which animals to sell

quick_to_panic

hello there all

would appreciate some views on the following choice

i have twenty eight suckler cows which i run a limousin bull with , only ten of them are above third lactation , those ten all had there first calf in 2014 as i began farming ( part time ) in 2013 , the older cows are angus from a british fresian herd and the younger dams are by a limousin bull i used to own

anyway , i have eight yearling heifers who i could bull in late may to calve next year , i sold two of the same group a week ago and one of them ( february 2016 born ) sold for 1130 , she weighed 450 kg , she and the rest of her comrades are all out of a bull i kept for one season , his calves were super stock but he was extremely hard calved and he himself was flighty , his heifers are also flighty though not all out mad

so here is my question , one would think it was best to try and improve the genetics within your herd and that these younger heifers would be better animals for producing calves in the future than the older angus type cows ( born 2011 ) , the angus cows have plenty of milk of course and are quiet and none of them need replacing per say , feet are fine and so are udders

with the trade being so strong for young store cattle , were i better to sell these quality yearling heifers ,( i dont really need to bull any heifers this year as ive more than enough cows ) and keep the older cows or were i better bull the heifers and sell off the fifth lactation cows with calves at foot in a month or so

i might get about 1400 for the angus cows with a month old calf where as i reckon i could average 1100 for the thirteen and fourteen month old LMX heifers

Bellview

Get rid of any flighty ones first as they will drive the rest of the herd bananas...farming can be tough enough but if you have cattle that are hard to manage then it's really hard.
Once nut jobs gone you can make a call on moving a few older cows if really good young heifers coming on behinf

quick_to_panic

Bellview wrote: »

Get rid of any flighty ones first as they will drive the rest of the herd bananas...farming can be tough enough but if you have cattle that are hard to manage then it's really hard.
Once nut jobs gone you can make a call on moving a few older cows if really good young heifers coming on behinf

i think any limousin is going to be wilder than the angus cows which were reared on buckets on a dairy farm but perhaps young heifers do settle down when they run with older cows during breeding season and over the winter prior to calving

i suppose i can get equally good money from selling an older cow with calf at foot and holding onto superior stock seems sensible , another way of looking at it however is i could sell the yearlings and buy equally good heifers in a year or two when maybe the market is not as strong , could try and prioritize temprement as well , would not have to be limousin either for replacements

blue5000

Closed.