Changing our heard... What to do?????

[cattlejunky5]

OK so when we began we were a strict hereford operation, but as times have changed we are more interested in starting a Maine/Club Calf operation. We still want to keep our best herefords to produce hereford show calves. However some of our other herefords and our Simmental herd we are wanting to breed to high percentage Maine bulls to get really good females to start a Maine based club calf herd. What would you guys recommend as far as bulls go? Thanks in advance!

(also, some of the herefords could use some thickness)

 

[jbzdad]

It is hard to "breed up" a herd .. female genetics are the key...

I would try to find some embryos out of good Maine donors and use those herefords as recips...

would try to buy the best female genetics I could find and flush it

if you insist on trying to breed them would use one of the heavier built MA sires.. DMCC bodybuilder looks good and he has a 3/4 son I saw online somewhere

GVC Hawkeye... Yardley Fortune ... GVC has a Sooner Son they are using

 

[simmyman67]

Hawkeye...maybe Lautner's Proud Jazz or Big Guns?

 

[cattlejunky5]

We have one really good maine influenced cow that i showed, it is the one in my avatar, that i have considered flushing to sexed femal semen and then implanting the embryos into our cows. She is a Paddy o' X Picasso and is a PHA carrier. What would you reccomend? I also did consider buying females and embryos but the thing is our herefords arent bad, and i really likde the udders and feet they put on their calves. They are just not stout enough and as much as it pains me to say it, they are the wrong color for our showstring.

 

[mark tenenbaum]

I like Shorthorns,Maines,and Simmis-actually-I really liked the Limmy Gonnet had there etc. There are so many Maine Breeding bulls that are thick-I would think Bodybuilder is the thickest Documented easy calver-OF ANY BREED-Go on Diamond M Cattle cos sight-there are pics of his full sib-and son-you could get some unreal-big butted baldys. I wont do my usual 20 bull list-heres just a couple-Simm Cross-Long Time Coming,Starpower,Chopper,Dream Catcher,other Maines-Gucci,Lifeline,Avatar,Dirty Hairy2, I left out 20-30,all as stout as any clubby-all clean all produce COWS. Shorthorns:yea-this is the cross that used to be one of the most popular:by the way-some pure Herefords are one of the few breeds that do not have Shorthorn DNA: UBDMCC Top Fuel,Free For All,NOTHINGS FREE(Cannondale clean linebred Warhorse) Rodney Rods new bull-perfect catastrophe(I think) YOUNG MONEY-clean Eye CandyxShorthorn,Sull Sinister-wont be good on the BWS-but should make cool roan Herefords-thick, B-Good Soldier-a big-light roan-and maybe the thickest butted Shorthorn big bull ive ever seen-all the aforementioned are both ways-breeding-but THICK. O0

 

[cattlejunky5]

Thanks for all the oppinions! I thought about Lifline... will he put enough guts in em?

 

[mark tenenbaum]

Lifeline puts PERFORMANCE in them,and knicks with red cattle. For guts and BUTTS-BODYBUILDER-or the Shorthorns-the simmis come in too-I just dont know them as well as some of the others on here-just wanted them included. O0

 

[justme]

Major's used hereford bulls on there maine cows the past 2 years.  My son actually showed one and had a great year with her.  They make tremendous mama's

 

[mark tenenbaum]

I forgot all about some other Traush bulls like; Hired Man,or Chasin Tail-for baldies-and Did I mention-Prob did : Tiger Woods. Sahara ,Capt Mprgan, and Uncle Craker-all work on cows needing powered up-sorry to keep adding-but I think thats a few chioces-all clean unless noted-all tremendously thick-all offering a chance at a female that will make a cow. At this juncture-I want to commend ALL the breeders who didnt stick thier heads in the sand-and gave us the cool bulls-that are clean-out of carriers. Kudos,for wut its wurth O0

 

[jbzdad]

remember that if your AI or ET misses you will still be 1/2 hereford and clean up... another reason why it is slow to "change" a group... would get a good Maine clean up bull