Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2008 17:01:20 GMT -5
I think I already know the answer to this, but I'd love to hear your expertise. This young lady was born yesterday out on pasture, just two hours before we got a deluge of an inch of rain and hail (the first real rain all year).
Her mom is a hereford, but probably not purebred. She is the last cow from a herd of pet beef cows that my FIL has kept for many years. We weren't sure if she was even pregnant, because his cows have always been fat. But about 10 days ago she started bagging up!
Anyhow, her last calf was a bull, who was never castrated and lived with the herd until he was butchered at 18 months of age. His sire was the neighbor's red angus, and he was all red. He's the prime suspect! He was around a year old at the time that she was presumably bred (mid-September).
Another remote possibility is my mini-jersey bull, Fin, who was around 10 months old at the time. Shalali says that if the calf has a white face then she's not half Jersey. Just for fun, here's Fin with New York, Shalali's steer.
The third potential dad is the neighbor's huge red angus bull, who may have had contact with the cow at that time. I was out of town, but my husband thinks there may have been an escape. Is it the same with an angus--will the baby not have a white face if he is the father?
Surely the white face trait could come through if her son was bred back to her, so that's my guess. If this is the case, would there be any reason to keep the little girl as a breeding animal? Or is that kind of line breeding just a bad idea? She seems very small, which would make it easy for Fin to breed her for beef calves.
So with the new arrival, NY, Fin, momma beef cow, and a heifer who is visiting for stud service, here is the entire herd on our farm today:
Everybody's very curious about the calf. The boys especially. What fun!
Jenny
Her mom is a hereford, but probably not purebred. She is the last cow from a herd of pet beef cows that my FIL has kept for many years. We weren't sure if she was even pregnant, because his cows have always been fat. But about 10 days ago she started bagging up!
Anyhow, her last calf was a bull, who was never castrated and lived with the herd until he was butchered at 18 months of age. His sire was the neighbor's red angus, and he was all red. He's the prime suspect! He was around a year old at the time that she was presumably bred (mid-September).
Another remote possibility is my mini-jersey bull, Fin, who was around 10 months old at the time. Shalali says that if the calf has a white face then she's not half Jersey. Just for fun, here's Fin with New York, Shalali's steer.
The third potential dad is the neighbor's huge red angus bull, who may have had contact with the cow at that time. I was out of town, but my husband thinks there may have been an escape. Is it the same with an angus--will the baby not have a white face if he is the father?
Surely the white face trait could come through if her son was bred back to her, so that's my guess. If this is the case, would there be any reason to keep the little girl as a breeding animal? Or is that kind of line breeding just a bad idea? She seems very small, which would make it easy for Fin to breed her for beef calves.
So with the new arrival, NY, Fin, momma beef cow, and a heifer who is visiting for stud service, here is the entire herd on our farm today:
Everybody's very curious about the calf. The boys especially. What fun!
Jenny