What to breed RA cow to?

[squirt71]

With all the possibilities in the Red Angus bulls, I'm having a hard time deciding what to flush this cow to.  I thought about Hamley, but am not sure.  I want to keep the calf a purebred and possibly get some show quality animals out of the flush.  This is the best picture I could get.  What would you all suggest?

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

How is she bred?

 

[squirt71]

How is she bred?

She is a Brown Vacation x Holden Hi Ho.

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

The hottest bull in the breed right now is obvioudly Mulberry, I just flushed a cow to him and am getting ready to flush a 22D daughter to him as well. He seems to be working on a wide variety of cows acrossed the country. If you want to live on the edge a little there is a Canadian bull that I saw in Denver called Fat Tony. These are both big power type bulls so if you like smaller type cattle, they are probably not for you. Hamily will probably not get you the power that the other two bulls will, but should get you some pretty nice replacement females ( I know alittle about this blood line as I have a maternal brother and a paternal brother to him). There is a Mulberry son in Ks called Huckleberry that I'm probably going to try this year. Super Vision from Von Forrels might be a good choice as well. RW

 

[Show Heifer]

I have seen some very nice Squalls. In fact, I have one of them! Born very easy, grew like crazy, wonderful temperment, very easy keeping (I mean VERY), and seems like she is going to be about a 6 frame with a completeness about her.
Feddes Big Sky is calving ease with marbling and maternal traits.
SLGN Regulator seems to be throwing some very nice complete calves.
Conquest is a bull that appears to be adding a ton of muscle and carcass traits to his calves.
You might also consider Majestic Lightening.  Very complete. Very Showy. He would probably clean up the font ends.

Those a few suggestions.  What bloodlines have worked with her in the past? Those are probably your best indicators.

 

[squirt71]

I have seen some very nice Squalls. In fact, I have one of them! Born very easy, grew like crazy, wonderful temperment, very easy keeping (I mean VERY), and seems like she is going to be about a 6 frame with a completeness about her.
Feddes Big Sky is calving ease with marbling and maternal traits.
SLGN Regulator seems to be throwing some very nice complete calves.
Conquest is a bull that appears to be adding a ton of muscle and carcass traits to his calves.
You might also consider Majestic Lightening.  Very complete. Very Showy. He would probably clean up the font ends.

Those a few suggestions.  What bloodlines have worked with her in the past? Those are probably your best indicators.

Thanks for the suggestions. We just bought her this fall, so I'm not sure what works with her. All I know is they were flushing her.  Her calf this year is out of Nebula.  I really like how thick and easy keeping she is, but I'd like to add a little flash to her because I think with the right bull I can get a thick, deep, well put together show heifer *hopefully*

 

[TPX]

I would use sakic (if you can't tell from previous posts hes a fav of mine).  Some other bulls that I sure like the looks of is the Lazy mc smash genetics have always impressed me.  A new bull in the brylor semen sales is the Cash bull that Soo Line owns, have seen alot of nice calves out of him already.  I wouldnt be scared of the full throttle bull either but it looks like your cow already has alot of middle in her so I think the other choices would work better.

 

[WMW11]

What do you guys think about Majestic Lightning or Red Line Six Mile Upper Deck?    Who has the Mulberry and Hamley semen?

 

[jbw]

Cattle Visions has those two bulls.

 

[feeder duck]

With all the possibilities in the Red Angus bulls, I'm having a hard time deciding what to flush this cow to.  I thought about Hamley, but am not sure.  I want to keep the calf a purebred and possibly get some show quality animals out of the flush.  This is the best picture I could get.  What would you all suggest?

Mulberry, Huckleberry, or Hamley.

  Cattle all have style and should sell well.

      Jeff

 

[TPX]

I really question why every one is using Mullberry.  I geuss it depends on who you are marketing to but our commercial customers around us do not like cattle like Mullberry.  I find the mullberry's are not that easy doing, seen a few huge bred heifers, every buddy has talked about the good females but I have yet to see one milking that I would say has the perfect red angus utter.  I think by using Mullberry you are just jumping on the marketing bandwagon that Brian has created,  in our eyes there are alot better bull in Brylors inventory and available else where.  Check out the new bull the Brlyor has this year by stout, the are marketing semen packages on him.  I don't know if you have seen any of Soo Line's calves out of LLLL Canyon but they look really good.  If you really wanted to use a bull that would not have that much use down there I would try and get some semen of six mile's indeed bull that they use to run, if you want picture perfect females then you will get them.

 

[CAB]

  Nice Donor Sqirt.
  What are some of the sires that Pieper's are using? I alway like their cattle.

 

[Show Heifer]

TPX : I think your exactly right. I happen to have a mulberry bred heifer that I really like, I have a half blood mulberry bull that will add pounds and create great daughters. No one should EVER jump on the bandwagon just because he's the "bull of the month." If you look at my list, I didn't list any of those. I have recommended Soo line and Six Mile bulls frequently, full throttle and fully loaded I think are useful if you use them on larger cows. (We seem to like them a bit larger south of the Canadian border!)
I also people who ask for opinions need to realize some of the recommendations are coming from people who have absolutely no experience with those bulls. Or they know the owner, breeder and are recommending out of friendship instead of the bulls qualifications.

