Wehner Homestead

[farmerjan]

We have a neighbor that has reg. Limousin and Angus and sell some percentages that are designated LimFlex. In my opinion, you lose some of the heterosis by buying a bull that is already the product of a cross. The whole crossbreeding thing is to improve things like weight gain etc., and if you start out with a crossbred it is one generation already used for that. Many commercial farmers do 3 way crosses, then return back to the original breed to start over; but they use a purebred bull each time to have a better predictability of what the calves will be.
And there is a much greater chance of calves that do not "fit together" when you are using a percentage bull on cows; if the bull is purebred, then all the calves will be 50% of that bull. Of course, if you are simply doing it for terminal cross calves, then it is not so important for the females; still you will get varying results with a percentage bull since he can contribute genes from the two different breeds of parents he has, instead of all one breed. If you are trying to sell animals that are uniform in size, shape, weight etc., then you need to have a herd of "all the same breed" cattle, bred by a bull that is purebred not a percentage, even if he is a different breed.
Still, it is interesting to see what lengths that the show cattle world has gone to. And if I could do it financially, maybe I would dabble in it. Still, I am not one for showing cattle so doubt I would be competitive in that market.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

LimFlex didn’t come to mind as I was typing, but yes it’s another.

We are trying to get a happy medium where we can breed for maternal or terminal with the goal of raising calves for our kids to show while maintaining our herd. We shall see how effective this works out to be...

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Found the two high sellers from that sale...

Went to the chiropractor yesterday morning and came home to two filthy dogs! Cowboy has his head down in most of the pics so I could pet him. He must’ve blinked when he moved back. Jewel is dirty too, just not as caked!

I’m glad Halo wasn’t out with them. She had a vet appt yesterday afternoon to get another opinion on her murmur (she doesn’t have one!) and her next round of puppy shots. Pic is on the way home. Poor baby has only slept off and on since her shot.

Attempted a bonfire last night...it decided to rain. We still cooked hotdogs but cheated and ate in the house and made s’mores in the microwave. My sister’s 3 kids were staying the night with my parents so they joined the fun too.

I was up quite a bit last night was a stuffy/runny nose. Took some allergy meds. I think it’s this front but had trouble going back to sleep. I’m dragging quite bad today.

 

[Latestarter]

wow... that's a lot of money for one cow... Plus that fact that you have to give the first two calves produced so like another 200 thousand worth... Sorry you're dragging and not feeling well. That time of year.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

@Latestarter the 1/3 embryo interest means any time the female is flushed and eggs are collected, the original owner gets 1/3 of those eggs.

The two successful flushes means that the original owner gets to flush the female twice and keep all eggs from both rounds.

All natural born offspring belongs to the buyer.

 

[Latestarter]

ahhhh ok, that makes more sense (I guess)... I didn't realize you could "flush" out a bunch of eggs... still, that seems like forfeiture of even more $$ than giving up 2 calves. Instead, you're giving up potentially dozens if not hundreds... How many eggs can you get with a flush? Paying a hundred grand plus for a heifer/cow, I wouldn't agree to those terms. Course I couldn't justify even playing in that game/market, so what do I know...

 

[farmerjan]

Flushes are a crap shoot. You can get anywhere from NO VIABLE Eggs to 20 or more. They are also "graded" as to the "quality" of the eggs. #1's, #2's, and #3's. The #1's will freeze well as well as can be implanted immediately, if recips are available. #2's are still considered okay for freezing, # 3's are not good for freezing, but have often been implanted immediately and have produced offspring. You can also get the embryo's (eggs) sexed for if they are female or male.....Just like the semen is sexed if you want a 90% chance of getting a heifer, you used female sexed semen.
Very common in dairy operations. Many beef operations want bull calves and some bulls' semen is sexed for bull sperm now.
I have had a couple of my dairy animals bred to "sexed semen" for heifer calves of course.... but did I ever mention that I am walking Murphy's Law ???? Got 2 bulls out of sexed semen, a dead heifer out of the third year.... The farmers' bull got in with the milk cows, and of course I got a heifer that was by the holstein bull..... I have a couple of my cows on a dairy being milked as I did not have the time and place for them to use as nurse cows at the time. They have done well, so I have left them there and he breeds them and I get the calf, and can get milk out of the tank when I want/need. Sometimes it is alot easier to just stop by on my way home and get 2-4 gallons than to have to pull the calves and then milk the next morning. Especially with my schedule. He has both holsteins and several jerseys, so the milk is higher butterfat than just straight holsteins usually are. Granted it is co-mingled milk, but it still beats store bought "pasturized and homogenized" stuff.

 

[Bruce]

LS, I don't think you would have the opportunity to buy those overpriced heifers if you didn't agree to the terms.

Sorry but it strikes me like the Alpaca hysteria from a few years back. Pay huge money for breeding animals so you can sell the offspring for stupid high prices to others who want to breed them so they sell the offspring for stupid high prices to others who want to breed them so they can ....

Works great until people figure out there are only so many people willing to pay stupid high prices for an animal for the purposes of breeding and selling the offspring.

 

[farmerjan]

Realize also, that more often than not the "option" for flushes and such are not exercised. If the heifer is a "great show heifer" then she will often be flushed, but in most cases the original seller, that has that option, will not exercise it unless he really wants the offspring. Also, the seller pays all costs when they get the whole flush.... there are as many different terms as there are stars in the sky.

We have bought a few bulls, where the seller retains the option to "collect" semen from that bull; always at the convenience of the new owner and the seller pays for all costs associated with it. There are alot of different options; but I tend to agree that if I pay 100 grand for a heifer, she is MINE..... no one should still be able to "get a piece of her".

Way out of my league. It's enough to pay $3-10,000 for a potential herd bull; and he can put alot of calves on the ground and if I really like him, can collect his semen to use on hundreds more. And we try to keep a bull for at least 5-8 years unless we really don't like his calves for some reason, or something happens to him. Mostly we pay in the neighborhood of $2500 to $5,000 for a bull. The one I bought this last spring was $3500 and we are using him this year. He was about 14 months, and got put with 13 cows. In a young bull you figure 1 cow for every month old he is up to 2 or so. If his disposition stays decent and his calves are half as good as he looks, he will be here for a long time.

 

[Mike CHS]

And I feel like a spendthrift for paying $500 for a yearling ewe.