Russ In Idaho - 4/23/2017 22:24 Well I try and buy growth type heifer bulls, so yes I try and keep every heifer calf out of my first calf heifers that make the grade because that is my most progressive genetics. I try and sort those heifer pairs off in the spring and go to my best feed to give them the most advantage for growth. I can usually keep 30-40% of them for replacements. I then take those heifer bulls and rotate them to my older cow herd after two years on heifers. Basically the same when we were keeping our own heifers. You won't keep anywhere near all of them but dang near half should make the cut no problem. Every heifer bull I bought had to be a curve bender so it calved small and weaned/yearling nice and big. I will say I finally bought some RA bulls that were not heifer bulls and the calves out of the are going to be really nice cows. Little startling having a straight red calf born as big as a Herf cross but at least they won't have to try and make that up now. At weaning we would usually cut the low 10% or so. The very obviously malnourished or small. Then before breeding you may have another 10% that didn't gain at all you can get rid of. After that it is any that don't breed in a tight early couple cycles, especially if you sync them and there will be a big fat pig or two in that bunch that come up as being worthless.
Edited by Galaxie64 4/24/2017 17:05
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Keep back heifer caves
