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| At some point "carcass" genetics can become antagonistic to other traits. Waygu's have great marbling, Piedmontese yield great but how many really want to have those genetics in a cow herd? The theory has always been, reproduction is twice as important as growth traits, and growth traits twice as important as carcass traits. Unless you retain ownership and sell on a grid what exactly do carcass traits get you? I heard a pod cast recently about a study about the added "value" of a carcass today compared to several decades ago. The problem is it cost the cow-calf producer about the same amount of money to produce that calf. What did they gain? Zero.
The Right Time bull and his off spring have been discussed on several occasions. For a number of people those genetics are the gold standard for females, and not without good reasons. But Right Time's sire was a line bred bull N Bar Emulation EXT. At one time the most used bull in the breeds history. And yes they could be mean SOB's, but he could fix the multitude of problems that were creeping up from years of big, hard doing cattle with terrible udders. You don't "fix" anything by constant out crossing, if you are trying to make cows all you end up with is inconsistency. I watched some "registered" Angus cows sell awhile back. There was at least two and maybe three frame scores differences and quite a few had bad feet, and yes they were culls. The best large bunch of cows I ever saw was the old N Bar herd before they were the ranch was sold. Peas in a pod by the hundreds. pretty tightly line bred. | |
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How long to keep a bull
