One of the great challenges a commercial cattle producer faces is in determining which claims made by their chosen seed stock producers are factual. The Shorthorn Association has partnered with the U of I to conduct a sire progeny evaluation. An unbiased sire progeny test out of a cross-bred herd of cows is surely a good thing for the folks on the farm, and I applaud the University of Illinois for facilitating this project. From what I understand, the sires being tested are just Shorthorns? I would like clarification on this.
Having come from a commercial cow/calf background, I have had lots of questions about my chosen breed.
But, with only fond memories from one old Shorthorn cow from my long past youth to go on, I set out to become a Registered Seed Stock Producer. It’s been a common experience for me to run into “old timers” who also remember (very fondly) the “Durham’s” from their more youthful days. And, in the interest of total transparency, I finally settled on the Shorthorn because I didn’t care to be a tiny little minnow in the vast Black Sea.
I’ve always felt that accurate records are a necessary thing. Birth weights here are determined with an actual scale. The calf’s feet are completely off the ground, which is also a handy restraint for getting the tattoo and ear tags installed. It also makes one a lot more cognizant of the importance of cow disposition. Pretty early on, we invested in a scale for Weaning weights and yearling weights (whenever available) as I got tired of hauling them to town twice a year. I could get into telling my opinions on a lot of EPD data, but will resist that temptation.
The endpoint of surplus animals is always the rail. I’ve always been cognizant of this fact. No matter how good of a set of mamma cows you have, it’s critical that you also know you produce a saleable product for the table. About 4 years ago, I began an email/phone conversation from a young rancher in a neighboring state. Here is the relevant excerpt from one email:
“I appreciate the offer of a cane of 105U, but I think it'd be cheaper to ship it than come after it. I think I have my dad talked into letting me try another shorthorn bull this year, would you be able to get us 2 canes, maybe at half price? I would like to use at least 20 straws, we get a better idea of what the calves will be. Your EZ bull seems to be working in the feedlot, I thin we had 5 steers of his in the pen, and they are tied for the 2nd highest Feb 9 weight by sire groups. They are also the lowest ADG group in the pen, which is strange. They also were some of the top weaning weight calves. The best I can figure is they are gaining a more consistent amount over a longer period of time, and I don't care how they get the weight, as long as they have it when we sell them. That being said, I'd like to use 105U, and see how his calves do, and when we get a few EZ heifers calved out and see how they look, maybe I can talk my dad into using a little more shorthorn in our program.
We are getting a bunch of semen through the red angus and simmental associations, and part of the deal is we keep performance records on the calves, and they pay us a 75 dollar premium at slaughter. It is an interesting program, and really cheapens up our breeding program, and I like the idea of a premium check, if we can ever get to that point. All of this makes it very hard for me to sell my dad on buying shorthorn semen. Do you know, does the shorthorn association have a similar program? Even if we didn't get the premium, not having to buy semen would help a lot. I'm not trying to guilt you into sending us free semen, sorry if I come across that way, I just need an edge to get some shorthorn bulls into our program. From what I've seen of your program, and one other program we've looked at, I think your genetics would help us moderate our cow size, and add a little marbling in our fat cattle, and a third cross would help us manage our breeding program a little better. I also like experimenting, it would be fun to run a herd of cows with no main stream genetics in them, and be able to get a premium on the rail”
We felt that this would be a great opportunity to at least have a small sampling of what our genetics do on the hook, so were more than happy to release semen to him. These folks run commercial Simmi x females.
We provided him with 10 units of DRC 101VM, 20 units of YY105U, and 10 more units of EZ (Coalpit Creek Leader). The summary grading information sheet is below: I wrote the Shorthorn sired averages on the front.
SPYYCARCASSimg222006 by Ralph Larson, on Flickr
Having come from a commercial cow/calf background, I have had lots of questions about my chosen breed.
But, with only fond memories from one old Shorthorn cow from my long past youth to go on, I set out to become a Registered Seed Stock Producer. It’s been a common experience for me to run into “old timers” who also remember (very fondly) the “Durham’s” from their more youthful days. And, in the interest of total transparency, I finally settled on the Shorthorn because I didn’t care to be a tiny little minnow in the vast Black Sea.
I’ve always felt that accurate records are a necessary thing. Birth weights here are determined with an actual scale. The calf’s feet are completely off the ground, which is also a handy restraint for getting the tattoo and ear tags installed. It also makes one a lot more cognizant of the importance of cow disposition. Pretty early on, we invested in a scale for Weaning weights and yearling weights (whenever available) as I got tired of hauling them to town twice a year. I could get into telling my opinions on a lot of EPD data, but will resist that temptation.
The endpoint of surplus animals is always the rail. I’ve always been cognizant of this fact. No matter how good of a set of mamma cows you have, it’s critical that you also know you produce a saleable product for the table. About 4 years ago, I began an email/phone conversation from a young rancher in a neighboring state. Here is the relevant excerpt from one email:
“I appreciate the offer of a cane of 105U, but I think it'd be cheaper to ship it than come after it. I think I have my dad talked into letting me try another shorthorn bull this year, would you be able to get us 2 canes, maybe at half price? I would like to use at least 20 straws, we get a better idea of what the calves will be. Your EZ bull seems to be working in the feedlot, I thin we had 5 steers of his in the pen, and they are tied for the 2nd highest Feb 9 weight by sire groups. They are also the lowest ADG group in the pen, which is strange. They also were some of the top weaning weight calves. The best I can figure is they are gaining a more consistent amount over a longer period of time, and I don't care how they get the weight, as long as they have it when we sell them. That being said, I'd like to use 105U, and see how his calves do, and when we get a few EZ heifers calved out and see how they look, maybe I can talk my dad into using a little more shorthorn in our program.
We are getting a bunch of semen through the red angus and simmental associations, and part of the deal is we keep performance records on the calves, and they pay us a 75 dollar premium at slaughter. It is an interesting program, and really cheapens up our breeding program, and I like the idea of a premium check, if we can ever get to that point. All of this makes it very hard for me to sell my dad on buying shorthorn semen. Do you know, does the shorthorn association have a similar program? Even if we didn't get the premium, not having to buy semen would help a lot. I'm not trying to guilt you into sending us free semen, sorry if I come across that way, I just need an edge to get some shorthorn bulls into our program. From what I've seen of your program, and one other program we've looked at, I think your genetics would help us moderate our cow size, and add a little marbling in our fat cattle, and a third cross would help us manage our breeding program a little better. I also like experimenting, it would be fun to run a herd of cows with no main stream genetics in them, and be able to get a premium on the rail”
We felt that this would be a great opportunity to at least have a small sampling of what our genetics do on the hook, so were more than happy to release semen to him. These folks run commercial Simmi x females.
We provided him with 10 units of DRC 101VM, 20 units of YY105U, and 10 more units of EZ (Coalpit Creek Leader). The summary grading information sheet is below: I wrote the Shorthorn sired averages on the front.
SPYYCARCASSimg222006 by Ralph Larson, on Flickr
