Real interested to hear comments on this cow...

[kfacres]

I know it's juvenile, but I would like to hear the voices of the great cattlemen and women out there on this cow's (potential)... 

Real interested to hear comments on this cow...  I want to hear good, bad, and anything.. thanks!

pb shorthorn btw

 

[ECC]

I'll break the ice and go back to my dairy days.  Very nice milking shorthorn.  I'm guessing a Sr. 2 year old.  First thing that stands out is the beautiful long strong fore udder attachment and front teat placement.  The next thing I like is the strong long chine, she is blends very nice into her loin.  However, I would like to square her up from her hooks to pins but a very nice young cow that has the pieces to make a great older milking show female.

 

[kfacres]

I'll break the ice and go back to my dairy days.  Very nice milking shorthorn.  I'm guessing a Sr. 2 year old.  First thing that stands out is the beautiful long strong fore udder attachment and front teat placement.  The next thing I like is the strong long chine, she is blends very nice into her loin.  However, I would like to square her up from her hooks to pins but a very nice young cow that has the pieces to make a great older milking show female.

you are correct- a long aged 2 y.o....  I wanted to see if anyone could pick her apart as being on the milking side of things.  She's not broke... just another one in the pack.  
These cows actually go back to a set of dual purpose, and dual registered cows.  However, they have been more selectively selected to go more towards the milking side of things in recent years-- and so the beef papers have not been maintained.  My grandparents milk about 100 cows, and they've got about 30 of these 2 and 3 year olds.. and I'm just tickled when I see these good udders on milking shorthorn cows.  Which reminds me I have to milk tommorrow night.. got out of it last night though!

What gave it away?  The free stalls, or the concrete?  Or just her "dairy type look".?  OR THE JERSEY HEAD IN THE BACKGROUND?

 

[shortyjock89]

For me, it was her head and lack of hair (especially in her ears) in the winter that gave her away as a dairy.  From what I know about dairy (which isn't a lot), I think she's pretty nice.  I like how much body she has for a milking variety.

 

[Sassy2899]

The cleanliness of her bag for how muddy that lot is. O and how big her bag is. She is a nice milking shorthorn. (thumbsup)

 

[mark tenenbaum]

There is more to her than some of the few milkers Ive seen at Ill state fair etc. They looked like Jersys-Id breed her to a clean but extreme deal like amen-whos bailout,i-80-steermaker,CSF Dextro,one of the fullbloods-etc etc.Maybe Heatwave for a hiefer that milks (lol)

 

[Okotoks]

I love her udder! She has capacity. Since you also have a milking operation she has obviously been selected for dairy production. It would be interesting to see how she crosses with a beef line. GAFA Shorthorns used to have some 3/4 Shorthorns from their Jersey milk cow and you really couldn't pick them out they changed that fast. Those crosses had perfect udders.
When you say she has Dual Purpose background do you mean she is purebred in the old lines or does she also have milking blood from the appendix milking program?

 

[kanshow]

Very nice! 

 

[kfacres]

We have been breeding all the dairy heifers- to our new Red Angus bull for the last 3 years... and I think we will be finally keeping some of those heifers to try out as beef cows.  We used a Shorthorn bull for the last 3 years (when we moved on from him, we weighed 28 or 2900 at the sale barn), and during the last year, we kept a son from him to use on the old cows.  We just shipped him to move on a few months ago.  So, I'd say about 85% of the heifers that have been getting bred to the RA bull, have been either half, 3/4, or full blooded M.S..  I too, have really liked the body type, design, and udder structure on these daughters of the old bull- and think they could click neatly with the beef shorthorns.  Yes, they are getting milked though, although it's not uncommon for the light milking ones to get kicked out with the beef cows! (lol)  I'll post some more pictures when I can get time.    Our dairy herd spends most of their time on pasture, especially the heifers.. so grass diet wouldn't be much different...

As far as the dual purpose heritage of these cattle... I'm not 100% on.  I know that they guy who got us started in MS, used to dual register everything (beef and dairy), and kinda fell away from the beef side of things about the early 90s.  Off the top of my head, the Innisfail herd prefix sticks out- not sure if they were beef, dual, or milking.. or what they were.  I'm going to check with the ASA, and see what the requirements are for double registering them, and I'm going to try to re-register some of the thicker ones, mainly to try and get the Durham Red heifer calves that we are keeping back for beef cows, and see how that would work out.  We are selling the Jersey x RA cross calves, and retaining the MSx RA calves, and a few RAx Hol, and maybe 1 RAx BS. 

If I had more pasture, I would convert and breed many more of these cows over to beef bulls... I bet Grandpa would flip though if he found out!  

I know this is liikely going to be just like throwing a snowball into a drift...  but you never know what might happen!  

ps... to whoever saw the clean udder in the sloppy lot.. the lot's not actually that dirty- I'd say it's got less than an inch of slop on the concrete, since it gets cleaned daily or every other.  

