the truth said:
justintime said:
I have been looking through this sale catalog for several days and every time, I wish I lived closer. Guess a person could buy some cows and bring embryos over. There are some very useful genetics available in this sale. Thunderdownunder, you will have to be our official SP representative and let us know how it goes.
Not to hijack this thread.. but how JIT do you get any consistancy in your calf crops with using such a wide variety of bloodlines from so many operations? Its seems that you bounce around and buy from , here and there, buy this, buy that, etc...
I know your response will be selective breeding decisons, and consistant specifications on purchases... but I don't care how good of a stockman, and how much research is done... not every head of livestock will breed true to its kind. And there is no way possible that so many different bloodlines will cooperate together to form any kind of consistant product...Not sure what you mean in regards to buying here and there. I think I know what works for me, and I am not afraid to introduce new bloodlines providing the cattle have similar phenoty
It is interesting that you mention this today, as I was doing pasture checks today after a two day raging blizzard that was unexpected, and the thought passed through my mind that I would doubt very much that most people who saw my herd, could identify the bloodlines I have in my herd. Quite frankly, my cow herd isvery uniform, with the exception of a few cows that have been purchased for specific purposes. For example, I have purchased a few donor females specifically to produce embryos for specific markets. I have one donor, that I would be the first person who would say that she is definitely too big. I purchased her to produce embryos for Britain, where they want larger framed cattle than we do here. She has turned out to be an exceptional embyro producer, and I also find it very interesting, that she is now my most popular donor for sales in the US now. Her natural heifer calf was our high selling heifer in our sale last week, and an ET full brother is presently being considered as an AI sire for Ireland. I get more inquiries about this cow, than any other in our herd.
I think that when I have to make most of my living from my cattle, that I also try to produce cattle for different potential buyers. Last week at our Sun Country sale, I had a commercial man ask me if I could find him a set of roan cows sired by Salute. Another commercial man is coming here tomorrow also looking for roan cows, and he also asked if I had any bred to Timeline. He saw our first Timeline bull in our bull sale last spring and he wants calves like him. I only AI bred two cows to Timeline, and both were red. I did flush a few donors to him and have some ET calves coming next spring. What I am saying, is that there are a variety of ideas out there as to what these producers want to raise. I have visited many many herds in the past few years, and I would say our herd is as uniform as any I have seen.
What made me think about this topic, was a direct daughter of Trump walked by as I was doing the pasture check. She is probably the fattest cow in that pasture, and she has tremendous thickness, depth of body, and has amazing fleshing ability. I wondered how many people would even guess what bloodline she was from.
As I said earlier, I believe breeding cattle is about blending bloodlines. Any animal I purchase is purchased on it's own merits rather than it's pedigree alone. Our main walking bulls are very similar in type, despite coming from various bloodlines. Major Leroy, Touchdown, Matrix and now Shadybrook Perfection, are all similar in frame and muscle pattern. Timeline is about a frame score bigger, but he is being used on a few select females to produce cattle for a specific market. I think all these bulls have excellent soundness.
I would invite anyone to come for a visit and see our cowherd. I would love to see if anyone could tell me which cows are straight beef ( non appendix) pedigreed, which ones are appendix, and which ones are blends of these different bloodlines. I guess perception is everything in this business, and I oftentimes smile to myself, when I have someone tell me about how "pure' their herd is. I know of many cases, where there is lots of questionable genetics in many so called pure non appendix pedigrees.
Well I recommend you go look at his herd and see the outcome instead of looking at pedigrees JIT always welcomes guests
