High birth weight Angus bulls

[GrowerShower32]

So forgive me I'm trying to learn and understand epds more and more, everytime I talk with someone about them I always take away some new. I have a decent understanding and how they work.

So to get to the meat and potatoes of what I'm asking is I look at these bulls  such as Dameron First Class EXAR Classen and many more I could name off. How do you know what cows you could breed bulls like that to and not get into any trouble. I ask because we would like to breed our older cows 4 and 5 year olds and up to bulls like that to have thier calves get a bigger jump on growth but I'm hesitant cause I don't have any prior experience with using a bull with a negative CED and a high birth weight.

Thanks in advance

 

[RyanChandler]

How much do your cows weigh?


There’s way too many angus bulls out there to have to assume unnecessary bw risk. 

 

[GrowerShower32]

We have one smaller cow she's around 1100lbs. Most of our mamas are around 1300 give or take 100lbs

 

[beebe]

Are these bulls going to be used as terminal bulls?

 

[GrowerShower32]

We are trying to build our herd so any heifers worth keeping g as future cows that's what we are going for. Sell all the bull calves.

 

[beebe]

So you want larger birth weights and then likely larger cows?

 

[CAB]

So I think what Beebe is telling you is that daughters out of these larger BW EPD bulls are going to also add the larger BW to their calves from the female side which is true and just something to think of. If a person uses CE bulls all of the time you also can work yourself into a calving issue.

 

[beebe]

I also think larger birth weights will lead to larger mature cow weights which will increase the feed bill.

 

[mark tenenbaum]

If you want grow-and more pounds-you need to get them bigger-that doesnt necessarily mean you have to use large BW bulls to get there-I mean there are probably a million or so Angus bulls to choose from O0

 

[RyanChandler]

All bulls ‘should’ be calving ease- that is, able to sire calves that don’t require human invention to be birthed.  It’s wild that after a hundred years of intensive selective breeding we still have bulls that pose substantial birthweight risk.  These lines should have been eradicated long ago- like 40+ years ago. Lot of options out there but, especially with an 1100lb cow, Id be limiting my selection to negative bw epd bulls who are also better than average maternal calving ease.  I’ve got a album of photos covering 2 seasons of what happens when you breed a cowherd of 1100 pound cows to a +5bw bull.  So if you’re feeling like gambling, shoot me a message I’ll send you some pics, promise they’ll take all the glamour out of playing with fire

 

[cowboy_nyk]

I don't know the pedigrees or the types of your cows but in my experience a 1500lb cow will have no issues with a 95lb calf. If you are planning to retain a bunch of heifers those bloodlines are pretty close to last on my list for maternal function however.  In my opinion the poor performance in those cattle relative to their BW make them a non starter.  Not to mention the poor scrotal and docility scores.

Speaking of the the low BW high YW bulls on the market I have used some with mixed reviews.  One of the all-tome "spread" leaders, SS Objective pretty much set the pattern.  If you want easy calving with high growth it almost always means a taller narrower type of cattle than I prefer but they do come easy and they do grow.  Just not in the dimensions I prefer. My target bw EPD for heifer bulls is 0-+2 and cows is +2 to+4.

 

[mark tenenbaum]

I don't know the pedigrees or the types of your cows but in my experience a 1500lb cow will have no issues with a 95lb calf. If you are planning to retain a bunch of heifers those bloodlines are pretty close to last on my list for maternal function however.  In my opinion the poor performance in those cattle relative to their BW make them a non starter.  Not to mention the poor scrotal and docility scores.

Speaking of the the low BW high YW bulls on the market I have used some with mixed reviews.  One of the all-tome "spread" leaders, SS Objective pretty much set the pattern.  If you want easy calving with high growth it almost always means a taller narrower type of cattle than I prefer but they do come easy and they do grow.  Just not in the dimensions I prefer. My target bw EPD for heifer bulls is 0-+2 and cows is +2 to+4.///// 1200 cow can easily have an 85 pound calf if it is shaped right-and wieghts are decieving anyway-Ive had 195 pound calves out of moderate impact shaker grandaughters (Shorthoens but 1200 tops) that LOOKED like a 65-75  pound calf and were spit right out  O0 O0

 

[KeithBork]

On mature cows, anything 4 or less for birthweight should give little to no trouble. If the cows you’re speaking of have had no trouble calving in the past, I would have zero worry using a bull around +4 for bw.

If you choose to use Bulls negative in birthweight on mature cows and keep them heifers, they will mature into smaller, narrower cows which in turn will have to be bred to lighter birth weight bulls.

Light birthweight bulls are for heifer, moderate to heavy birthweight is for mature cows.