Livestock/General Farming photo thread ***READ MOD NOTE IN POST #1***

JohnBoy wrote: »

you're a contractor as well arent you?
:P

No, Just work with one for the summer, Dont think I could stick that game following your neighbours looking for money, I duno how anyone does it to be honest with all the money they have tied up in machinery.

JohnBoy wrote: »

likewise, I think they're all mad, get treated like dirt by a lot of their customers to barely make a living with the bank hanging over your head.

not for me thanks. If I'm gonna make f*ck all I'd rather do it without all the pressure.

You'd wonder what is the mindset of farmers who leave contractors waiting or worse without their money

A few pics of weanlings;
First are two FHZ BB heifers.

A reminder of things to come;

Ya, it's the Enfer Ear Notch tag. All clear aswell. :rolleyes:

redzerologhlen wrote: »

No, Its strange cause our bull bred a few solid red calves like that with one tiny white dot on their side.

Good stuff Red, that you dont have it,

Im washing calves every three days for last month at least so im seeing spots in my sleep!!!

Nearly gone now thank god.. i hate it,

I was looking at picture on phone so scale was much smaller

FHZ BB heifers
The first white one, born Feb to a yellow Char. My best cow. She was bought in so don't know her exact breeding.
The second, born March is from a very big red limousin cow I bred myself. She's by Malibu (MBU) and she's out of a big red Lim cow, I bought as a weanling.
I sold both at the end of November. White 375 Kg - €960. Black 365 Kg - € 965.

Both cows, I would consider big and growthy. FHZ is supposed to be very tall aswell.

pakalasa wrote: »

FHZ BB heifers
The first white one, born Feb to a yellow Char. My best cow. She was bought in so don't know her exact breeding.
The second, born March is from a very big red limousin cow I bred myself. She's by Malibu (MBU) and she's out of a big red Lim cow, I bought as a weanling.
I sold both at the end of November. White 375 Kg - €960. Black 365 Kg - € 965.

Both cows, I would consider big and growthy. FHZ is supposed to be very tall aswell.

Lovely, quality pair of heifers. Is there much interest on here in breeding from that type of heifer?

first 3 calves are sired by azl and are out of heifers. charolais bull calf is by tullygarley alibaba at three days old out of a massive simmental x cow that was a month overdue. charolais heifer calf beside him is 2 months old to show how big he was.

pakalasa wrote: »

Nice AZL calves. Any problem calving them?
What kind of breeding in their mothers?

That's a BIG bull calve.Was he hiding in the rushes for a few months?

all the heifers calved themselves without putting a hand to them. first is off a simmental x heifer. second off a hereford heifer and third off a belgian blue x heifer.

No he was a massive pull to get out and got stuck at the hips but got him out eventually. don't think i'll use him again after such a hard calving.

How many days did the Sim cow carry that big bull calf off Alibaba?

Lovely blue calves there too!

cows123 wrote: »

she went 30 days with her time!

What date was she inseminated?

Bizzum wrote: »

Lovely, quality pair of heifers. Is there much interest on here in breeding from that type of heifer?

I wouldn't breed from either of them. Both their mothers were short enough for milk. Although both cows are very big at the hips.
To me it makes more sense to take a BB from a Limo cow, than a Limo from a BB cow. A lot less hassle with calving, milk, fertility etc. At the end of the day you basically have the same animal.

Bizzum wrote: »

Looking at your black heifer for example, the second pic, she could easily be taken for a Lim out of a BB. If this was the case would she be a breeding prospect?
I suppose the bigger question I'm trying to ask is how extreme are lads prepared to go on the muscle front?

Would you use Ross A (RSA) for example on a suckler cow to get a replacement?

