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New Mexico | sort em for disposition at weaning, sort em again for disposition as short yearlings ( say weighing 850 to 950 and band and feed out the ones that are not gentle then ).
And sort em again for disposition as you sell em.
LONG yearling bulls ( 16 / 18 months to 2 year olds ) are always better for your customer than a mere yearling.
Sort the hiefers you save for disposition ie., weaning, yearlings and at calfing, and within 3 years you'll have one of the most gentle sets of seedstock cattle in the country.
Best way is perhaps run em in an ally, bring a person in on em from each end and rate their attitude / flight zone, as you close in on em.
Nother indicator...as you run em thru a squeeze chute working em...some will catch and stand quietly, and there's the chute fighters ( chute fighter...just cut him or band him on the spot ).
I think if they're decent quality ( most cattle are )...just a ton of future value to the gentle ones.
Keep in mind the gentle ones are going to throw hiefers which are generally more gentle than from non rated bulls...and it's those hiefers some folks will keep as future cows.
GENTLE will prove to be the number one base economic trait because it amplifies other traits now which folks are testing more for now::
Feed converion. ( RFI indexes )
IMF
Stayability
Keep in mind everything you cull generally makes plenty of dough going thru the feedlot too...so it's a win win deal no matter how the supposed experts might slam it.
1st calf hiefers that do not make the disposition cut...sell the graft calf for a couple hundred ( generally be a line of about 20 folks who want these ...just run an add in the local paper )...and feed her...she'll bring $1,400 to $1,500 fat generally.
Some of the breeds currently have supposed epd ratings on some bulls for disposition.
Don't use that. Non accurate, and pretty much totally sucks ( perhaps looks good on paper to some. LOL )
ONLY thing that Truely works is YOUR own system.
Get known for it, and YOU are thee standard too, in your area.
Most important trait for farmers is GENTLE cattle ( whether they know it or not...your the guy with the bulls to teach em that...and Gentle is an EASY sale ).
Do know of a bare few bull tests that sell REAL bulls ( talking these lower RFI bulls ).
Green Springs, MO comes to mind.
Edited by Markwright 12/16/2010 04:06
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Information for bull buyers
