Pasture pics *resized

Finally getting a chance to post some pics.  Calving season was a breeze and with all the early rain we had, the cattle are in as good as shape as I can remember.  I calved a little later than in past years and that definitely plays a big factor into how good of shape the cows are in coming into the hot dry part of the summer.  One of the challenges I face is trying to balance calving later in the spring with conception rates late July and August.  It was over 100 today and it's forecasted to be high 90/100s for likely the next couple months.  Calves this year are sired by Saskvalley Alamo and Waukaru Forward.  This year, Alamo is servicing heifers and 2nd calvers; Forward is with the commercial cows, and the newest addition: Leveldale Genesis is with a smaller group of purebred mature cows.  Slowly but surely, I am putting together a set of cows that I feel fits my vision of what functional beef cattle should look like, and accordingly, of how they should perform. 

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They look good as usual. A up and coming herd for sure

Cows look to be the right type to me.  Keep up the good fight.  I know that it feels like a long process.

There are some really good looking bull calf prospects there!

XBAR, I like the thickness of the calves. Cattle are looking very good. Nice bull battery you have there as well!

Thanks for taking a look--  it's definitely been a bull heavy year.  Including the F1 calves, I've had about twice as many bulls as heifers.  Here's a couple of the F1 heifers, sired by HC Vanguard 22Z, and out of purebred brangus cows

Little off subject , but what are your current mature cow weights?  And do you have a mature cow mature weight goal?

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The calf behind Alamo where he is turning would be a great one JMO. Phenotypically-I like Forward to look at-Hes young and may not have hit the really top females yet-But I think if you are looking to sell commercial bulls-let them see those Brangus crosses-those are some thick cows-and the calves show it. O0

Waukaru Forward appealed to me, so I took a look at his EPD profile and pedigree.  His EPD's are about as positive as you will find.  His pedigree is full of cow-makers.  You must have done your homework?

That white bellied F1 heifer is a beast  (clapping)

Dale said:

Waukaru Forward appealed to me, so I took a look at his EPD profile and pedigree.  His EPD's are about as positive as you will find.  His pedigree is full of cow-makers.  You must have done your homework?

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Always.

bedrock said:

Little off subject , but what are your current mature cow weights?  And do you have a mature cow mature weight goal?

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From the bottom to top end there's quite a bit of variation- from mayble 900lb 3 year old JR Drover 05x daughters to 1500lb 8 yr old Brangus cows- with the majority of the purebred cows being hard pressed to go much over 1200. They fluctuate between a bcs of 4-6 so obviously there's some poundage variation there depending what time of year we're talking about.  I can't say precisely as I'm still in the process of building a new barn with some facilities that will definitely include a scale but over the last few years I've sold several open cows which has given more a pretty accurate representation of what I'm working with.  I'm only running a little over 50 cows on 300 acres so at this point, culling cows that fail to wean back, regardless of weight, has been the approach. 

Right now, I'm carrying some cows that I know have had unsatisfactory weaning weight %'s in the past, but while having more forage than I can utilize, I plan on holding them, so long as they calve annually, until I reach more of a max stocking rate at which point they'll be culled as they are outdone by superior producers. 

Dale said:

Waukaru Forward appealed to me, so I took a look at his EPD profile and pedigree.  His EPD's are about as positive as you will find.  His pedigree is full of cow-makers.  You must have done your homework?

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He really does have an impressive EPD profile. Many people go on about curvebenders but 4003 is the real deal.  He is only 1 of 4 bulls in the Shorthorn breed to have ever had a CE EPD of 10 or better and a WW EPD of 85 or better.  The oldest calves I have are only a few months old now so I will have to wait and see how his growth numbers play out but I anticipate his BW EPD to get even better.  He's sired 15 purebred calves to date averaging right under 78lbs.
http://shorthorn.digitalbeef.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=_animal&file=_animal&search_value=&animal_registration=4208817&member_id=

I've attached a pic of his pedigree and EPD profile as well as the profile and pedigree of just an exceptional bull calf of his, XBAR FORWARD 28D.

Waukaru Forward 4003 has 15 calves in 2 herds.    This suggests that a healthy dose of skepticism should be applied to evaluating his EPD's at this time,  regardless of how impressive they may appear. Most of it is based on pedigree averages and not actual performance. 

idalee said:

Waukaru Forward 4003 has 15 calves in 2 herds.    This suggests that a healthy dose of skepticism should be applied to evaluating his EPD's at this time,  regardless of how impressive they may appear. Most of it is based on pedigree averages and not actual performance.

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Yes, much of his profile is based on pedigree averages but his own actual performance is factored in there as well. Both his sire, 2109 and his mgs, 464, are among the highest accuracy bulls in the breed. 4003 ratioed 108 for BW at 81lbs in a contemporary group of over 40.  He also ratiod over a 100 for both WW and YW.  I bred Forward to several commercial cows that aren't in the Asa database and the results were much the same- mid 70lb bws. I'm not going to get on here and make outrageous speculative claims about the future,, All I'm doing is stating the results I've experienced so far and, fortunately, they've coincided with his EPD projections.  He's had some really good calves for me this year and I look Forward to watching their progression.