Another factor that many forget is what the goal of the calves are. Selling for huge money therefore need the bull of the month popularity club. Selling to commercial cattleman therefore need to consider carcass, growth, longevity, energy, milk (either a lot or not so much), Making steers therfore milk and maternal have no influence. Creating replacement cows therefore need a bull with maternal triats.  You can't really make an honest recommendation or take recommendations without keeping those in mind.

 

[RAShower]

TPX has pointed to the problem that happens to really popular bulls. That is everyone uses them on even questionable stock and thinks they should sell them as breeders. Who wants to admit that they used Mulberry on their worst cow and now need to cull the calf? (I have a decent looking RA steer but I won't be mentioning the sire ....unless he starts winning).

The best uttered cow I have is a Mulberry. The worst was a Sakic and she went for salvage. The best overall cow in our herd is a Dr Phil. She does it all, raising good healthy calves, milks great and breeds back AI every year.

As to what to breed your cow to Squirt, FD and RW are spot on. But if money is no concern get some Cherokee Canyon semen from Bovine Elite ($100 a straw). I have seen some mating with cows that have similar pedigrees as yours and really like the results.

JMHO

 

[CAB]

  I agree somewhat with what you are saying Jen, a person needs to use the right bull for their cow and to hopefully meet the needs of the market and owner. That being said a person also has to keep in mind marketability of a flush. If you can find a bull that fits the requirements and is a popular flavor of the day so to speak, you open your market up to a much larger crowd. Some of the bulls become popular by hype and some slowly earn breeder's respect & demand. There is little doubt that right now in the Red Angus circles Mulberry or a better Mulberry son are the hot ticket IMO. There are also a lot of other bulls that I am sure are extremely good bulls. Where is the easiest place to get info on the Dr Phil bull Charming? Thanks. Brent

 

[squirt71]

Thanks for all the replies.  My only reservation with Mulberry is that I've seen quite a few poor calves out of him.  But like everyone has said, I think a lot of people thought they could breed Mulberry to the poor animals and get good calves and sell them because they are Mulberry calves.  I'm not real sure about using some of the Six Mile bulls on her, it's hard to tell from the picture but this cow has got a lot of capacity and thickness already and I think they'd just double up on what she already has.

To expand a little on what I want to do with the calves... We sell a lot of bulls private treaty, so I'm not breeding solely for show type animals.  I was just thinking if I bred her to a show type bull I might get lucky and get some fancier females out of her (she's not a real feminine cow) to show in the future.

She is cycling today, so I have a little time to decide for sure what I'm going to do.

Who has the Huckleberry semen?

 

[Bawndoh]

Looks like that cow doesn't need much help in the phenotype or fleshing department.  She is a real good looking girl!  I would go with a real maternal bull here, and breed to get females.  Genex has 75% and 90% male and female sexed semen, and I know other companies who only have 90.  I would breed her to a good maternal bull, with female 90% sexed. 
I would also, not necessarily recommend Mulberry, because of the "brian bandwagon", but I would suggest an Indeed bred bull, or Indeed if you can get semen on him.  I was just at Six Miles yesterday actually looking at the new calf we (Genex) has leased from them.  He is an Indeed son named Win-Chester.  He is actually their sons bull.  Anyhow, he would be GREAT for your cow, as he is long, with great muscle expression, a long, thick, square hip, and plenty of grow.  I would say he is at a 6 frame.  He is on their flyer's for their sale in April, and you can see that on their website.  I would imagine you wont be able to get semen until early May, as he has to go through their sale, and then down to Billings to collect.  We also saw his dam, a Norseman King dtr, a $20,000 female.  She too, is long, square made, with great rib shape and adequate depth.
I have posted some images of Win-chester, taken yesterday (Feb 11th) at Six Mile.
Also, just for fun, the reigning World Champion Angus female in her "natural environment".  She is due soon, and bred to Sakic.

 

[vcsf]

I really question why every one is using Mullberry.  I guess it depends on who you are marketing to but our commercial customers around us do not like cattle like Mullberry.  I find the mullberry's are not that easy doing, seen a few huge bred heifers, every buddy has talked about the good females but I have yet to see one milking that I would say has the perfect red angus utter.  I think by using Mullberry you are just jumping on the marketing bandwagon that Brian has created,  in our eyes there are alot better bull in Brylors inventory and available else where.  Check out the new bull the Brlyor has this year by stout, the are marketing semen packages on him.  I don't know if you have seen any of Soo Line's calves out of LLLL Canyon but they look really good.  If you really wanted to use a bull that would not have that much use down there I would try and get some semen of six mile's indeed bull that they use to run, if you want picture perfect females then you will get them.

I am not a big Bryan Mackenzie fan but I find it hard to argue the fact that Mulberry has been doing a very good job for most people that are using him and was most definitely an extremely impressive bull himself.

As LLL Canyon while I personally have not seen the calves out of him I would have big problems recommending this bull based on his own structural problems.  He turns out on the front end probably worse than any animal I have ever seen.  I know that the owners were also disappointed in him as a long yearling due to this.

Showheifer, while I like most of Six Mile's cattle and have a lot of respect for the people I would hardly call them small.  Also they are probably as well managed and marketed as any.

 

[TPX]

Check out the new bull that semex has Red Lacy MC Detour.  There is a picture of him on lazy mc's website.  He is a neat looking bull and i really like his genetics.

 

[RAShower]

Dr Phil info can be found at http://weberfarmscattleco.com/ they got some other good cattle too.

You can get in touch w/Kurt at JK Cattle for semen on Huckleberry. Info at http://www.jkcattleco.com/