You may be wondering a little bit about how we've developed these bred heifers. Here's the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
As calves, these ladies grew up alongside their mamas in the pasture. Our calves don't receive creep unless they are selected to be part of the showstring - of which these girls were not a part of. In fact, they had to earn their own keep on mother's milk and grass. Moreover, these two heifers were sired by our herd bull and had to standout from the AI-sired calves born a month earlier.
Our philosophy on developing calves is this: We don't push them. Jack explains, "It's a gradual process. Once they're weaned they're not put on a hot ration, but slowly developed from weaning to yearling. Then we back-off."
Lot #8 weaned at 495 lbs. (actual); Lot #9 weaned at 555 lbs. (actual). They had a 108 (563 lbs. adjusted) and 112 (582 lbs. adjusted) weaning weight ratios, respectively. We gain test all of our bulls and heifers, weighing them monthly. On 3/31/2008, Lot #8 weighed 824 lbs. (actual) and Lot #9 weight 875 lbs. (actual) Incidentally - these were our two heaviest yearling weights in the 2008 heifer replacement pen.
In April, we focus on two things: getting heifers bred and letting 4-Hers pick the heifer they would like to lease. We use MGA and target to breed heifers the first week of May, an entire cycle before our cowherd. These girls both bred first-time to AI.
Courtney Johnson also looked through the entire pen of replacement heifers and selected Lot #8 as her first 4-H heifer to lease. She did a great job of halter breaking the female and showing it throughout the summer. Alaina halter-broke Lot #9 for her friend Becky Deutsch to show - which was easy because this heifer is a gentle giant.
These two heifers were shown at two county fairs, a state fair and two regional livestock shows. All this means is that they were kept in a 30-acre lot of grass pasture, fed grain from the months of June-August and lead around the pen being worked with by each of our family and 4-Hers. I would call this the "spoiled" life. That lifestyle came to and abrupt end after Labor Day, when the show season was over and all of our replacement heifers moved to pasture.
When I came home in November to see how the heifers were doing were doing, I was surprised at fleshy they were, despite not having any more resources offered them. Jack weighed the heifers on 11/20/2008 and they were heavier than I expected. Lot #8 weighed in at 1,327 lbs. and Lot #9 weighed in at 1,342 lbs. I expected these are the deepest-bodied, easiest fleshing heifers we've ever brought to the MN Great Northern sale.
Those of you who've seen us show cattle know that we don't push "fat" cattle. By no means have these gals been pushed. Oh - and rest assured
health wise. We have voluntarily whole-herd tested our herd for bovine tuberculosis (TB) for the past two years. These females will sell tested TB-free within 30 days and have had their pregnancy status verified. We've also poured them for internal/external parasites, both as weaned calves and bred heifers; and they've been bangs vaccinated. If you have any other question about how they've been developed, or specific health questions, I invite you to contact our herd health vet, Bethany (Lovaas) Funnell at the University of Minnesota (her contact info is
here).
This heifer has a soft spot in my heart. Not only is she a big, deep-bodied female packed with cow power, but she also has the sweetest disposition. While we were selecting replacement heifers last year, my best friend (a true city gal) Becky Deutsch was assisting us. Raquel mosied right up to Becky in her hot-pink coveralls and sniffed her. It was as if Raquel had "marked" Deutsch as her own. This summer, Becky showed her first heifer, Raquel.
Above, here's Lot #9 mother (notice the resemblance) - 8 years old. I took this photo last Sunday in the pasture. She's this chunky without a bite of grain since she was a heifer. Take a look at her rear profile (below).
Here's the 2006-born heifer out of this cow (we call her #12) that sold in the 2007 MN Great Northern Sale for $2,000.
Lastly, here's the 2008-born calf from #12. She's going to be just like her big sisters.
Interested? I would be.
This flier mailed to a list of folks my dad and I brainstormed together. It includes Red Angus breeders and friends that might help drive interest in the sale. Our goal is to entice two or three cattle producers to vie for these lovely ladies.
Lot # 8 - I hope this one makes you smile. One of my favorite "reads," aside from the FP foreign policy blog and the Pioneer Woman's daily musings, is the Fargo-Farm Forum's Green Sheet "Want Ads." Just ask my good friends Marian and Melvin Kallas - it's the first thing I grab when I visit their house to share with them the humorous (and not so humorous) males seeking females on the Dakota plains. That's what inspired this ad.
Lot #9 - This ad was inspired by my mom. She might not know it, but I'm pretty thankful for what she does on our ranch - which is largely overlooked day-to-day. Plus, Lot #9's mom, (referred to as #12) has just done a superb job of raising calves at our place. What better time of year to be thankful for our mothers than at Thanksgiving. I don't know too many other folks who would get up at 5 a.m. to make sure all the fixins' are made for the noon meal.
There's a small snippet of information you need to know about why the 2008 MN Great Northern Sale is so important to me.
