LGL Sired Heifer's

greek88

Hi Guys

Just wondering have any of you out there kept Heifers off LGL as cows and how did ye get on with them.

We have one that has some serious shape and is as quiet as a mouse...that being said i know she will have feck all milk. But that being said we have a cow off CF52 that wouldn't feed a cat however has the best calf in our herd year on year.


Pics of her attached one a few weeks old and the other two yesterday she's 9 months old and about 380kg's

Just wondering how ye have got on with them and any problems etc.

patsy_mccabe

OP. I was in the same position as you last autumn. A fine LGL heifer out of a Simmental cow. I got rid of her for a finish. I've had white charolais cows here before and I had to cull them because the calf literally starved under them. Not worth it.
ICBF have LGL as being in the bottom 1% for milk. To me that's a big no no in a replacement cow.

greek88

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

OP. I was in the same position as you last autumn. A fine LGL heifer out of a Simmental cow. I got rid of her for a finish. I've had white charolais cows here before and I had to cull them because the calf literally starved under them. Not worth it.
ICBF have LGL as being in the bottom 1% for milk. To me that's a big no no in a replacement cow.

Thanks Patsy

We mainly have CH cows here and they all rear a fine calf they are mainly 3/4 - 7/8 bred CH with the exception to a few Simmental and Limousin cows. One cow like i said in my previous post is 97% bred CH cow and rears a serious calf every year. Last years calf iv attached below was 500kg at 10 months and the cow doesnt really have much milk at all.

Sheep breeder

greek88 wrote: »

Thanks Patsy

We mainly have CH cows here and they all rear a fine calf they are mainly 3/4 - 7/8 bred CH with the exception to a few Simmental and Limousin cows. One cow like i said in my previous post is 97% bred CH cow and rears a serious calf every year. Last years calf iv attached below was 500kg at 10 months and the cow doesnt really have much milk at all.

we have a couple of cows that seem to have a small bag of milk, but rear the heavist and best calf every year. no point in a cow having a big bag of water dragging the ground.

greek88

Sheep breeder wrote: »

we have a couple of cows that seem to have a small bag of milk, but rear the heavist and best calf every year. no point in a cow having a big bag of water dragging the ground.

Correct Sheep breeder, I feel the same with our herd. That being said our cows would need to be crossed back to a Maternal LIM or SIM bull for the next generation of cows as we like to keep our own progeny as replacements (you know exactly what your getting with background etc).

I do feel though some lads out there are flinging any old milky bull onto cows in their herd for this genomic scheme and the higher the index the better for them, but you cant ignore the terminal figures and shape of a bull. Just because your cow is incalf to a milky bull doesnt always mean you will have a better replacement cow out of it. Just my two cents any way.

patsy_mccabe

I agree with you greek88. It's the extremes you want to avoid. Like the cow with no milk or the cow too narrow at the hips. Or so wild that she's likely to kill someone.

J.O. Farmer

greek88 wrote: »

Correct Sheep breeder, I feel the same with our herd. That being said our cows would need to be crossed back to a Maternal LIM or SIM bull for the next generation of cows as we like to keep our own progeny as replacements (you know exactly what your getting with background etc).

I do feel though some lads out there are flinging any old milky bull onto cows in their herd for this genomic scheme and the higher the index the better for them, but you cant ignore the terminal figures and shape of a bull. Just because your cow is incalf to a milky bull doesnt always mean you will have a better replacement cow out of it. Just my two cents any way.

Your right for a start bulls don't make good replacement cows. you have to think about the terminal end of things with sucklers too as even a heifer might not be the type of cow you want to keep.

greek88

there is a show and sale Tuesday we are taking the heifers to so we have decided to keep the lgl heifer she has size length and is extremely quiet. We were thinking of keeping either her or a 4 star CH off NPP on paper has a milk index of €90 but she doesn't have great size or length and her temperament isn't good. So we'll see how the lgl one goes over the summer.we have bought a CWI heifer to run with her she's 14 months old so we'll get the two of them in calf together.

blue5000

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

Your right for a start bulls don't make good replacement cows. you have to think about the terminal end of things with sucklers too as even a heifer might not be the type of cow you want to keep.

It's a lot easier to sort out the terminal side of things with a good bull than it is to sort out no milk on the maternal side. If milk is gone from your cows it would take at least 2 generations of maternal breeding, or you have to buy it back in.

J.O. Farmer

blue5000 wrote: »

It's a lot easier to sort out the terminal side of things with a good bull than it is to sort out no milk on the maternal side. If milk is gone from your cows it would take at least 2 generations of maternal breeding, or you have to buy it back in.

I agree but I don't think that looking at stars for milk alone is the way to go. The figures are a useful guide but you need to pick a maternal bull that will leave a good beef animal (but not necessarily an export quality weanling) as the cow still has 50% input into the calf be it a replacement or something to ultimately sell your trying to breed.

greek88

decided to keep the LGL heifer any way see how she gets on with one that we bought in off CWI.