Finally sold my "Junk" calves

[ChrisB]

The last few breeding seasons I have used a Lowline bull on my Angus and Baldy heifers. I wasn't sure what to expect and with several posts on here wondering why someone would ever do something like that because the calves would be junk, I was really curious. Well after a tough winter I finally was able to send a trailer load (14 head) to the salebarn. I had 11 "regular" steers and 3 of the lowline cross steers. I figured they would be sorted into 2-3 lots at the barn and they were, just not the way I expected. There were 8 head in one group and 6 in the other. I'm assuming the lowline cross steers were sorted in with the smaller group of 6. That group weighed an average of 1297 and sold for $143.00/cwt. The other group was just a bit heavier at 1327 and sold for the same.

I think I really messed up and had more 'shrink' than I should have. The calves were all finished in an outdoor lot and I sorted them out on Saturday and put them in another outdoor pen that had feedbunks inside the barn. As I should have known the calves stayed outside the whole time and on Sunday there was hardly any feed gone from the bunk. On Monday there was still probably 60% of the feed left. The were loaded on a trailer Tuesday morning and hauled about 2 hours before being sold. I was really expecting about 100-150 pounds more per head (lowliness excluded). I don't have scales at home yet and I am not sure how much shrink there was but I'm pretty sure it was more than there should have been if I had done things smarter. And on top of that I had kept them a month longer than usual as they really didn't seem to gain well this winter. I left a lot of money on the table I know.

Anyway, the lowline cross steers sold right along with the others and brought a decent price. They were definitely lighter though, maybe 200 lbs.? The heifers really spit them out calving and I didn't have any issues at all (only 10 heifers bred to the lowline bull though). The hiefers all bred back (to either angus or charolais bulls) and 8 of the 10 were among the first half of the main herd calving this past fall and all calved successfully again. I let the lowline bull have just over 6 weeks with the heifers and then they go out with the rest of the cows. This past fall I had 12 heifers that had been exposed to the lowline bull, 10 calved again from the lowline, and 1 ended up bred to the charolais bull, and 1 turned up open. All 11 calved unassisted.

I'm not saying it is the way to go, but thought I would share my experience so far. But I do know that I only check cows and heifers once a day during calving season and I sleep well at night.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I've never understood why more people don't use lowline bulls, especially on heifers.

 

[3waycross]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I've never understood why more people don't use lowline bulls, especially on heifers.[/quote]

They probably should but around here they would rather spend $1.50 for a POS Corriente and then dump the 1/2 rat offspring on the cattle buyers.

 

[Pitchfork Motors]

Congrats on getting a good price for the calves.
(I read an article the other day) … A ranch in Oklahoma also experimented with a Lowline bull on a small group of heifers. Rather than hauling them to the sale barn, they trucked the yearlings up to Denver for this year's National western stock show. Their pen of "junk" heifers took Grand Champ in the Commercial Pen Show. The article said, they now plan to use the lowline bulls on bunch of heifers (250 hd) this spring.

 

[Craig]

Which barn did they go to?

 

[MO_cows]

Lowline is going to be a breed to watch. Sure, there are a lot of people who have them as more or less expensive pets, but there are some real cattle people raising them, too, and breeding some very functional cattle. When they get enough numbers to get into the EPD game it will be interesting to see.

 

[Taurus]

Lowline is going to be a breed to watch. Sure, there are a lot of people who have them as more or less expensive pets, but there are some real cattle people raising them, too, and breeding some very functional cattle. When they get enough numbers to get into the EPD game it will be interesting to see.

As long as the lowlines are fullblooded! Started to see other breeds in these lowline, mostly Dexters, Galloways and mini herefords in recent times. I don't think lowline cattle book are closed or at least I thought so but should be closed herd book IMO.