Shorthorn Cow Families

We are just starting out in the shorthorn breed and are looking to focus our herd on 2 or 3 cow families. We currently own to heifers we have purchased that are daughters of Rage and go back to WHR Sonny 8141. Any suggestions as to what cow families are both successful in the show ring and for commercial production. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Augusta Pride, Fool, Myrtle bo, Cumberland, Mary, Mona Lisa, and the list goes on and on and on... (thumbsup)

Do you got pictures or know of any one who would be selling cows with pedigrees related to these cow famliies. Do you have any pictures?

Sunset Ridge Farm said:

Any suggestions as to what cow families are both successful in the show ring and for commercial production. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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Isn't any...

One big one in Canada is the Raggedy Anne cow family, many great females from that cow family.

Go to www.shorthornbulls.com.  Great cow families for both sides. 

where are you located. their will be several sales this spring and more in the fall.

We are located in Southeast, WI

There are a TON of good cattle in the Wisconsin-Iowa-Minnesota areas:right around you!-Name brand:Cumberland,Mattis,Augusta Pride,etc daughters at Bollums,S-Co etc, Sleepers at: Kaehler Family Cattle and ESPECIALLY Franz Farms(Minnesota)-FRanz has some of the better non-name cattle in the breed-they bought alot of Brockmueller cattle-Dave McFarland"s (Dooling is his son) cattle are also there. Iowa is full of good ones-START AT THE IOWA BEEF EXPO-some of the top Shorthorns in the US selll there every year-and talk to Mitchell FamilyShorthorns-Northern Iowa on the border of Minn-hes produced some great ones,LAST BUT NOT LEAST-RAISBECKS in WISCONSIN-;thats where Ace OF Diamonds(Arguably the top Shorthorn bull THAT ANY MERE MORTAL CAN USE) came from.Just go to the Wisconsin-Minnesota Assoc. sites-and the Iowa BEFF EXPO-READ MY LIPS.on the BEFF EXPO. O0

http://www.shorthorncountry.net/sales_calendar.htm
Here's a sales list from Shorthorn Country web site of a lot of shorthorn sales. Also check Cagwin and Aegerter marketing to ask for catalogs for sales in your areas.You can also go to ASA web site and check members by state to find farms close to you.  Good luck and have fun this is a great breed to study and learn.

My favorites were: Joy Maid, Foxglove, Butterfly, and Clara, at Russell Sloans, and Augusta Bloom, Rose Bloom, Golden Clunny from Whittle Bros., and the ol' dual-purpose cow families from Haumont, such as Helianthus and Cherry.

Get a Herd-builder, not a Halter-hoochie, just my opinion.

GB

There are many good cow families in the Shorthorn breed. I would recommend what portion of the market you would like to be involved in. By that I mean the steer or breeding stock. After that determine how much you want to spend. Being successful in the showring in the shorthorn breed these day takes a lot of money.

garybob said:

My favorites were: Joy Maid, Foxglove, Butterfly, and Clara, at Russell Sloans, and Augusta Bloom, Rose Bloom, Golden Clunny from Whittle Bros., and the ol' dual-purpose cow families from Haumont, such as Helianthus and Cherry.

Get a Herd-builder, not a Halter-hoochie, just my opinion.

GB

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Halter hoochie!!!  CLASSIC  i love it  that's going down in my book!!!!  LOL

garybob said:

My favorites were: Joy Maid, Foxglove, Butterfly, and Clara, at Russell Sloans, and Augusta Bloom, Rose Bloom, Golden Clunny from Whittle Bros., and the ol' dual-purpose cow families from Haumont, such as Helianthus and Cherry.

Get a Herd-builder, not a Halter-hoochie, just my opinion.

GB

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Well said GB!  <beer>

Agreed, very well said.  Get a herd builder whatever her cow family.  Find someone that has had a cow family around for a long time, that stays productive in whatever field you are looking at getting into.  Consistantly producing the kind of cattle that you want to raise.  That's my favorite new saying, hope ya don't mind if I steal it!!!!  "HALTER HOOCHIE" (lol)
It realy has a lot of meaning, we enjoy the show ring end of the breed with no more cows than we have and what we like to do with them, but our first big investment was in a female that is the foundation of what I believe is a true beef cow that was very complete in her make up with just a little extra eye appeal.  Not quite enough to blow anybody away in the show ring, but is amazing to watch out in pasture the way she looks and the way she produces on all levels.  Just my opinion, it's probably wrong, or at least I'm sure some of you will tell me all the ways I am.

