Feeder cattle in old dairy country

[BA Deere]

I won`t be specific in the areas, but it seems to me a strong old dairy part of the world they would quit milking and buy the "best $1,000 Angus bull" they could afford and put him on their Holsteins.  Year after year $1,000 Angus bulls, but they still have that stein base.  400lbs feeders that have past frozen ears (in other words born in February) but are 4 weight calves now.

IMO they should`ve sold their steins and bought Angus/Sim or whatever, because if you`re raising and carrying the feed, you could just as well be to stuff that`ll be top of the market.   But what happens to the beef supply when that stein gene is washed out one day and $4,000 bulls are bought and 650lb calves are green tagged and weaned? 

[Blacksandfarmer]

BA I may not have an answer to your question, but it would be nice to see the dairy industry faze out holsteins all together. Its been said that you have to be tough to have a spot on our farm, from the cattle all the way down to the barn cats lol! A holstein is a needy breed that the packers clearly don't want. With poor milk prices and poor calf prices you would think more dairy farmers would be looking into adding an Angus or Herford bull to their operations. A Holstein/Angus may not put out as much milk, but the bull calves would bring more and their vet bills would be lower. 

[BA Deere]

Hey Blacksand, the "Certified Black Angus" got stretched pretty thin with Holsteins passing through with that designation, if Steins are .80 and real Angus are $1.10, there`s some margin for packers to`ve done some things.  It seems there`s 3 kinds of cow milkers these days, one has a muddy lot, iron weeds growing around the fences, a barn door hanging on one hinge and a old Rupp snowmobile leaning against the fence.   Then the "Princess Kay of the Milkyway" milkers got their 200 cow, old money show places.  Then the Bigshot with concrete everywhere, Tyne Morgan and Max Armstrong interview him on his expanding from "7,500 cows to milking 10,000 cows".   The first two are struggling, but the last operation can`t spend a seemingly endless supply of money. 

[RJG640v8]

dairy farmers are dairy farmers are dairy farmers and if they have Holsteins, you ain't gonna get them to change and mess up the genetics by throwing a beef breed in the mix. High yield is still number one on the road to profit, whether grain farming or dairy farming, or any other farming.The bull calves that are born are just the crap sandwich they have to eat about 50% of the time, they want the female replacements. Anymore with the advent of IVF and ET and sexed semen and Genome testing it gets even better for getting that high producing female and keeping the genetic line pure and going.  Dairy Farmers are a different breed, they have to be, why there are so few of them. Plus, with the new tech, they sell genetics for bigger dollars than you can imagine. World Dairy Expo was just last week , they were selling embryos for more than people get for 20 live proven cows......... 

A guy I buy and sell beef cattle with went into a venture two years ago buying some high dollar beef heifers with the express purpose of selling embryos out of them. I haven't had a one of them birth a calf yet but we have sold a bunch of embryos out of them to Japan and S.America and profit per is astronomical. Always more than one way to get stuff done. 

[SupremeFarms]

Your embryo program sounds very interesting.

Would you be willing to share more about it?

[RJG640v8]

sorry, not willing to divulge to many secrets.

in a nutshell, look at females as most look at bulls......... that being a bull sires a good many calves per year and so is half the genetic input on many animals per year.

with the advent and push you can also do that on the female side. If there are animals with the highly sought traits , you can easily compound super genetics from both sexes now. It can really speed up the improvements to a herd. By targeting the international market which is our focus for this venture, we have found a very hungry consumer. 

[SupremeFarms]

Thanks for the reply!

I understand the wisdom in not divulging details.

Best wishes with your program!