Herd Health , EPD and Disposition
Herd Health
Herd Health
Herd Health
Our cattle are kept in body score condition of 5-6. We provide a complete mineral free choice year round. Our goal is to turn our cattle out on desert range several months out of the year. If they fall apart in that environment they wont stay in our program.
As well as a Ivomec pour on our cattle get the following vaccinations.
Our cal
Our cattle are kept in body score condition of 5-6. We provide a complete mineral free choice year round. Our goal is to turn our cattle out on desert range several months out of the year. If they fall apart in that environment they wont stay in our program.
As well as a Ivomec pour on our cattle get the following vaccinations.
Our calves get 2 rounds of:
- Bovishield Gold 5
- Ocu-guard MB-1
- UltraChoice 8
Our cows get annual boosters of:
- Bovishield Gold 5
- Ocu-guard MB-1
- Ultrachoice 8
Freeze Brand
We freeze brand all our cattle. We feel that freeze branding is less stressful vs hot iron. Freeze branding makes identifying cattle easier in all weather conditions.
EPD's
Herd Health
Herd Health
We use the tools available EPD's and i50k testing to select sires from all over the country to match our needs. Once our EPD requirements are met then we go to phenotype characteristics before we will move on that sire.
- Some of our base line EPD requirements include:
- free of AA recognized genetic conditions
- Calving ease +10
- WW +50
- YW +70
- M
We use the tools available EPD's and i50k testing to select sires from all over the country to match our needs. Once our EPD requirements are met then we go to phenotype characteristics before we will move on that sire.
- Some of our base line EPD requirements include:
- free of AA recognized genetic conditions
- Calving ease +10
- WW +50
- YW +70
- Milk +23 or lower
- $EN must be a positive number
- $W+55 or more
- $B +100 or more
Disposition
Herd Health
Disposition
Moving cattle to different pastures, tagging new born calves or the annual run through the chute for vaccinations and preg-checking, your cattle's disposition is important.
We process our cattle slow and easy, we don't even own a hot-shot.
A criteria not to be overlooked when making culling decisions is disposition. Easy going dispositio
Moving cattle to different pastures, tagging new born calves or the annual run through the chute for vaccinations and preg-checking, your cattle's disposition is important.
We process our cattle slow and easy, we don't even own a hot-shot.
A criteria not to be overlooked when making culling decisions is disposition. Easy going disposition really benefits your herd as a whole. When reporting docility on our cattle these are the standards used by the Angus Association
- 1-Docile- Acceptable, mild disposition, most favorable temperament.
- 2 Restless-Restless during processing.
- 3 Nervous- Nervous and impatient.
- 4 Flighty (Wild)-Jumpy and out of control, quivers and struggles violently.
- 5 Aggressive- Added aggressive behavior, extreme agitation.
- 6 Very Aggressive- Extremely aggressive temperament.
Anything over a score of 1 really makes working cows stressful on the crew and more of a hassle than its worth. We believe disposition is inherited but also have to factor in that it is a learned trait and a result of how cattle are handled over their lifetime.