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New Mexico | Defects in the breed:
Bad eyes ( pinkeye / sun and wind suspect ).
Prolapses.
Cows with no real longevity.
The afore defects have existed for years and years.
Also, has the continued presence of plenty of Domino in pedigrees.
The afore IS a long term common thread ( thus also long term propagational genetic caused weakness of the cattle ).
If you like red....bring a nice red saler bull in one time ( twice is even better ). Select the saler bull for grass doability and docility. Plenty of those here...if you cannot find em there, btw.
You'll end up with some real fancy red baldy cows, many with red patches over the eyes.
They'll be more fertile, and more hardy than strait herfys that simple.
I do like a 3 way cross plan, say a shot of saler save those hiefers , then bring on a red angus, then back to herfy perhaps.
btw, Red South Devon is a great choice too ( they're always gentle ).
Jim since you seem to be getting along fine now strait breeding...just carry on.
If they start to fall apart ( it's to much Domino ) then change to some outside Cross blood and they snap back to be pretty decent with that first cross ( seen it time and time again ).
Angus folks have problems too ( heck Mecca jumps with nothing but Lawyer shadows now ).
Lets's just say they used to much of a supposed bull named Inbred Billionaire.
Best way to fix a Herfy is cross em with an Angus, and the best way to fix an Angus is to cross em with a Herfy, for ALL practical purposes.
If one saves hiefers: Use Angus bulls for 2 years, then use Herfy bulls for 2 years and on and on.
on the afore one can go 3 years on trading bulls by breeding hiefers in seperate pasture.
Edited by Markwright 4/11/2010 01:06
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opinions on line breeding