 

[kfacres]

Here are some more 2 year old, first calf Shorthorns that we are milking.. They would be 1/2 to 3/4 sisters to the original cow pictured-- and the mothers to the RA sired calves we are going to play around with.   I counted tonight, as they came through the parlor, there was 16 of these 2 y.o's.. and they are cookie cutters!  The last cow pictured on this post (with blue painted udder), just calved yesterday afternoon with a 59 lb heifer calf out at the bale ring in 6 inches of snow.  I walked up on her just as the calf plopped out, and came back in about 15-20...  and she was up nursing still with afterbirth on.  

The last pic on this post, is our RA bull.  He's not the stoutest dude in the world, but he sure is a blessing to have around.  Haven't pulled a calf from him (about 150 total) been used on every kind of cow alive too!  We have a really, really nice strawberry roan at my house dammed by a beef shorthorn heifer- that we plan to keep back.  

 

[kfacres]

Here are 5 long bred (coming 2 y.o.)  heifers, which are also sisters to the 2 year olds.  They will be calving within the next month, to the RA bull.  Some will be very shortly.

 

[kfacres]

Another set of shorter bred heifers.. These I would guess should calve about March-- so around 20 months old  Also sisters to above ones.  I think we have about 25 of these yearling heifers to calve this spring. 

 

[kfacres]

One last set of pictures..

The first is in a set of heifers, that we are getting ready to turn out with the bull to breed...  This is the last set of heifers sired by the old bull.

The next two heifers pictured, (with horns still), are the first set of calves to be sired by the son of the old bull.  These heifers, are a 1/2 brother, 1/2 sister mating-- which would put them dammed by the 3 y.o., 2nd calf heifers that we are milking.  These calves would be right at a year old.  Their sire, was a pretty loud marked bull, and it really bred on some crazy color patterns.  There is also some calves in this pen, but a little younger, that are double bred to the old bull.  Their mothers were first calf 2 y.o. that freshend, and then got bred back to their sire.  We used the son on our heifers, and still kept the old bull in with the cows, until we sold him and the son got bumped up to run our 100 milk cows.
 

The last two pics are of daughters of the Red Angus bull photoed above.  The roan heifer, I mentioned early...  She is straight beef breeding, as she's from a first calf daughter of a full brother to XRay.  The red calf is out of one of the Dairy Shorthorn females that maybe pictured above... I'd have to look back to see which one, but I know it's not the monster cow that I posted first.  She has a purple tagged heifer calf, that we will be keeping.  

Any thoughts now?

 

[kfacres]

There is more to her than some of the few milkers Ive seen at Ill state fair etc. They looked like Jersys-Id breed her to a clean but extreme deal like amen-whos bailout,i-80-steermaker,CSF Dextro,one of the fullbloods-etc etc.Maybe Heatwave for a hiefer that milks (lol)

How many people would roll in their grave if they found out I was producing some competitive show steers out of clubby bulls and RAx MS cows?? 

 

[kfacres]

Anyone interested, I have found most of the old dual purpose Shorthorn pedigrees online at the ASA search page.. PM for more info.

 

[kfacres]

well, I'm kinda down on the ole RA bull tonight.. Had to pull my first calf, and had the first one die.  Spent 2+ hours trying to turn a calf coming with head and feet back...  brisket first...  I think the calf was alive when I started on her, but was dead by the time we got her out. 

On positive note..  we've had 5 alive calves from the old boy in the last 48 hours...  Heifers weighing 49, 52, 59, and bulls weighing 59 and 66 all unassisted and up sucking while wet. 

 

[vc]

My Grandpa was a dairymen so I have seen alto of dairy cows, mostly Holsteins, I like your milking shorthorns they have the dairy look but still some body, not just hooks, pins, and udder.

Cant blame the bull for presentation, how much did the calf weigh that did not make it?

 

[kfacres]

My Grandpa was a dairymen so I have seen alto of dairy cows, mostly Holsteins, I like your milking shorthorns they have the dairy look but still some body, not just hooks, pins, and udder.

Cant blame the bull for presentation, how much did the calf weigh that did not make it?

49 lb heifer calf.. don't blame the bull one bit.. just have to give him hell about something, since he's worked so great for us.  Just figured up.. average 55.5 lb BW across 102 calves sired by him, born at our place..  weights range from 38-68.  (Had 16 under 50 lbs, had 32 over 60 lb).  This calf born dead, has is the only calf sired by this bull born dead, or died from something other than coyotes.  

I counted today, 19 heifers to calve within the next two weeks based upon appearence...  March 18 (due 12-26) was when he was turned in with that group of heifers (about 40ish)...  They started calving 12-20 (10 already calved), and with the 19 ready to pop.. that's not a bad % for the first 3 weeks of breeding season.