Heat Wave passes away

[chambero]

For my personal preference, the judges just crossed the line at too small-framed and too thick when the Heat Wave cattle started dominating.  The carcasses those calves hang are just fine, but in my mind they are just too extreme.

It really does seem we are starting to move away from that a little toward a more balanced calf, but we'll see.

I'll say this though, we certainly missed the boat, got left behind, and lost ground for a few years at our Texas majors because we didn't use Heat Wave.

He shouldn't have been as hard calving and non-maternal as he turned out with his momma's pedigree.

 

[simtal]

I often wonder who decided that the college professor kinds of guys were the "experts" to get to judge cattle shows?  And then how they figured that the square made kinds of cattle could come out of a round hole?  And then have the nerve to stand at the mike at wax poetic about how that kind was ideal for the industry.  Unfortunately as Justintime expresses, it just shows their cattle ignorance.  They never think about what kind of calf that it takes to mature into an animal like that massive fat steer, as they have little to no experience "in the field", they just have  the belt buckle and the big hat.

Judging is not science nor a discipline. You cant major or get a degree in it, although some have tried.  

 

[rackranch]

... ;D

The criticism to be made isn't of Heat Wave and his owners - its of the college professors the judge shows.  Heat Wave was the absolute best at producing what they wanted us to.

.... and just when will someone be strong enough to select real working cattlemen to judge some of these shows? I really enjoy seeing a judge that can place a class and then go to the microphone and explain why he placed the class the way he did... in understandable language and not just that "canned ridiculous lingo" that many of them use. When I hear that anymore... my brain starts to shut down as I know that this judge probably hasn't had actual hands on cattle experience in several years. I don't want to lump all college trained judges together, as some of them are excellent judges and down to earth cattlemen, but I suspect some I see judging, would go broke in a heartbeat, if they ever had to make a living working with cattle. And these same people dictate what a good animal looks like to everyone who listens to them
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[LostFarmer]

The pendulum will swing again with cattle and styles.  That is the one constant in any business is change.  Look at hogs and the pendulum will swing 3 times faster than the cattle world.  To me and this is a rank amateur compared to most, Get good solid cows that are sound sound and maternal and then look to some of the Heatwave type bulls to make terminal cattle.  That solid female can then go either way as you continue the program.  I have watched a pig guy get way into the show pig stuff.  He tried to keep his best market gilts to be sows.  It never worked.  He might get 3 ripping pigs, 3 that were okay, and the rest feeders from a mating.  He went back to breeding a maternal litter and then a show litter by which boars he used.  I think this holds true for the clubby world.  HW flat out worked on females with good feet and legs that traveled well and were a touch larger.  He often wrecked on the cows that had any structural unsoundness.  Keep a good solid maternal line then get exotic with the sire. 

There is an old phrase told to me by a professor.  Those that can do, those that can't teach.  He also said "A" students go into research, and "B" students work for "C" students.  That is not always the case but often enough to form a trend.  LF

 

[aj]

Alittle off topic but according to the leaders of the "Shorthorn Country" the hard issues are not a problem anymore. I'm assuming that he is giving us a green light to raise th and pha carriers that consisently have birth weights over 100#s. Not that it is wrong or right but the breed has posistioned themselves as the showring breed of the world. At least the Red Angus and Angus cattle call a spade a spade. In the Shorthorn breed it is ok to "if it feels good do it". In my own mind I wonder how long it would take a bull like heatwave to bring a breed like the Black Angus to its knees if only it had a appendix program. There are programs like sneeds and marty's that will try to carry on but dang it gets hard. I pray that heatwaves influence accidently gets into the black angus, or black simmental, or black limi, or black salers program. Maybe 10 years from now when th destroys a couple of the black breeds the Durhams can move in on some market share.It is interesting to watch no matter what the outcome.

 

[Show Heifer]

Quote from judge TODAY at youth steer show: "This calf in the top position is quite a looker. He combines a super profile with adequate muscle mass. You really have to appreciate how this calf shows himself. And while I think this calf will hang an acceptable carcass, the calf in second will hang a better carcass without question. I have no doubts that this calf will hang a prime carcass and that is what producing beef is all about. I would like to change this second calf in his appearance, and maybe clean up his front end a bit. But that might be due to his high AVG and performance....."

While I have no doubts heatwave changed the direction of the industry, I am just not sure what direction he took it.

 

[Dozer45]

Quote from judge TODAY at youth steer show: "This calf in the top position is quite a looker. He combines a super profile with adequate muscle mass. You really have to appreciate how this calf shows himself. And while I think this calf will hang an acceptable carcass, the calf in second will hang a better carcass without question. I have no doubts that this calf will hang a prime carcass and that is what producing beef is all about. I would like to change this second calf in his appearance, and maybe clean up his front end a bit. But that might be due to his high AVG and performance....."

While I have no doubts heatwave changed the direction of the industry, I am just not sure what direction he took it.

wow.... I mean WOW.... I would rather eat a feed lot mutt with a good carcass over a national champ with an average carcass any day  <cowboy>