Stands Alone Calves

[formersteerjock]

Has anyone seen or raised calves by the bull Stands Alone and how would you rate them?
Happy Thanksgiving

 

[KYsteer]

I had two bull calves this fall.  I have mixed results, but they are only a couple of months old and there is only 2 calves so take it for what it is worth.  They are very stout with more bone than you can ask for.  BW was from 125 - 75.  Time will tell on stucture and style, but if you need to stouten up one he seems to do a good job with it.

 

[GoWyo]

Had 2 calves last spring.  Calf #1 - heifer out of a Star Power x Maine cow (goes back to JDS Stout) has monkey mouth.  This cow has thrown a monkey mouth calf before.  Apparently this makes Stands Alone a monkey mouth carrier.

Calf #2 - bull out of an Irish Whiskey x OCC Angus cow.  Big calf, about 115-120 lbs, jacked him out.  Beautiful calf, thought we hit the jackpot.  At three weeks of age, the calf developed spastic paresis and died of pneumonia at 3 months.

I have 3 shots of semen left to donate to anyone who wants it.

 

[simmyman67]

I wouldn't use him from what I just read in those comments...

 

[GoWyo]

I am still trying to figure out the spastic paresis on the Irish Whiskey cow.  I understand it is thought to be a recessive genetic issue.  I was not aware there were issues with SP on Irish Whiskey.  The cow is out of an OCC cow that was out of Ambush, so not a traditional OCC cow, but I have not heard of SP in Angus.  We are breeding away from Maines with both of these cows.

Has anyone ever had monkey mounth or SP issues with Eye Candy calves?  Concerned about going clubby with either of these cows after this, so wanted to throw that one out there while on topic.

 

[Telos]

Had 2 calves last spring.  Calf #1 - heifer out of a Star Power x Maine cow (goes back to JDS Stout) has monkey mouth.  This cow has thrown a monkey mouth calf before.  Apparently this makes Stands Alone a monkey mouth carrier.

Calf #2 - bull out of an Irish Whiskey x OCC Angus cow.  Big calf, about 115-120 lbs, jacked him out.  Beautiful calf, thought we hit the jackpot.  At three weeks of age, the calf developed spastic paresis and died of pneumonia at 3 months.

I have 3 shots of semen left to donate to anyone who wants it.

The verdict is still out on both SP and monkey mouth. Personally, I would stay away from cattle with a saturated Cunia pedigree (especially on your particular cows) for he always seems to appear in pedigrees with both these issues. There seems to be a spectrum of severity's with MM. The most extreme are also the stoutest in muscle and bone in most cases. Power Plant which is in Stout's pedigree, contains a shot of Cunia, and is a documented monkey mouth carrier and also can throw SP. SP seems to manifest itself with cattle that are extremely steep in their angles and is not only associated with Cunia. Take a look at Stands Alone pedigree. He too has Irish Whiskey's sire in there as well and Cunia on the bottom (calf #2). Just my observation. I can not remember ever seeing a MM calf from those 1st F1 crosses, not even from Cunia. So probably MM must come from both parents if it displays itself.

 

[GoWyo]

Thanks Telos.  The Star Power cow goes back to Stout 3 generations back from the cow.  She threw a MM calf out of Maine bull DCC Faultless last year (goes back to Powerplant).  Didn't see the MM coming, but will go either Sim or Angus with this cow in the future.  She is the one that is slightly straight on her back wheels, but not bad.  Her heifer calf is steep on all four corners, big boned and stout as the dickens.  Her MM is not real bad.  She did fine on pasture as a calf.  She is on feed and is keeping up with the steers so she should feed out just fine so long as she doesn't get a late onset of SP to go with it.

The IW x Angus cow is not straight at all - very good structured cow, but she is heavy boned and powerful.  Really did not see how calf could have been SP, but he sure displayed it early.  We bred her (and the Star Power cow) to Ruby's Wide Open (PB Sim bull) so hopefully will get a better result next time.