Breeding Standards

[Aussie]

This is a quote I found from one of Australia's premier Angus breeders Phil Collins from Merrigrange Angus Stud. I though I'd share. It may answer the shot gun mating approch of another thread.
Breeding Standards - Your female herd is the most valuable asset any stud can have. How well and consistent she breeds usually depends on her pedigree. It is better to have a small number of elite females than a large herd of average ones, but do not sacrifice the important traits of performance, fertilityand structural correctness. "Remember The Power Of The Pedigree"

 

[FutureBreeder2013]

Thats a great quote to  work by.

 

[sue]

I would put fertility and structure ahead of "preformance", you dont have anything without fertility in a female. nice post

 

[Freddy]

Very smart information ,but with high taxes an every thing else we buy it gets lost in the strugggle to survive

 

[chambero]

I disagree to a certain extent on the quality over quantity advice.  It's not wise to gamble on actually being able to first raise a few great ones and then actually get them sold for high dollars.  In my opinion you need enogh cattle to  stock your land at a reasonable rate to consistently maximize revenue over the long term.  You can go broke in a hurry tying up too much money in a few if they don't produce great ones and if you can't in turn sell them.

 

[Aussie]

Your female herd is the most valuable asset any stud can have. How well and consistent she breeds usually depends on her pedigree.

Chambero I agree if need 1000 breeders to stock a place you can not be to picky. But in a stud situation pedigree research, which is an old fashion idea with a lot of people now breeding on EPD's on a computer, can be a very important guide. If the Dam and Grand Dam were Champions and throw in a few good bulls in the line chances are she/he will bred you something.

 

[LostFarmer]

Cow families are where the real progress is made.  I look at the cow as 60 +% of the critter and the bull 40 %.  That said it is easier to change the bull than the cow herd.  We praise or blame the bull for all calving problems when he is at best 40% as the cow is 40% and management 20% of the calving problems.  Kind of like humans dad takes the credit and mom does the real work.  LOL.  Love the quote. 

 

[husker1]

Our advertising tag line has be "Great Cow Families Pave The Way..." for years. 
Firm believer in cow families. 
However, they also need to be structurally sound, fertile and have the ability to perform.  Too many follow pedigrees only and lose track of the other important factors.

 

[LostFarmer]

Husker I am with you, good high fertitity cows with some milk and mothering ability are important.  They have to be sound structurally to travel and stay on feed.  I want a cow with some capacity in the middle.  They need some guts.  I love to see the big well sprung rib on a cow.  I personally like to keep cows a little straighter bred and cross on the sire side.  You get all crossed up on both sides and you never know what you will get.  Great cow families throw good calves out of most any bull.  Not many bulls can be said to throw good ones out of most any cow.  Just the $.02 from the peanut gallery.  I think that the era or epd's and pedigrees have in some ways hurt the cattle mans ability to see cattle and pick good ones.  The more I am around it the more I see that breeding is an art not a science.  LF

 

[Aussie]

  I think that the era or epd's and pedigrees have in some ways hurt the cattle mans ability to see cattle and pick good ones.  The more I am around it the more I see that breeding is an art not a science.  LF

LostFarmer  (clapping) spot on. That's why I put the quote up so some think of about these principles. Over the last ten years I have seen the comptuer bred angus get higher in the flank and stronger in the forequarter looking more and more like waygu because of the push for single trait selection for marbling because the screen says that is the ideal animal.

 

[SFASUshowman]

My opinion is that an structurally incorrect cow/heifer should never enter a breeding herd, for me that is an automatice elimination. Thats where her performance comes in, the female has to be structurally sound and have some volume in order to be able to raise a calf at all, especially if we expect her to do it year after year for any length of time.
However, when it comes to the quality of calf they throw, I think you very much have to know your cows genetics as well as those of the bulls you plan to use.  While a Champion Heifer and a Champion Bull would definately seem to be the perfect match, I have also seen some Champion on Champion matings that were disastrous.  Since this site is mostly show cattle I will put it this way...I think if we go back in history and study our most prolific dams and sires, regardless of what species, we will see that most of them were never Champions in the show ring, in fact a lot of them never even placed very high in the show ring. So while they may just be average phenotypically, they had good genetics, that when studied and crossed with the right genetics created some pretty nice offspring.
From my own personal experience I can say that the top 5 performing cows in my herd based on showring performance, never produced me anything that was very worthwhile in the showring, but some just mediocre heifers kept for replacements produced some very nice showstock.
So I think its a careful balance of everything talked about with a bit of luck thrown in.  A mating that produces a champion this year, may just produce a pile of crap next!