what is your worst mating?

redirtroad said:

Irish whiskey cow I thought was bred to smilin bob and spit out a rat a couple weeks ago whos daddy is my clean up bull (thumbsup) Dont know if this counts lol

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This was going to be my response haha! Or the calves I lost!

Dusty said:

Had this one the other day... Won't mention Sire or Dam info other than it was a pregnancy purchased out of a pretty big name sale.  Monster hip and bone.  Prolly gonna end up treating him with a shot of lead though.

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Can't say I've ever seen one turn out that bad thank goodness.  That's kind of amazing.

In my younger days, I fell for lots of pretty pictures.  War Horse didn't work for me at all.  I know he worked for some folks, but sure not for me.  One of the best matings I NEVER made was to Ayatollah.  I got a cane of Ayatollah semen along with a Columbus son I bought from Grahams back in the day, but I just couldn't get myself to use it.  I make nothing but correct mating decisions any more.  LOL

In response to the onslaught of PM's I have gotten.  No it is not an Alias, no it is not a Walks Alone, actually there were no genetic defects (TH/PHA) involved in the creating of this calf.  Near as I can guess this is just one of those freak things.  I've never even heard of any structure issues from this bull before.  I will say that there is who a couple generations back on each side of this calf.  I imagine that's where things went wrong.  I just posted the pic to add to the discussion of matings that didn't work.

RankeCattleCo said:

TMagic and JackPot-

Don't throw out those WA calves yet, they do tend to mature and come around fast as they get on feed.  Feed and time won't help structural problems though...  :-\

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Thanks,  I was watching the videos on rodgers blog and reading how the WA  get better as they age. Hope that is the case cause I haven't given up on using him. Ordered a few more straws  :  I think he is worth trying again.

Dusty said:

In response to the onslaught of PM's I have gotten.  No it is not an Alias, no it is not a Walks Alone, actually there were no genetic defects (TH/PHA) involved in the creating of this calf.  Near as I can guess this is just one of those freak things.  I've never even heard of any structure issues from this bull before.  I will say that there is who a couple generations back on each side of this calf.  I imagine that's where things went wrong.  I just posted the pic to add to the discussion of matings that didn't work.

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By chance does it have Chill Factor in the back ground? I saw a calf 4 or 5 years ago that was not that bad but some very similar characteristics.

I think DUSTY is thinking on the right direction in some of these cases, our herd isn't crossed up very much and haven't had problems with ALIAS OR CARNAC ,my greatest fear what I have done this so far is WHO MADE WHO ,SPEAKING of that does any one need some original semen and what is it worth ....

Dusty said:

In response to the onslaught of PM's I have gotten.  No it is not an Alias, no it is not a Walks Alone, actually there were no genetic defects (TH/PHA) involved in the creating of this calf.  Near as I can guess this is just one of those freak things.  I've never even heard of any structure issues from this bull before.  I will say that there is who a couple generations back on each side of this calf.  I imagine that's where things went wrong.  I just posted the pic to add to the discussion of matings that didn't work.

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Let's start a SP pool on the genetic pool. I say that there has to be some Heat Wave up fairly close.

Our worst breeding was Walks Alone on a Who Made Who cow. The calf had so many structure issues he could hardly get around that we had to put him down at a week old. The cow is very sound and has always had a good calf until this one.  Since I had some WA left I took a chance and used him on a Jazz cow this year hopefully the first WA calf we had was just a freak thing.

I havent seen many walks alones with structure problems?!

Freddy said:

I think DUSTY is thinking on the right direction in some of these cases, our herd isn't crossed up very much and haven't had problems with ALIAS OR CARNAC ,my greatest fear what I have done this so far is WHO MADE WHO ,SPEAKING of that does any one need some original semen and what is it worth ....

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We have had alot of trouble structurally with wmw cows too. The structural issues seem to breed through too, which makes it tough to make good club calves!

Some

Ohio1 said:

I havent seen many walks alones with structure problems?!

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some walks Alones are a little straight

My worst mating EVER was WAGR Dream Catcher on 5 good purebred Simmental cows. I had some of the first born not in SD. They are the five worst calves born on my place since 1977. One was the worst calf ever born ANYWHERE.

