Bulls Heads

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mark tenenbaum

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By virtue of the criteria in the begining of quoted post not quoted in this one-just a sentance or 2 An abbreviation of 30 years plus or minus-There are more performance oriented cattle that go back to him than anything in the Shorthorn breed in the US as stated-with some overflow through him and various decendent  sires to other countries-You might start with Byland,Moores, Dedmon, Waukaru and even UB Shorthorns up to Canada to:Shadybrook, Crooked post-JIT and a bunch of sires eminating from all these and more Just follow the Daisy chains in fact BUT WAIT-you not only have the "years ago progeny", THERES MORE.  A descendent that was National Champion bull in Denver 3-4 years ago called BISS Element from a Canadian great-or Grandson O0
 

knabe

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mark tenenbaum said:
That or a bad picture O0


for a posed a clipped bull, i seem to remember a bad picture epd.


maybe the ASA can donate 20 units of semen to the illinois shorthorn sire trial?
 

mark tenenbaum

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There probably isnt any-Go to Enticer on Short.org-wade through progeny-Look up Byland Goldwalk-wade through progeny-follow that To Waukaru after Gold Dust, Gold Member,Arsulu Vann yatta yatta-wade through progeny-A week or so from now when you get done-if we can ever find out what bulls were used in this ILL study used-wade through pedigrees But-given the other  bulls that made an impact on the breed like divedend rodeo and certainly Millbrooke Mark IV and G-9) who also had long heads-I have surmised through this intense academic task-That Shorthorn bulls with long heads rule LOL O0
 

mark tenenbaum

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knabe said:
mark tenenbaum said:
That or a bad picture O0


for a posed a clipped bull, i seem to remember a bad picture epd.


maybe the ASA can donate 20 units of semen to the illinois shorthorn sire trial?/// Speaking of which-heres a list of the bulls used  https://shorthorn.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Sire-Test-Update-Matt-April-2018.pdf      Not looking at extended pedigrees-a kneejerk count-has six of the fourteen sires going back to him-If i took the time-there would probably be more O0
 

justintime

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I did not ever use Enticer, as I did not like the way his offspring sloped off from hooks to pins. I was told by very good authority ( by a man who was involved in raising Enticer) that his dam was the Reserve National Champion Maine female in the US a few years before. This was a trait pretty common in Maine cattle in that era, so I am tending to agree with what he told me. Unfortunately, this type of thing happened in many breeds in that day, as it was before DNA testing. The only tool available to verify purity was blood typing, and it was far from being totally accurate. I remember talking with the head of the blood typing lab at Ohio State, ar the Graham Land and Cattle dispersal in Minnesota, and he confirming that most breeds were infusing cattle from other breeds. He said that some Milking Shorthorn blood types could slip through the blood tuping tests in Angus and that they had found 7 full blood Maine bulls that blood typed as purebred Shorthorns. I also remember getting a phone call from a well known Angus breeder in that era, asking me if I knew where I could find semen from McKee's Matchless Dairyman, a red Milking Shorthorn bull. This guy told me that this bull sired solid black calves when used on Angus cows and they also blood typed as purebred Angus. This wasn't just a Shorthorn thing. I believe the advancements in the past few years, with DNA testing, have cleaned up a lot of crap that was happening.
 

mark tenenbaum

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Enticer passed that roll along for a generation or 2 with Deertrail Awesome being an example-along Pancho and Cisco etc. Goldwalk had some of that-along with his other trait-HIGH BWS-But for whatever reasons-alot of that got moderated-GFS Creole and his sire were the first 2 I remember-And Creole and the many Gold Versions are still very prominent as far as functional cattle that would be considered performance and ez calvers-There have been a ton of them. O0
 

Medium Rare

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Just had a granddaughter of Enticer calve a few hours ago. For being a heifer she is mothering up well and has a nice udder. I would definitely be ok with removing 3" of leg and putting a better looking head on her.
 

justintime

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I also believe you can tell so much from a bull's head and also from a female's head. As a long time sales manager used to tell me "just send me a picture of your sale animals heads, and I will tell you which ones are going to be in the sale". I used to think he was just being smart, but now I think he actually was smart. As with most things, I don't think it is best to have extremes in anything in the head but you definitely want some width between the eyes but not to an excessive amount. Wider skulls can lead to calving problems especially when used on heifers. I also think in a bull's head, you want to see masculinity and in a female's head, you want to see femininity. In other words, a female's head should resemble one of the cheerleaders on the sidelines, rather than one of the defensive guards.
Another trait I used to see old timers mention was the circumference of the bull's tail. One of my mentors when growing up, used to tell me that I should never use a bull with a small circumference of his tail. He used to say that when you put you hand around the tail about half way up from the top of the switch, your should be able to just make your fingers touch each other. I always thought that there was a far bit of leeway in this as some guys have monster sized mitts and some don't. This man told me that the bulls with smaller circumference tails were not as hardy as those with bigger circumference tails. I think there is something to this, as the easiest fleshing cattle always seem to have thicker tails.
 

