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Posted by ohio on April 18, 2008, 10:24 am, in reply to "Building herds for production"
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I've put some thought into this myself and often wonder what would the ideal cow I'd aim for be if I started all over again. I guess here on the east edge of the Midwest, I think that the ideal club calf cows are the higher percent Angus, like 1/4 and 3/8 Sim. If I had my druthers for raising club calf mommas, I'd take a set of bigger boned, thicker, Duff type angus cattle with some look (clean fronts a big plus), then I'd cover them with a bull that was about 3/4 SimAngus (preferably a thicker, cleaner made Meyer son). I'd keep the best females from this mating. I'd use the thickest, cleanest made ones for steer production to the popular clubby bulls. I'd take the ones that still needed a shot more bone and muscle and cleaner look and cover them with a real pretty MaineAngus bull, no more than 3/4 Maine (powerful, pretty 1/2 blood Chill Factor or PHA clean Draft Pick son would be my ideal). The females produced here would be roughly 1/4 Maine, 1/4 Sim, 1/2 Angus and they could churn out steer babies by the clubby bulls. The best of those 3/8 Sim - 5/8 Angus cows along with these 1/4 - 1/4 - 1/2 cows would be my ideal group of clubbie mommas.
I think it is much more difficult to ring that bell for the big time steer without that shot of Maine in there, although those straight SimAngus cows will probably be more consistent. They might raise a $1500 one every year, when the 3 way cross cows will raise a $3500 one this year and a $900 one the next.
I think that the quality maternal ones are much easier to raise than the quality steers. Take a set of nice Angus cows, breed them to Aftershock or Chill Factor or another known maternal sire and you'll sell babies for $1500-2000 all day long. Take a set of nice percent Angus cows and breed them clubby and you'll throw away half the calves, sell 40% of them for $1000-1500, sell 9% for $3500 average, and the other 1% might ring the bell for that big money we're all chasin.
Just my humble opinion
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