I'd strongly suggest just using Angus bulls on heifers bred to produce show steers for their first calf. There are jillion to choose from. Almost all of Ohlde or Griswold bulls work just fine along with the most proven commercial-oriented Angus bulls. Your still liable to get a steer out of them that will do just fine as an Angus steer in Texas.
In past years, we exclusively used our own Angus bulls for heifers (with one LBW purebred Maine thrown in) and got along fine. You'll still have to pull a few, but not many. Last year, we AI'd all of our virgin heifers for the first time. Used Angus on most, but also Rocky Balboa and Hard Core on a few. We had a couple of Rocky calves just fine, but my last one was out of a very good Friction heifer. We had to pull a pretty good size bull calf out of her Wednesday night. Momma is fine, but it was a hard enough pull the calf is still stiff on his front legs. Yesterday, we had a big heifer calf out of a three year old cow (second calf, three weeks overdue) that I think is a Rocky calf from the looks of it. Could be out of cleanup, but I doubt it.
However, I'd also have to tell you that our single biggest calf out of our heifers has been Angus-sired.
As with any cattle, uou need to be watching any heifers closely at calfing. Your odds of having trouble are less with an Angus. If you breed them to a cross-bred bull, your chances go up. This fall, I'll probably just go back straight Angus on everything. We're going to get an Anchor son we own collected to use on the 55 heifers we have to breed to this year.
Calves that size out of Taz aren't the norm.
Other "good" crossbred or Maine bulls for heifers: Dirty Harry (hearsay), Rocky Balboa (I am really pleased with the calves, but I won't use him on heifers gain but will for second calves), Witch Doctor (a good bet if your heifers aren't already related to him), Hard Core (haven't had any calving difficulty on a handful of calves).
In past years, we exclusively used our own Angus bulls for heifers (with one LBW purebred Maine thrown in) and got along fine. You'll still have to pull a few, but not many. Last year, we AI'd all of our virgin heifers for the first time. Used Angus on most, but also Rocky Balboa and Hard Core on a few. We had a couple of Rocky calves just fine, but my last one was out of a very good Friction heifer. We had to pull a pretty good size bull calf out of her Wednesday night. Momma is fine, but it was a hard enough pull the calf is still stiff on his front legs. Yesterday, we had a big heifer calf out of a three year old cow (second calf, three weeks overdue) that I think is a Rocky calf from the looks of it. Could be out of cleanup, but I doubt it.
However, I'd also have to tell you that our single biggest calf out of our heifers has been Angus-sired.
As with any cattle, uou need to be watching any heifers closely at calfing. Your odds of having trouble are less with an Angus. If you breed them to a cross-bred bull, your chances go up. This fall, I'll probably just go back straight Angus on everything. We're going to get an Anchor son we own collected to use on the 55 heifers we have to breed to this year.
Calves that size out of Taz aren't the norm.
Other "good" crossbred or Maine bulls for heifers: Dirty Harry (hearsay), Rocky Balboa (I am really pleased with the calves, but I won't use him on heifers gain but will for second calves), Witch Doctor (a good bet if your heifers aren't already related to him), Hard Core (haven't had any calving difficulty on a handful of calves).