If you were taking a BB maiden from a Lim cow, you want to be going for a BB bull with good maternal calving figures. I had a look through a few few bulls there on ww.icbf.com.
........ FHZ 12% (63 Rel) - 1% across Breeds , so very bad
Empire, EZN 4.7% (53 Rel) - 94 % across Breeds, Very good
........ DEP 8.6% (78 Rel) - 12% across Breeds, bad too

High maternal calving usually means high direct calving too. EZN is hard calved. If you could avoid calving problems, then you'd get great calves, 3/4 bred BB and the likes.
Anyone here calving BB cows to BB bulls?

pakalasa wrote: »

If you were taking a BB maiden from a Lim cow, you want to be going for a BB bull with good maternal calving figures. I had a look through a few few bulls there on ww.icbf.com.
........ FHZ 12% (63 Rel) - 1% across Breeds , so very bad
Empire, EZN 4.7% (53 Rel) - 94 % across Breeds, Very good
........ DEP 8.6% (78 Rel) - 12% across Breeds, bad too

High maternal calving usually means high direct calving too. EZN is hard calved. If you could avoid calving problems, then you'd get great calves, 3/4 bred BB and the likes.
Anyone here calving BB cows to BB bulls?

One of the neighbours does it. He has about 10 bb x friesan cows and lets them off with a stock bull by joker. He was trying to get them all out the back and it just doesnt really work. He lost 2 calfs last year doing it and broke a cow aswell. Had a fair auld pull with all the calves too. He had to cut the baren on another cow too when she was calving. So thats a few dead calfs, a dead cow and a few cows that had very difficult calvings and probably wont come bulling for 6 months so you would have the best calf going to the mart.....madness!!!! If you were doing it you would want to be prepared to be doing c-sections and dont be fooling yourself thinking you will get too many of them out the back. I dont even know would I chance pulling, Id value my cow more than that. The calves werent massive but had the double muscle the day they were born with a big hip and shoulder. Hard to see how anything could calve them naturally. Thats my opinion on it!!

bogman_bass wrote: »

BBxfr cows are good cows, we have a lot of them, but you cant go putting blues on them, thats just madness

BB on BB isint a great idea I think. I know people do it to get a show calf or whatever but I was actually mad to see that going on last year. There was no need for it what so ever. He had do do a c-section on a malibu cow out of a blue cow too, Whale of a calf. Your taking an awful chance trying to calve them naturally I think, Friesan blood or fully continental its still a big chance.

just do it wrote: »

Am I reading you right here - of the 3 BB bulls you've selected, EZN is a good one to use if breeding for BB replacements, but only use him on mature easy calving cows?

Yep, exactly. That's what the figures are saying anyway. The reliablility is low though, (for EZN) at 53%. On ICBF.com, hit the fertility tab for the bull, Maternal Calving is the second one down.
I reckon it can be done if you get the breeding right. Look at the British Belgian Blues. They calve unassisted.

Any of the cows we have with BB in them don't get a BB on them. I'd be terribly afraid of serious calving problems putting BB on BBX.
There are a couple of very good BA cows there that I'm considering putting a Blue on this year. I had Ross A (RSA) or Jalon (JLM) in mind from Eurogene. Anyone use either?

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Few pics of the heifers what we had picked out for breeding this morning. They have done well the last few weeks, Theres a bit of a shine coming on their coat:)

nice heifers there redzer, good stock for Ch bull down the road or what will you give them, is that fanore in the background?

vanderbadger wrote: »

nice heifers there redzer, good stock for Ch bull down the road or what will you give them, is that fanore in the background?

Thats the plan down the road. Tis be god, The caravans gave it away!!

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Thats the plan down the road. Tis be god, The caravans gave it away!!

they did, I wouldnt like to be down in one of them these days

pakalasa wrote: »

Redz,
Great looking heifers. If they're as quiet as you say, then you're laughing.

Is that dolphin "Dusty" still hanging around. We went snorkling with her a few times. Took some great underwater photos. There's an alcove, near the road a small bit down from you, towards lahinch. If there wasn't too many people around, all you had to do was bang 2 rocks together underwater and she'd come swimming in to you. Must have been about 5 yrs ago now.

I know the spot where he used to hang around alright. There was a little concrete slip going down to it. I think hes gone with a few years. I heard he pulled a few people underwater while he was there too and they had lucky escapes with him so might be just as well.

redzerologhlen wrote: »

They would nearly talk to you when you have a bag of nuts on your shoulder, I actually had to stay walking away from them to try and get a picture because they were coming too close!!

Lovely heifers Redzer, will you keep them all or see how they go? Does the black cow in with them not hog all the ration?