I'm just going to caution you on starting out your herd by using cow family names. That is how I started and it really doesn't work too well. Each cow, no matter what their name or cow family, has a performance history. I would suggest your first purchases be from somebody you trust that will give you the history of the pedigree when it comes to functional traits. If you start with something that will perform and then you can pick sires to breed to them that will give you some fancier calves to show. Just don't go about it like me and think that you can buy the fancy heifers or cows and immediately make fancy show calves and assume the cows will perform. Good luck to you and welcome to the Shorthorn breed! There are many on this forum that would be glad to help you in any way to reach your goals. It gets a little feisty sometimes but it has to in order to learn.  <cowboy>

JTM said:

I'm just going to caution you on starting out your herd by using cow family names. That is how I started and it really doesn't work too well. Each cow, no matter what their name or cow family, has a performance history. I would suggest your first purchases be from somebody you trust that will give you the history of the pedigree when it comes to functional traits. If you start with something that will perform and then you can pick sires to breed to them that will give you some fancier calves to show. Just don't go about it like me and think that you can buy the fancy heifers or cows and immediately make fancy show calves and assume the cows will perform. Good luck to you and welcome to the Shorthorn breed! There are many on this forum that would be glad to help you in any way to reach your goals. It gets a little feisty sometimes but it has to in order to learn.  <cowboy>

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That's the very reason I liked the cow families that I have mentioned......because of how they performed at RAISING CALVES without too many extra inputs or attention,and last and survive for many years. This is the EXACT reason Shorthorns were created five centuries ago. Just ask someone like Rob Sneed or Dover Sindelar or Ralph Larson what their definition of a cow family is.
Then, if you want to know what Tyler Cates' definition of a cow family, ask him. You'll get a totally different type of answer than what you'd get from any of the other Cattlemen I've previously mentioned.

GB

garybob said:

JTM said:

I'm just going to caution you on starting out your herd by using cow family names. That is how I started and it really doesn't work too well. Each cow, no matter what their name or cow family, has a performance history. I would suggest your first purchases be from somebody you trust that will give you the history of the pedigree when it comes to functional traits. If you start with something that will perform and then you can pick sires to breed to them that will give you some fancier calves to show. Just don't go about it like me and think that you can buy the fancy heifers or cows and immediately make fancy show calves and assume the cows will perform. Good luck to you and welcome to the Shorthorn breed! There are many on this forum that would be glad to help you in any way to reach your goals. It gets a little feisty sometimes but it has to in order to learn.  <cowboy>

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That's the very reason I liked the cow families that I have mentioned......because of how they performed at RAISING CALVES without too many extra inputs or attention,and last and survive for many years. This is the EXACT reason Shorthorns were created five centuries ago. Just ask someone like Rob Sneed or Dover Sindelar or Ralph Larson what their definition of a cow family is.
Then, if you want to know what Tyler Cates' definition of a cow family, ask him. You'll get a totally different type of answer than what you'd get from any of the other Cattlemen I've previously mentioned.

GB

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Yeah I realize that but I just thought the safe thing for this person is to steer away from that strategy since the only names of cow families that they are going to hear consistently are the well known show cattle cow families. It's just a matter of getting more experience for me and learning the better performing cow families.

The reason you hear about cow families ONLY in the context of show cattle is because the whole concept is a SCAM.  Good bulls sire good calves.  Any prepotency a cow has should be attributed to her sire, or her dams sire.

A good cow family is only 25% of the equation.
25% cow
25% bull
25% feed and development program
25% marketing and selling to people who will take the calf to the next level.Best advertisement is to sell calves that work for your customers. 

Just because you buy a top of the line cow families will not guarantee success. I think it is important to make sure you get the other 3 areas in line and up to par before investing big dollars in cow families JMO. If you can't feed and develop them or market them after you feed them or know what bull will work on the type of cow then it is hard to sell the calves.