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Eastern NE KS | Calf tag color indicates sire. The tag id matches calf mother's tag.
White is a home raised bull, grandson of Payweight 1682. He is good for heifers. His dad was a bought at a production sale as part of cow/calf pair. The super popular AI sire, Payweight 1682 imprints his progeny with a favorable look.
My grandson carries this forward but like all breeding efforts there is challenges too. His Milk EPD is 35. That is high for my farm and his daughters will wean a nice calf but some become thinner than I like. He has not improved foot shape as it's shows some hook to the claws.
Green is another home raised bull (tagged J04). J04 sees cleanup duty on heifers, any 2 year olds that are not daughters or 1/2 sisters, and late born pairs that stay home. His flag is going up because the calves look nice to me.
J04's daddy is Tehama Tahoe, a proven AI sire. Tahoe does a lot of nice things but his offspring vary some, in some different ways.
I used Tahoe ai on 3 successive years of virgin heifers. I also have two Tahoe sons in herd bull status as 3 year olds so the Tahoe genetics is a little numerous at our place.
Blue is my immediate past AI sire used on heifers, Vermilion Spur E119. Proven for calving ease and growth but still slowly building a proof for other traits. Following EPD's attracted me but so far these are just numbers. Calving Ease Maternal, Claw and Angle were good. Scrotal circumference was large. Heifer pregnancy was very good as was hair shedding. Milk was lower than my wishes. Yearling height was on the high side.
Carcass EPD's was on the better side too. At the time of first use, he had 4 daughters registered. Today it is 66. That is still modest. When his grandkids data comes in we'll see if he deserved his top 3% Maternal value ($M) from back 2 years ago.
We ai'd 10 heifers and I believe we calved 7 sired by Spur. This will be confirmed by DNA parentage. The calves were 6 heifers and 1 bull. All calved unassisted in early February.
My main attraction to Spur was CEM was greater then CED. If you look him up, you will hate his picture. The owners claim he is never given a chance to fatten up for a nice picture.
I have 5 sons of Spur that are long yearlings. I'm thinking I will keep 1-2 for home use. Last year I posted a picture of one of these calves and said I have high hopes for him.
Next year, I will be using S Architect 9501 on the heifers. His CE numbers are not as great as past bulls but I hope to see my CEM push into our cowherd work. I spent hours finding him over the winter. CE and growth are just the start for me but so many attributes don't show up in the glossy pictures. | |
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A little success started...
