Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sassy's calf

Here is another cow of note for you. You can read about why I do these posts highlighting specific cows here.
This particular cow of mine makes the list for multiple reasons.

I only kept this cow as a replacement heifer because she is out of my first cow/show heifer, Sassy (I will have to find a picture of Sassy and get it on here for you guys), and ended up being the last heifer calf Sassy had. While not the best looking cow, and a little lighter, narrower and ganglier than her counterparts, being out of Sassy was enough to tip the scale in her favor when selecting my replacement heifers.
What a great decision that turned out to be! She grew up to be a gangly, long, lighter weight cow than our average. She isn't a show stopper on looks by any means. But, this lightweight cow weaned the second heaviest calf in our herd last year (I did a happy dance when I this happened).
She also produces heifer calves that are more of the type, looks wise, that I prefer. All in all she has been a great asset to my cowherd.
Now, this shouldn't surprise me, as her mother was also a small cow, weighing in at about 950 pounds. To give you a comparison, our average cow probably weighed about 1,100 pounds during the time Sassy was young.
Before EPD's, and some of the other newer selection tools, one thing that ranchers weighed a cow's production on was the weight of the calf she weaned. If she wasn't weaning half her body weight each year, she wasn't doing a good enough job. Some people still go by this measurement of production.
Well, little 950 pound Sassy would consistently wean 550 pound calves, and they would continue to grow and gain to mature sizes far exceeding her small stature. This cow represents the last of my herd directly derived from Sassy, and she also posts impressive production records.
So, she is a cow of note because of her pedigree, and the outstanding calves she produces!


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