Flush Opinions

Mtnman, with all due respect I don't follow your reasoning.  You said yourself that her best calf was a PB Hereford.  It was a steer and so now you want to raise terminal cattle out of her.  Personally, I would be breeding her to a PB Hereford that has a lot of show to it and breed for a show animal that way.  You say you don't like some of her traits.  Well Yellow Jacket or BIM, etc. aren't going to improve them.  So what will do you do with the heifers?  At least by breeding PB you can either breed for terminal as well but keep the characteristics so the can be shown at the larger shows by breed or you can breed to bulls that are know to improve the traits you don't like on your cow. 

This exercise has been helpful for me in deciding what I am going to do with my cows.  I, myself may be breeding "mutts" but I am trying to increase the amount of Chi in them to keep them eligible to show at the national events.  I'm not going to be using sires that are sons of sons of sons of something.  I'm going to breed them all to a higher % Chi bull and try to promote the breed I like.  Not just promote someone's hot club calf bull. 

Fair enough Cattle Cards, and maybe PB hereford is the way to go, for the market that I am mostly selling into PB is a really tough sale. There are limited shows that have breed divisions, yes I would like to sell into markets that do have a market for more PB cattle but with limited amounts of animals to sale it makes it tough. And yes that is my fault because I don't take the steps to market to a larger area. As for the heifers we do have a market for market heifers, they are not as valuable but there is a market.

I appreciate your questions because it has made me rethink what I am looking at as well.

Is it that hard to find a Hereford bull with acc. for maternal traits to fix some of her flaws?

I think you have a good looking cow, specially like her depth of rib and squareness.  After reading your post about her raising a good PB calf and that steer placing well, if she were mine I'd sure consider AI or if you are able to spend the $$, flushing her to one of Stan Born's bulls and hoping for another good Hereford steer prospect.  Stan has two that I think would work.  Encore would be my first choice.  He's a Carpe Diem x HiHo.  I recently have seen two really nice fall born Encore steers.  Or the other is Right Answer, he's a Made Right x Wasp.  I think either of these would maybe clean up the front end and maybe give you a good, square, thick steer prospect.  I also think you wouldn't have any trouble with the calf being marked Hereford.  Just another avenue you might want to consider.  Good Hereford steer prospects are bringing pretty good money here in Texas.  BTW, Stan Born is a super nice guy and he'd be glad to talk to you about his sires. his website is bornranches.net or go through showsteers.com.    (Except at present he's probably getting ready for Fort Worth steer show next week).  Good luck with her, she's a nice female.

I would breed her instead of flushing her. See what u get if you like it then flush her.

Thanks for the information and input from everyone. I'll let you know what I decide to do.

Wanted to update this thread, so I bred this cow to Harlem Shake and I like the results. This little guy is 4 days old now, hit the ground at 94 lbs., Still not sure if I will flush her or not. It will be very interesting watching him grow and develop.

My vote is Carpe Diem.

KAXX said:

My vote is Carpe Diem.

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I admit that Carpe Diem is an interesting bull and though deceased, still reasonably priced.  He used to be listed as a calving ease bull as well.  Is that the case?  Have a really nice Jesse James heifer that I need to figure what to breed to for her first calf.  Thought that might be marketable here in TX.

And Mtnman, never would have thought of breeding her to Harlem Shake.  And no offense to his owners, I won't probably ever breed to him or any offspring.  Butt I regress.  Mtnman - You have a nice looking calf there.  You did get a bull (steer) and Hereford colored.  Looks like it worked.  Congrats a nice looking, healthy calf.

My vote is Milkman or Monopoly, that's a nice steer that she had there.

You might look into Crimson Tide. The couple of calves I have seen out of him were super sound and turned out to make really good market steers. One won our local fair. Just a thought. The owners said the calves were in the mid to high 80's on bw.

Why not Monopoly? If you are going terminal he has about as good track record as any. the other I like is Unstoppable. soft made come on strong midway and seem to get wider deeper as they age. You could also go smoke for interesting color. Old school Alias host of other Smokes out there. Unstoppable does not sacrifice size at all.

Cattle Cards said:

KAXX said:

My vote is Carpe Diem.

Click to expand...

I admit that Carpe Diem is an interesting bull and though deceased, still reasonably priced.  He used to be listed as a calving ease bull as well.  Is that the case?  Have a really nice Jesse James heifer that I need to figure what to breed to for her first calf.  Thought that might be marketable here in TX.

And Mtnman, never would have thought of breeding her to Harlem Shake.  And no offense to his owners, I won't probably ever breed to him or any offspring.  Butt I regress.  Mtnman - You have a nice looking calf there.  You did get a bull (steer) and Hereford colored.  Looks like it worked.  Congrats a nice looking, healthy calf.

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So you know I did flush the cow to Churchill A1 and will be seeing those calves shortly, then bred her back to Harlem Shake. I am happy with the results and only time will tell how he comes a long as a show steer. We breed a few every year for county fair calves for our kids but at the same time we only need a couple of them so we also have to look at being able to market a few calves that are bred clubby, so finding a bull that adds the power we need and keeps them sound is what I am looking for. So far Harlem shake has produced us some nice calves. The walks alone, and BIM calves look very good too. We also have a couple Renegade Blues and a couple Ready to Rumble that look nice. I appreciate your thoughts, while I know what I feel will breed well with my cows when it comes to the Hereford breed the whole clubby thing is frustrating. This is why I posed this question in the first place. The whole clubby bull thing is a shot in the dark because there is no predictability. I calved a cow to day that was 16 days over due and the calf was 135 pounds, also out of Harlem Shake. One thing that I will say is the calves even that big want to get up and suck, not something that you might expect when they get that big.

So asking another question here is there a Maine or Maintainer bull that would give me the power but have some degree of predictability that would work for what I'm wanting to accomplish?

No Worries

Just wanted to update the Harlem Shake calf picture, not the greatest but he didn't want to cooperate.

I still think Exile has thrown a bunch of good calves-and hes got some size-Young money is another really good breeding bull:and bulls like Excel 80 or Safe and Sound The Hereford Shorthorn appearing clubbies like Indian Outlaw sell real well-even here.Ive found clubby bulls with a touch of maternal seem to work better on purebred Shorts, Angus, and Herefords than straight terminals:if you want to sell calves that will show.Bennett shorthorns has had videos of Exiles for years. !st Pic-an Assasin-Hes new but throwing some really good calves-we have one that was a real change in one generation, 2: A typical Exile-very young, they grow and are very sound: 3:A young money-brought huge $-Hes been a very good consistant sire-ditto on soundness and grow O0

whats your plans for that steer. do you have any updated pics? if so, please pm me

Wanted to post an updated picture of the Harlem Shake calf at around 850 to 900 pounds. Not the best picture, sorry.