than you need just to breed the herd once.

If you have a conversation with Mr. Fry try to get a straight answer. If you try to pin him down about where his info comes from or where the science to back a claim up can be located, he gets real defensive, slippery and will steer the conversation elsewhere. He really refers to "the milch cow" book alot.

Again, just my experience and I don't know it all, I believe if it was that easy we all would be doing it that way for the last 100 years.

Respectfully, Rick.
 

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