Sunseeker heifers

[Joe Boy]

I was wondering if any of you have much experience with the size of the pelvis of Sunseeker heifers?

Last Saturday, I had to pull two calves from Sunseeker heifers.  They were the largest calves I had ever pulled outside of Holstein calves.  I bent my high dollar puller pole and the handle and broke a chain and ended up getting the vet who was so busy that he could not get there until 9:30 p.m. and I called him at 2:45.  Bless his heart he was snowed under.  He lost most of his patients that afternoon too.  So did we.  Out of three we saved one calf, and two cows.  One is still down.

Here is a tip when you have a hard pull.  Take one of your gloves you use for AI and fill it with ice, tie it and place it in the cow with a string on it to help you retrieve it after the ice melts.  It truly helps.

 

[LFFASHOWER]

we use frozen two liters for dairy cows

 

[Bulldaddy]

Sounds like a tough day.  What were the sunseeker heifers bred to?

 

[CAB]

From everything that I have been watching, the Sunseeker cows/heifers have larger calves than a lot of the other clubbie bred females. From what I have seen, I think that they may contribute more BW to their calves than the HW females. The SS also seem real level from hooks to pins which always makes calving tougher. The SS's will milk much better than the HW's though.
  You're talking about the ice after a hard pull, correct?

 

[Joe Boy]

Yes, use the ice after the hard pull but inserting it into the cow.

What I felt was the pelvis area is too small for a very large calf.  The biggest and best of the three heifers could not have had a Jersey or Longhorn calf.  I was able to get the two legs and there was not room for anything else.  Since the vet got tied up we lost her.  She weighed around 1350 or so and was 2.5 years of age.  The other one about the same size had plenty of room and she had a 50 lbs calf.  The last one we pulled it in too at the hips.  It weighed over a hundred lbs, probably in the 120 range.  I do not know which bull they are from.  My heifer bull that my brother used in 1/2 Ali and 1/2 Angus.  All of his fall caves weighed 45-60 lbs out of the heifers.  He had 5 heifers that did not calf and he put them in with my bull and his bull which is 1/2 Brangus and 1/2 Sunseeker.  He also ran them on wheat until a month before calving which is a no no as far as I am concerned.  I ran some on wheat too but pulled them off for the last 3 months and their calves were still 25 lbs heavier than their Fall mates.  My brother is convinced they are out of my bull since his bull was a clean up bull for the grown cows and they all had small calves.  However his bull is the dominate bull and out weighs my bull by 400 lbs.  The date could have been either bull and we did not test the DNA.  I thought the possibility of TH while I was helping with the labor.

 

[Dyer Show cattle]

I have 2 sunseeker heifers that calved this year. One had a Hooks Shear force 38k bull calf and the other had a bull calf out of my mo better son. I have not had them measured. The first I pulled the shear force calf but she had plenty of room compaired to other heifers i have pulled calves out of....just had a big 90-100lb calf. Realitively easy pull, once the head was out the rest came just hand pulling. Now both these heifers I raised and the first is out of a Sim/Angus cow that always has 110+ lb bull calves and 90+ heifer calves. Last years full brother to this heifer was 125+. All the other heifers I calved this year with shear force calved unassisted and low bw, did have one other one about 80-85 lbs but unassisted. The other sunseeker heifer had a bull calf unassisted out of my herd bull, pb mo better son. Still a 80-90 lb calf. Most my other calves out of my bull have been around 10 lbs lighter on average. This heifer is out of a lower bw angus cow I have. So with the sunseekers expect them to grow big calves regaurdless of the bull you use. I would not breed to anything besides a low bw angus or a low bw simm as a heifer. And also look the the dam side of the heifers. If they throw big calves its prob going to carry on. Nice thing the heifers milk well and are throwing great calves with hair out of purebred non clubby bulls. Might be some good 50% plus simm calves to show/sell. And in a couple years watch out when they start getting bred to clubby bulls. If they can calve them I think they are going to be some of the best. I think they will be fine. The older big cows I have i have never had to pull a sunseeker calf, but some of those calves have been 125+ lbs also so just been lucky the big cows could calve them. I would say most sunseekers come around 100+ when out of my simm based cows and usually 90 Lbs or less when out of my angus/simm cows.

 

[Diamond]

I had one calve out this year as well, she was awsome as a heifer but was dumped by a few judges who told me she would have a really hard time calving out. I wont lie when it came time for her to have her first calf I was horrified, thankfully it was an 85# born unassisted bull calf.