Some pics for your perusal

Here's a few pics I took today. Feel free to comment on the good and bad as you see fit!!

First up is a 7 year old Shorthorn cow, followed by pics with and of her Charolais x bull calf about 4 months old, and a pic of her udder. I am thinking of keeping this bull and selling him.

The first pic here is a 4 and a half year old Shorthorn cow, by Shadybrook Scotty 83K and out of the red cow in the previous post. This cow weaned a 420kg Charolais x calf (not quite 8 months) 3-4 weeks ago, which sold through the saleyards for $2.48/kg, or $1041.60. I can't believe how much this cow has picked up in only a few weeks!

Next is a rising 5 year old cow, with her nearly three month old crossbred heifer calf. Haven't decided whether to keep this heifer or not at this stage.

Those cows udders are going to last a long time, very nice. The Charolais cross calf - is there demand for crossbred bulls? Doesn't Spry sell some Char Shorthorn cross bulls in their bull sale?

thunderdownunder said:

This cow weaned a 420kg Charolais x calf (not quite 8 months) 3-4 weeks ago, which sold through the saleyards for $2.48/kg, or $1041.60.

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Thats got to help the Denver fund. Prices are unbeliviable at the moment. Nice looking cows not quiet sure about the hfr calf not to the same quality as the cows. IMO. How come you used the Charolais? What is the market for cross bred bulls up there? Okotoks and I posted at the same time I am an echo  ;D

Don't think you could go wrong adding some charl. Put him on some angus/maine/or simm cows and you will want to keep prob every heif out of him. My charl xcows always raise better and heavier calves than any other cows i have.

I really like your 4 and 7 year old cows, they have a very good build to them and with udders like that, how can you go wrong. Great Cows!!!  (clapping)

Okotoks said:

Those cows udders are going to last a long time, very nice. The Charolais cross calf - is there demand for crossbred bulls? Doesn't Spry sell some Char Shorthorn cross bulls in their bull sale?

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I love the udders too, pretty near perfect!
There has been reasonable demand for Shorty/Char bulls around our area lately (in SA), and I think we should be able to sell him fairly easily. If not, he'll make enough through the saleyards anyway. Spry's do sell a few crosses, only about 3 to 4 in each sale though.

Aussie said:

Nice looking cows not quiet sure about the hfr calf not to the same quality as the cows. IMO.How come you used the Charolais?

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I agree, she's not exactly anything special but think I may use her as a recip.
I used the Charolais bull because we ran out of time to get organised for an AI program, and at the time my cows were running with a friend's Char herd. I've sold 4 of the crosses in the last few months and all have made a tidy sum.

Mueller Show Cattle said:

I really like your 4 and 7 year old cows, they have a very good build to them and with udders like that, how can you go wrong. Great Cows!!!   (clapping)

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Thankyou for the positive feedback- I always worry that my opinion might be a bit biased so it's nice to get comments like this!

You can see that these cows all have great udders and are structurally sound. I also like the fact that they appear to be very fertile as they look like females and not steers or bulls.  They also are made properly for the job they were intended to do, they have proper hip structure to ensure calving ease and troublefree production. I'm sure some show oriented people would think that some of these cows could be a little more square hipped, but in my opinion, they are designed exactly the way God wanted them to look like. I doubt if any of these cows will ever have a calf puller used on them. From the pictures it also appears like they have held up extremely well in the excessive heat you have had lately. I hear it has been really hot!

justintime said:

You can see that these cows all have great udders and are structurally sound. I also like the fact that they appear to be very fertile as they look like females and not steers or bulls.  They also are made properly for the job they were intended to do, they have proper hip structure to ensure calving ease and troublefree production. I'm sure some show oriented people would think that some of these cows could be a little more square hipped, but in my opinion, they are designed exactly the way God wanted them to look like. I doubt if any of these cows will ever have a calf puller used on them. From the pictures it also appears like they have held up extremely well in the excessive heat you have had lately. I hear it has been really hot!

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Thanks JIT. As you know, I only have a small herd, but these are the traits I breed for. I have never had any trouble with these females... and the fact that their daughters have pumped out Char x calves on their first calf (from heavy birthweight, big shouldered bulls) makes me really pleased with where I'm at in my program. I don't try to breed show cows, I try to breed cows that work, and these ones do that for me.
They have all done really well in some tough years, and yes, they've handled the incredible heat we've had the past few months. Most importantly, they are actually making me $$$!!

I'm going to do an AI program with the friend I run my cows with this year (despite thinking maybe I should get a few more crossbreds for pocket money!). The first red cow I posted we are planning on mating to Waukaru Patent. I am still working out who to mate the other two and the heifers to- any suggestions for bulls that are available in Aus?

We have Saskvalley Pioneer 126P in Australia and he is homozygous polled and a great beef bull. I am not sure if there is still Wolf Willow Major Leroy in Australia, but I am trying to get some more Leroy sent down there in the next few weeks as well. Leroy continues to sire trouble free easy fleshing offspring for us. I also have Hillside Leader semen in Australia. He is a moderate framed calving ease bulls who still has good performance. We may also have Touchdown semen there this year as well. I may been a bit partial but I think some of these bulls will work for you.

I believe Leroy is sold out down here, but if there's more coming, that would be great! I think I'd use him on the roan cow.
It's about time we got a few new sires down here, available to the greater public as opposed to one or two breeders. I think we are in need of a new infusion of blood.

I'm not sure what to use on the Scotty daughter, she's a pretty framey female with a lot of bone. Tossing up between a few sires...