Breeding Philosophy

I believe it is my responsability as a seedstock producer to create the most geneticly pure, prepotent animals I can. This way the comercial producer benefits from increased fertility, consistency and heterosis.

Drought Proof Cattle

What are drought proof, brown grass cattle?  Let me start by saying that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I have to study on things a while before I see. In fact I've been known to pee on the electric fence before reaching enlightenment.

I believed that the best cattle for my environment were medium to small framed and as wide as they were tall. It was easy to see why the lighter built pencil gutted cows and the high performance, high milk cows fell out of the herd. They couldn't eat enough, and they didn't have enough gut to survive. They all came in open, they calved way late, or they raised a little fur ball dink calf.

Now the problem. I was also losing all of my huge middled, heavy muscled cattle. What's going on here? Weren't big middled easy keeping cattle supposed to be what I needed? That's what I'd been reading.

Featured Female in the April 2015 Sale

Blackbird 4B11 (Paturn 05 by Blackbird 818)
Reg # 18062645

It took me a while but I finally figured it out. Extremes. Extremes on one end, extremes on the other. The big tank cows had too much body mass and they also couldn't eat enough to maintain themselves. I see this in my first calf heifers this year. I purchased a few beautiful deep bodied, heavier fleshed heifer calves a year ago. As first calf heifers they have melted down to a "box of bones" and are raising little pot bellied fur ball calves. The lighter built heifers, both purchased and home raised, have better calves. Less body mass to maintain, but enough gut to survive.

The cows that work best in my environment are small to medium frame. They have a big middle and moderate muscle. After calving they will melt down, but not get boney. They will weigh around 900 pounds at two years old and stay thin until they reach about five years old, when they flesh out and will weigh around 1250 pounds. I believe this slow growth to maturity is the key. Balance! Balance! Balance!

One last point. Home raised cattle - ALWAYS - do better than purchased cattle.