cowboy_nyk

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Back to the topic of heads, here's a good example of a day old calf that has the right kind of head in my opinion.  Muzzle is almost as wide as his forehead.  Maybe a bit more set to his eyes (more hooded so you can't see them from head on) would be ideal. His mother isn't ideal in that way and accordingly she has had pinkeye in the past.  Pretty direct correlation around here.  If I can see their eyeballs from the front, they will get pinkeye in their lifetime.
 

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mark tenenbaum

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Heres a long yearling on grass-NO : her left rear leg didnt start like that-theres a metal rod in it-She still managed to come back from an extremely bad calfhood. She was injured through most of it. Although I dont think her head had alot to do with how she developed along in spite of it all that O0
 

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trevorgreycattleco

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mark tenenbaum said:
Heres a long yearling on grass-NO : her left rear leg didnt start like that-theres a metal rod in it-She still managed to come back from an extremely bad calfhood. She was injured through most of it. Although I dont think her head had alot to do with how she developed along in spite of it all that O0

I like that head on her for sure.
 

trevorgreycattleco

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cowboy_nyk said:
Back to the topic of heads, here's a good example of a day old calf that has the right kind of head in my opinion.  Muzzle is almost as wide as his forehead.  Maybe a bit more set to his eyes (more hooded so you can't see them from head on) would be ideal. His mother isn't ideal in that way and accordingly she has had pinkeye in the past.  Pretty direct correlation around here.  If I can see their eyeballs from the front, they will get pinkeye in their lifetime.

Love your cattle. Those Resource cattle you have are excellent
 

cowboy_nyk

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mark tenenbaum said:
Heres a long yearling on grass-NO : her left rear leg didnt start like that-theres a metal rod in it-She still managed to come back from an extremely bad calfhood. She was injured through most of it. Although I dont think her head had alot to do with how she developed along in spite of it all that O0

Agreed Mark that's a nice headed heifer, broken leg or not haha. We need an "injury prone" EPD I think  (pop)
 

mark tenenbaum

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She sure does-Her first calf X Angus was one of the heaviest out of 40 or so Then she went down to nothing after weaning-afraid wed lose her. Put a magnet in her, and she finally came back strong again-Her nick name is Calamity O0
 

Cabanha Santa Isabel - BR

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justintime said:
I did not ever use Enticer, as I did not like the way his offspring sloped off from hooks to pins. I was told by very good authority ( by a man who was involved in raising Enticer) that his dam was the Reserve National Champion Maine female in the US a few years before. This was a trait pretty common in Maine cattle in that era, so I am tending to agree with what he told me. Unfortunately, this type of thing happened in many breeds in that day, as it was before DNA testing. The only tool available to verify purity was blood typing, and it was far from being totally accurate. I remember talking with the head of the blood typing lab at Ohio State, ar the Graham Land and Cattle dispersal in Minnesota, and he confirming that most breeds were infusing cattle from other breeds. He said that some Milking Shorthorn blood types could slip through the blood tuping tests in Angus and that they had found 7 full blood Maine bulls that blood typed as purebred Shorthorns. I also remember getting a phone call from a well known Angus breeder in that era, asking me if I knew where I could find semen from McKee's Matchless Dairyman, a red Milking Shorthorn bull. This guy told me that this bull sired solid black calves when used on Angus cows and they also blood typed as purebred Angus. This wasn't just a Shorthorn thing. I believe the advancements in the past few years, with DNA testing, have cleaned up a lot of crap that was happening.


Great. A clear answer. Good!
Wish more info like that, on both road sides (breeds).
Sure not all are like to open the black secrets!
 

aj

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A hair off topic but....Cross Diamond Cattle Co. of Nebraska measures baby calves heads in order to help judge calving ease. Readings had varied from 51.5-42 cm.
 

cowboy_nyk

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aj said:
A hair off topic but....Cross Diamond Cattle Co. of Nebraska measures baby calves heads in order to help judge calving ease. Readings had varied from 51.5-42 cm.
Interesting. I suppose that is not much different than using the tape measure for birth weights.  Head type and size usually follows pretty consistently with body type. Long narrow head -> tall narrow animal, tiny head -> tiny calf, short stout head-> short stout calf.
 
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