First Calf Shorthorn Heifer bull options

[Dale]

ASH VALLEY RIGHT CHOICE 321 looks useful.  Do the owners have any calves on the ground yet?  No births have been reported.  He has some eye-appeal, good EPD's, and has been promoted a little bit.

 

[Will]

I would use Hot Commodity without even thinking about it. In my mind, he just makes flat better cattle than any other calving ease sire. I also believe he's DS  free.

We've also been delighted with our calves by Deception as well. He's Hot Commodity's maternal brother sired by Red Reward.

I have not used Deception yet but plan to use him this year.  He has a -2.9 birth weight epd and is sired by Red Reward out of the above mentioned very proven cow.  He could be a calving ease sire that pedigree wise will add some value to his calf crop. As well there is a son in the Iowa Beef expo sell that looks very good that was raised by Mitch. And the most important part is I think he is available on the open market.

 

[shortyjock89]

We've flushed our best cow to Deception and the calves are stellar.

We have a bull were going to show and promote out of him, and the same donor had a natural heifer calf in the fall that is among the best we've ever produced.

Calving ease is great, and ours grow very well and are extremely stout.

Attached picture is the Deception x Baseline bull in November at 6 months of age. We plan to picture him again soon. We've never had a bull this good, and he's done a ton since this picture.

 

[HVF]

My go to calving ease sire is bellringer without a doubt

 

[JTM]

As with most so called "calving ease" bulls you will find instances of where they have worked well and where they haven't. In my opinion Jake's Proud Jazz is not a heifer bull. Especially on high birth weight genetics. So Woodland, your experience with JPJ is probably the same that I had when I was searching years ago for a consistent calving ease option on my high bw/small pelvic area cattle. I am a Waco syndicate member and although I no longer use him because our program has went a different direction I do know that his females have decent pelvic areas but the birth weights are really high. The bottom side of your heifer if it has Solution in there is where the pelvic area is going to potentially be smaller. So you are going to want a calving ease sire that will consistently sire small bone and excellent head and shoulder shape at birth. There are a few that may do this in this post in my opinion. I would be weary of any of the show cattle bloodlines on heifers in my experience. Ask those who have posted the show bull calving ease options how many heifers they have calved out to these bulls and what percentage were pulled out of the heifer be it by hand or a calf puller.

 

[aj]

There is a abs bull......Red Angus......I think his name is above and beyond......or something like that. He's been used on hundreds of thousands of heifers successfully. But it would make to much sense to use him. So many show heifers get ruined cause they don't want a throw away calf?

 

[JTM]

There is a abs bull......Red Angus......I think his name is above and beyond......or something like that. He's been used on hundreds of thousands of heifers successfully. But it would make to much sense to use him. So many show heifers get ruined cause they don't want a throw away calf?

Dead calves always get thrown away...

 

[Woodland Farms Show Cattl]

Has anyone used Deception on numerous heifers with success? we used him one time on a mature cow and the calf was small, Shaped right, but the cow was a far cry from a first caller. And as JTM pointed out, by success i don't mean you had to pull it  (lol)

JTM, glad i wasn't the only one with bad JPJ experiences, I know we have some high birthweight genetics but they have done well for us and rather than throw them away i would rather try to utilize them as best as possible. What worked well on your waco females? The Sara Rose cow she is out of would be a full sib to solution.

Would love to get my hands on some waco semen to flush our Margie Female to  (clapping) <beer>

Olson, Really like that bull calf, would love to see what he looks like now.

 

[shortyjock89]

We may picture him again before he shucks just because of how much he's come on in the last 90 days. We'll also be showing him at all the majors.

His momma flushes like gangbusters, and we're going to have lots of full sibs to him over the next few years.

We've used he and Hot Commodity on probably 25 heifers over the last 4 or 5 years total, and have only pulled 3 or 4, all by hand. We don't usually let our girls carry on too much before helping. Just don't have the numbers to justify not intervening.

 

[Lucky_P]

There's a lot to be said for a heifer just having the chance to deliver a live calf, mother it up, and learn what to do... then go for the ribbon with the next calf, if that's your thing.

DL says those Above & Beyond calves will squirt out like a wet rabbit... and you go, "Why did I do that?"  But, then they grow...and grow... and you'll like them.

Don't know how or if they'd stack up in the showring... but I've used Waukaru Goldmine 2109 for enough years that I'm comfortable breeding virtually any heifer to him.  Short gestation (271days), slender made, easily delivered.  The Goldmines out of Angus & SimAngus females here have been NICE!.

 

[RyanChandler]

Don't know how or if they'd stack up in the showring... but I've used Waukaru Goldmine 2109 for enough years that I'm comfortable breeding virtually any heifer to him. 

That's a bull that needs to be used a whole lot more!

 

[librarian]

There's a lot to be said for a heifer just having the chance to deliver a live calf, mother it up, and learn what to do... then go for the ribbon with the next calf, if that's your thing.

DL says those Above & Beyond calves will squirt out like a wet rabbit... and you go, "Why did I do that?"  But, then they grow...and grow... and you'll like them.

Don't know how or if they'd stack up in the showring... but I've used Waukaru Goldmine 2109 for enough years that I'm comfortable breeding virtually any heifer to him.  Short gestation (271days), slender made, easily delivered.  The Goldmines out of Angus & SimAngus females here have been NICE!.

Lucky's entire post needs to be listened to a whole lot more as well!