I see several of these matings on Walks Alone are on Who Made Who cows.............. IMO, you are just BEGGING for trouble when you do that. Doesn't matter if the cow is sound or not, there are plenty of genes left around to line up to give you some calves with structure problems. If you mate about any two " clubby" bulls together and get some structure issues I think you get what you ask for. Walks Alone can make some that are too straight in their pasterns, but if you use him on a sound SimAngus, Maine Angus, or just Angus cow, he is one of the more consistent steer makers to come along in quite a while. The calves, IN GENERAL, will be much stouter than the Monopoly's on the same cow. But it's difficult to find a bull today that will make the steers the judges want and the heifers they seem to want as well.

I can remember the first couple of years that WMW was out, swore I would never use him again. However, blind luck or experience led me to breed him to Angus cows SEVERAL years later to make some marketable females. We wound up using two WMW x Angus (cows were impeccable in structure) sons. We have a couple of females out of those two bulls that will sell just before the place is foreclosed. Back to the subject WMW x any Maine on the place when he first came out. First experience with that kind of structural wreck. It was horrifying to this kid.... (lol)

Never had a good Warhorse like a previous poster. Sold that stuff the other day to a major semen distributer. Moral of both stories: Be VERY careful what you air dry out of your tank, you never know sometimes. I swore off of WMW a decade and a half ago and who would have ever thought being "double dirty" (Warhorse) would be marketable?  <party>

Some very good comments from the two previous posts .....

I think something everyone needs to realize is that the clubby deal by its nature is not predictable.  Breeding a PB Angus to say a PB char is somewhat predictable, or at least it should be.  When you start mating 16 way cross cattle to each other, that's another thing.  Start with stable female genetics like PBs or F1s and you won't have near as many train wrecks.  It is really hard however to not breed that old show heifer with that killer look to one today's hot rods hoping for that barn burner.  And, the pic from my previous post is what can happens sometimes when you do that.  It's just the nature of the business.

Ok the worst one we have had probably ever is a Maverick out of an old Tequila cow.  This cow has always had some pretty decent calves.  The thing is a dang race horse and real hard made.  It was a big dummy as a new calf.  It has an awkward looking walk and a jug head.  It is fairly thick made and has a big hip, but I can't get over the race horse look.  We also have a calf out of a Maverick daughter and a calving ease Angus bull...it has that same jug head.  My best advice to you is if you have a Tequila cow don't breed her to Maverick   On the other hand our Maverick daughter that we have is probably the prettiest cow on the place and she has a beautiful udder. 

Found out this past fall Money Shot doesn't work with our cattle. Had one with front legs like the one Dusty posted. Its bag legs were so straight she had to stand on one and then swing the other to take a step. She got to be about 2 months old then rectally prolapsed and we decided it was better to put her down. Had 2 other cows bred to him. Money Shot struck out at our place. Will not be using him again, so if anyone wants some MS semen I know where you can get some!

Peer Pressure was also a hit and miss, which I was so disappointed about cause I really liked the looks of that bull! We used him on a Dream On granddaughter and a Yellow Jacket, both were 1st timers.

Our biggest bust of the calving season is a draftpick bull calf out of a heartbeat cow.  The cow never misses and we actually had this mating a few years ago and got one of the neatest hereford colored bull calves you cound imagine.  This calf is as tall and lanky as you can make one.  No guts and just plain off in his hip.  very disappointed.  We thought he would be a clean up bull prospect.  Boy were we wrong.

trouble3412 said:

my worst mating is DH2 on heatwave cows.  didn't get very many.  one is ok, fancy but way too straight.  One is soooo straight in the back legs she is crippled and both front feet turn out really bad.  They just arent good enough structured.

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We had the exact problem with this mating only the heifer was out of the first Dirtty Hairy and a Heat Wave cow. She never started to become too straight until after we bred her. She became so straight that she became crippled and couldn't stand for more than 5 min at a time. Only got one calf out of her and thus far it hasn't retained her straightness.