Red Angus guys, need your help

[beefy08]

I have a maine and a limousin heifer I would like to breed to a res angus bull. The one I like is Above & Beyond. I liked his numbers for calving ease and birthweight. Have any of you had any experience with him?

 

[cowman 52]

If calving ease is number 1 through 10 you really can't go wrong- we use him for all the heifer people we breed for-  Do not really like the end result of the calves tho-- maybe just that in a really good heifer the calf just never seems to add up to what the mother was,  I do not consider performance a bad word  but calves need a bit more gas in the tank .  Did breed a grandaughter show heifer to a red bull in spite of a lot of feed the calf still was under 75-  she caught fire the min she hit the ground and looks way better than I expected-  A genex bull

 

[kfacres]

feederduck and his bro inlaw, roy cattle both used AaB quite a bit.. both had great luck with him...  pm them for more info.

 

[Midwest]

If calving ease is number 1 through 10 you really can't go wrong- we use him for all the heifer people we breed for-  Do not really like the end result of the calves tho-- maybe just that in a really good heifer the calf just never seems to add up to what the mother was,  I do not consider performance a bad word  but calves need a bit more gas in the tank .  Did breed a grandaughter show heifer to a red bull in spite of a lot of feed the calf still was under 75-  she caught fire the min she hit the ground and looks way better than I expected-  A genex bull

Have to agree with cowman on this.  Excellent calving ease but disappointed with the end result.  Calves are too narrow, too shallow, too light boned.  Most have nice profile and have seen some with a little more beef to them but mostly out of outstanding females.  Would not use him unless just interested in a live calf or for production of heifer bulls and they aren't worth anything so probably won't use him at all.

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

He is a strictly calving ease bull, I consider him a throw away calf bull. The R A breed is full of easy calving bulls that will produce calves that will actually be worth something in the end. Unless I was breeding Jersey heifers I wouldn't be real crazy about him. RW

 

[aj]

Not sure what a throw away calf is. I know that alot of these cattle will garner a 50 premium in the feedlot. Not saying its right or wrong  but it does show the disconnect between the show cattle and the real world. Is a dead calf a throw away(or just a good one at room temperature)?

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

Not sure what a throw away calf is. I know that alot of these cattle will garner a 50 premium in the feedlot. Not saying its right or wrong  but it does show the disconnect between the show cattle and the real world. Is a dead calf a throw away(or just a good one at room temperature)?

A throw away calf is one that is born alive weighing not much and at weaning weighs about the same. The R A breed is not a hard calving breed to begin with. I'm just saying that there are bulls available that produce a calf that comes easy but still has good performance, he is just not one of them. As far as being disconected from the commercial cattle world, 99% of our bulls are sold to commercial producers and 90% of them are return customers. RW

 

[DL]

I think he should work well as a calving ease sire on your Maine X Limmie heifer - I have been particularly impressed with the RA calving ease bulls (Leachman Heavenly 8141 (grandsire to A&B) and BC Hobo 1961) I have used on my Maine or Maine cross heifers - these calves are small, vigorous and they grow. If the cow is not narrow the calf will not be narrow and I totally disagree with RW - the only throw away calf is a dead one, the only thing worse than a throw away dead calf is if its heifer dam is either crippled or dead delivering the great dead one. I am using A&B on all my Maine heifers this year - I think it is a good choice

 

[beefy08]

Thanks for the responses. For those that would not recommend A&B, who would you recommend? I am ordering my semen through ABS right now so if you could give me a bull they carry that would help. Is Celebration any good?

 

[Show Heifer]

I have raised limmi's and recently (last 3-4 years) have gotten into the red angus. I will pm you about what I have found has and has not worked.  Some are very interesting!

 

[aj]

You're right rw. However breeding a Red Angus heifer to a bull is a whole different planet than breeding say a Heatwave daughter to a bull. You are going to get a mammouth no matter what you use.jmo

 

[BadgerFan]

you could use a sexed semen bull, that way with a heifer in the hopper you can use a bull with a bit more power.

 

[beefy08]

I wish I could BadgerFan, but I can't afford it right now.

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

I guess I look at it differently than some people on here, I expect a heifer to pull her weight the first year. Granted I'm in the RA business and not the clubby business. Beefgy - where are you located? RW

 

[beefy08]

West Central Ohio

 

[DL]

This is a Leachman Heavenly 8141 daughter out of a first calf Maine Anjou Topper X Witch Doctor heifer. She calved 2 weeks ago to BC Hobo 1961 at 21 months of age and is raising a nice heifer calf. Heavenly semen is difficult to find. BC Hobo is in the ABS catalog but the price went up to $35 - however I am pretty happy with my Hobo heifers out of Maine heifers. Don't know anything about Celebration personally but his accuracies are not as high as those for Hobo or A&B, so not being a gamble I wouldn't use him.

 

[beefy08]

Thanks for the info DL. That is a nice looking heifer.