New Heifer

[renegade]

First off its on a camera phone so if you want you can say Please get a new pic!!!! but I was wondering if anyone could give me some opinions on this heifer. I just bought her (with the option to return her and pick another if she doesnt fill out well or whatever) and I know she has some faults - but her head is way more feminine than it looks in the pic - and she will compete pretty well around here but still like opinions. She was just weaned about three days ago and has never had any grain or been clipped yet but I decided to get a pic before i finished cleaning the barn and putting bedding down.

Just let me know what you do and dont like about her

 

[Cowgurl101]

looks like a decent heifer that should make a good cow when you are done showing her. Feed and a clip job should do alot for her. She might be a tick straight in her shoulder???

 

[Cattledog]

looks like a decent heifer that should make a good cow when you are done showing her. Feed and a clip job should do alot for her. She might be a tick straight in her shoulder???

I think that may just be the pic.  Herfords are actually one of the soundest breeds you can find. 

 

[HeiferShower14]

i really like her. i like her hip

 

[shortyjock89]

looks like a decent heifer that should make a good cow when you are done showing her. Feed and a clip job should do alot for her. She might be a tick straight in her shoulder???

I think that may just be the pic.  Herfords are actually one of the soundest breeds you can find. 

Sure, there are plenty of sound Herfs, but there are some cripples too...come to my county fair and you'd see. But I think this is a nice heifer, some time on feed will do her wonders.

 

[afhm]

Is she a horn or polled?  The shoulder is just because of the way the leg is positioned in the pic.

 

[Cattledog]

looks like a decent heifer that should make a good cow when you are done showing her. Feed and a clip job should do alot for her. She might be a tick straight in her shoulder???

I think that may just be the pic.  Herfords are actually one of the soundest breeds you can find. 

Sure, there are plenty of sound Herfs, but there are some cripples too...come to my county fair and you'd see. But I think this is a nice heifer, some time on feed will do her wonders.

Well, yeah there are cripples in every breed but my point is that I usually give herfs the benefit of the doubt.  Ruggedness is what has givin the breed its industry wide support they have today.

 

[renegade]

She is polled - so far I havent raised any horned but I do like their muscling. The shoulder is pretty much the pic. What I like about this breeder is he doesnt neccessarily breed "show" stock he breeds animals that will go to feed lot or breeding but he does use a previous show bull that did a lot of winning in Washington. He winds of with a lot of sound animals and this year had about six (3 steers 3 heifers) that I have choosen to show and they do compete but he also had some calves that are just calves that are good but wouldnt show too great.

 

[CPL]

looks like a decent heifer that should make a good cow when you are done showing her. Feed and a clip job should do alot for her. She might be a tick straight in her shoulder???

I think that may just be the pic.  Herfords are actually one of the soundest breeds you can find. 

I hate when people generalize things. First its Herefords, second every breed has its variation. Every breed has the cull cows every breed has the 100k cow. The notion that just because its Hereford its sound is crazy and I have Herefords. Now if you want to talk heterosis, that is a different story. Renegade- she looks like a decent calf. Her picture shows up a bit darker on my screen and I have a wide screen, so I can't give you much more than that. Is she registered? who's she out of?

 

[renegade]

She is registered. I am waiting on the papers (getting them in my name) and to get exact names I would have to look back but the bull is like Right Time and was shown all over the nw and the dam I know 4sure goes back to remitall boomer ...

 

[renegade]

Its prob too soon to think about what to breed her to but I got a top sires catalog the other day and was thinking Hard drive would be a nice hereford bull to breed her too. What do you guys think? I want to breed here to another hereford

 

[Cattledog]

looks like a decent heifer that should make a good cow when you are done showing her. Feed and a clip job should do alot for her. She might be a tick straight in her shoulder???

I think that may just be the pic.  Herfords are actually one of the soundest breeds you can find. 

I hate when people generalize things. First its Herefords, second every breed has its variation. Every breed has the cull cows every breed has the 100k cow. The notion that just because its Hereford its sound is crazy and I have Herefords. Now if you want to talk heterosis, that is a different story. Renegade- she looks like a decent calf. Her picture shows up a bit darker on my screen and I have a wide screen, so I can't give you much more than that. Is she registered? who's she out of?

You may hate it when people generalize about a breed but with the generalization you can actually improve on the breed as a whole.  Your probably not going to like this but Angus tend to be flatter muscled and finer boned, Maines tend to be straight fronted but posess extra thickness, Simmental can have issues with being bowlegged but have their positive traits.  You can go down the line with every breed and find things that you like and dislike.  If the breads didn't have certain characteristics you wouldn't see people wanting to crossbreed other than like you said for Heterosis.  It is important to know what different breeds offer.  I didn't say that she was sound I just said that I usually give Herfs the benefit of the doubt.  If she isn't sound she isn't.  If she is she is.  Didn't try to offend just tried to give a little perspective on breed characteristic.

 

[CPL]

Its prob too soon to think about what to breed her to but I got a top sires catalog the other day and was thinking Hard drive would be a nice hereford bull to breed her too. What do you guys think? I want to breed here to another hereford

There has been some nice Hard Drive steers shown. I don't know about his calving ease though. Another one you might look at is UPS Odyssey.

 

[renegade]

I hadnt even looked into his calving ease yet - thanks for bringing it up. I would preffer a polled bull but he seems to be a nice horned bull so I may consider him. Im gonna look through the hereford paper/magazine thing I got in the mail cause there was a super nice bull in there that was horned too. I want something to help clean up her neck and stuff a little, give the calf some gut and of course muscle exspression in the rear never hurts but she holds her own to heifers around here in that

 

[renegade]

Oh my gosh I am so suprised at how mello this heifer is. I take her halter off at night and have done this for three nights and by this morning I can walk up to her  no problem and she stands and practically puts her nose in the halter and I tied her up yesterday and brushed and combed her and it made her look like ten times better and she eats grain from my hand. The other heifer is still a little more skittish. All of the calves are practically scrambling for their grain now - and its only been since like friday since they had it lol 

 

[amcosgra]

I would recommend using one of these bulls on the heifer
1.  STAR OBF Bogart 5L (a CS Boomer 29F son)
2.  Allendale Robin Hood W39 (Great outcross sire from New Zealand)
3.  GH Neon 17N (Horned bull who throws great calves)
4.  SHF Ribeye M326 R117
5.  KJ 2403 Recruit 966R
6.  TRM 2128 37E 121 Kudzu 4066 (I would really recommend him he has thrown excellent calves out of first calf heifers!)
All of these bulls are low birth weight bulls with excellent growth.  Remember also that if you cross a Polled Hereford with a Horned Hereford you will likely get a Polled Hereford because the poll gene is the dominant gene.

 

[CPL]

STAR Bright Future is also having some good calves. I don't know what the semen price is at the moment, or whether he's a decent calver, but it seems like he is throwing some awesome calves. I've never been a fan of Bogart or w39. but neon 17n and Kudzu wouldn't be bad choices.

 

[renegade]

To me any semen seems super cheap - But thats just because I am use to seeing stud fees for horses and then like a straw of semen isnt much at all. He looks like exactly what I was looking for to breed to the heifers. It said $50 for semen and $150 for certificate. I have never done any AI for my cows so... what do I need the certificate for?

 

[Steered]

You have to buy an AI certificate  so that you can register the resulting calf. 

 

[renegade]

Thanks! Thats what I was thinking but I wasnt sure. So basically it is $150 for the semen