Tyson

[Joe Boy]

Jill,
I think this has been around many years or at least I have heard it before.... we showed lots of heifers over the years... beef and dairy... I guess 25 years... lots of changes over the years, some for the better, some not.

The higher tail head does not blend in as well to make them as pretty.  I think this is true in the steers especially.  In keeper cows I think you can get the tail too high but a higher tail set than a steer is good, especially for calving ease.  I like a big heart for longevity in a cow.  I like a big barrel for capacity.  I like a flat level udder with small teats and correct placement and not a quarterly udder.  I like a long feminine neck.  I like good feet, pasterns and legs.  If they cannot hold up the beef factory then her usage is very limited.  I like them to move free and easy and not tight muscled in the rear end or sides.  I like a great disposition.  I really do not care what color they are personally, but to sell I need black to sell to customers for bulls.  I do not mind if my bull is as short as my cows are tall.  A framy cow will more likely be easier calving, but not always true.  I like easy fleshing cows that thin down milking and growing a calf.  I like them with lots of hair or little hair.  We have a Red Chi-Angus that won every where we carried her and she did not have long hair but she had muscle, style and everyone always told us they wish they had 100 head like her.  We have actually had three cows with Red Angus in them that their calves out grew every thing on the farm.  One I bought for nothing as her front legs were crippled from birth.  She raised 5 calves for us and I sold her as she got so big that she could not get up very easy when she was heavy with child.  She raised twins one year and the brought us 1200 at the sale barn.  I took all the other cows out and told them, "Do as she has done."

love cattle deeply.....

 

[Joe Boy]

Telos,
I love great maternal traits.  I cannot wait to see the bull.  His dam and sire both will bring a great deal to the table.  I like it that they are not relatives till you get way down the road to my cattle.....  all these close breeding have exposed problems, like monkey mouth, etc.

Thanks for you comments.  I always consider you comments a treasure, as you have such great knowledge.

I am going to look up the pictures.... I have another bull that I am looking at who is clean and son of Draft Pick.  The owner has been in Kansas City.  I will go Friday to see this bull.

 

[knabe]

not a quarterly udder.

joe boy

by this do you mean the quarters are not easily discernable, ie, one big udder with 4 teats?  also, do you think neck length is strongly causal to mature size, ie like cannon bone?

 

[Joe Boy]

I do not like a cow to have an udder with 4 milk bottles with some skin holding them together.  I want one that is smooth with correct teat placement, and by this I do not mean one big "bag," as my Dad called it, with 4 handles.  I want a small udder with perhaps a little distinction for each quarter and for them to function as one smooth unit.  I do not want the lines drawn between quarters to the point that they will pull the rear teats together or the front ones apart.  My purpose in this for both breeding cows and heifers is longevity.  If the udder breaks down or is not made correctly then the life of the cow is shorten.  Large udders break down.  Large teats create problems and I have milked all the cows I want to.  Crazy placed teats make first calves frustrated and often caused serious quarter problems.

I want the neck to be long enough to accentuate the femininity of the shoulders as they blend together with a wide tracking deep hearted heifer.  I do not want her to be goosenecked.  It is true that mature cows will loose baby fat and the shine bone with stick up, especially in her work clothes of raising a calf.  In a cow I can be more understanding and less critical.  Some of my cows that never have the cannon bone to shine, give less milk.  Is there a correlation?  I do not know, but will allow some expert to speak....

Thanks for asking.