Need Breeding Opinions

I have a Steel Force X A Step Up heifer that I am wondering what to breed her to her first year. A great combination of the two lines, just asking for some opinions on what ya'll would do if she was yours!

See thread-what to breed i-80 to O0 O0

Purebred? If you're wanting to go clubby then disregard this post! Haha!

I'm breeding all of my purebred heifers to sexed WLE Uno Mas. If you're wanting to make a show animal I hear that he is the way to go. Another calving ease option that I'm using is CCR Wide Range, he will help with the number aspect of things. I'll have some calves of his coming this spring so I can keep you posted! Hook's Broadway is another one that I hear throws some style in his calves, but his numbers recently tanked. There's always Dream on and Built Right if you can find it! The list goes on and on but personally, Uno Mas is my pick! Good luck!  (thumbsup)

My first Steel Force x Duff Basic Instinct is bred to KLS Halfblood, due in a month and I will report back with pics.

My second Steel Force x DCC New Look will be bred to Hooks Broadway, HPF Optimizer, or W/C No Remorse. I'm just not sure which way I want to go.

I feel all these bulls will add some look and profitability and are IMO calving ease.

Yeah I will be breeding her purebred. I have thought of Uno Mas, but I have heard that he isn't the best for growth? I know that there have been other threads about it, but I'm just curious about what ya'll are seeing with these cows about to calve. Please keep us updated!

wypeterson22 said:

Yeah I will be breeding her purebred. I have thought of Uno Mas, but I have heard that he isn't the best for growth? I know that there have been other threads about it, but I'm just curious about what ya'll are seeing with these cows about to calve. Please keep us updated!

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EPD wise, growth (WW, YW) is an issue. If you're breeding him to a heifer, wanting a live calf and then wanting it to be clean and made right to be a show animal, its a bit of a give and take. With most CE sires you get a small calf at birth with moderate growth. I have heard nothing but good things about his daughters as cows, so if all of that is true, I don't mind the low numbers as much. I'm using his female sexed semen on first calf heifers to get live heifer calves and maintain a decent phenotype, maybe even retaining them for replacements if they meet my standards. Check him out on Select Sires, look at his dam on there. Wide Range has the growth numbers in addition to his CE, but I'm not too sure about using him for the show ring. Lots of the CE show-based bulls don't have as large of growth numbers, or a perfectly balanced EPD profile as the more performance oriented bulls do. Broadway would be a good option if his CE numbers come back up. Another one to consider if you're concerned about the EPD standpoint would be JF American Pride. I have used him on heifers with no problems. I've liked the looks of all of my calves out of him so far. Makes them deep with a clean front 1/3 and they grow. Attitudes can be an issue there. I'll keep you updated when my next crop hits the ground.

Yeah I definitely agree with that, and that is definitely the most important thing for me, getting a live calf on the ground, whether it's a bull or a heifer. I will definitely look into him more. I really like the looks of American Pride, would you care to elaborate on the attitude issues? It looks like his docility number is fairly low. This heifer is super mellow. Really like the looks of him though!

I would definately look at W/C BULLSEYE 3046A as he is light birth weight, reasonable performance, and his dam has some maternal strength.

Funny you should say that Mark, I was just about to ask opinions about him. Any other opinions or remarks on him? Are y'all liking what you're seeing?

wypeterson22 said:

Yeah I definitely agree with that, and that is definitely the most important thing for me, getting a live calf on the ground, whether it's a bull or a heifer. I will definitely look into him more. I really like the looks of American Pride, would you care to elaborate on the attitude issues? It looks like his docility number is fairly low. This heifer is super mellow. Really like the looks of him though!

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His calves haven't had the best attitudes, really upheaded and take a while to calm down. They look darn good though. If you're planning on working with the calf from birth, you should be ok.

There are some other Lock N Load sons that would work-W/C Lock Down, ACW Ironhide and Live Ammo. Lock Down and Irohinde are 1/2 Simmental so the resulting calf would be a 3/4. I have some Lock Downs coming in a few months so I can let you know more after they hit the ground. Firesweep on here has used Ironhide and has really liked the results. I will be trying Live Ammo this coming breeding season!

Fierst one word of waring about using the across breed EPD conversion tables:  No work has been do to validate this table from Clay Center and this adds the problems of comparing two different EPD models to the inherit problems that exist within the EPD models themselves. No one does validation or progeny testing to verify what the EPDs are are in fact accurate.  The American Simmental Association is thinking about doing progeny testing of bulls to in fact do this.  The Canadian charolais Association regrets stopping their progeny testing program for this reason as well.  Very small things like weighing procedures and the type of scale used vary from breed to breed and country to country and have huge impacts on the numbers produced.
Now on to the bulls to use. LT has a number of high performance and excellent maternal bulls that designed to work here.
LT Venture (Acclerated)
LT Sundance (Genex)
RBM Fargo
See them and their prices all under $ 25.00 at: http://www.ltranch.com/herdsires.html  Note they also have a feeder marketing program and given the iportance of this breeder he likely cound do something for you.

Wrong thrread

Now the correct response.
He is calving ease bull and the few calves i saw fit into this mold.  His calves are as easy calving as the ULF Odin Calves and resemble the calves out of another caving ease bull call Kuntz Sheriff (red): http://www.semexusa.com/beef/i?lang=en&beef=view&view2=794268.  Well built for the type of bull he is but no power bull.  Nice heifer bull.