Which cows to breed off.

DairyGrazing

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North West
We've ended up with twice as many heifers as we need due to the effectiveness of sexed semen.

It appears that farms are serving all their heifers and up to 3rd calvers with sexed then beef on everything older.

Surely it is the old cows genetics we want to keep. As those are the ones that have survived my terrible management?

Genetics is not my area. I only have two areas of selection 1. Is it easy to get the unit on 2. Once on does it stay on with out her kicking it off.

Advice appreciated
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
this is where the hol breeding, has #### the job, they don't last, even if they give you 11,000 liters a lac, and gone after 2/3, does it compare with a cow that can do 7/8 lacs. Breeding from hfrs, was for 2 reasons, first to keep up with the need, for more and more replacements, and to breed, from the very latest genetics. The first, has shown to have fallen out of favour, or, why else do they now stress longevity ? And secondly, if breeding from the, latest/bestive breeding, our cows should be giving 15-20,000 litres, a lactation, because we have been breeding, for + milk, for 50 yrs.
Those cows, that last, and no trouble, are the ones, we should be breeding from, the figures are not 'estimated', or genomic, they are proven. We have plenty of 6+ lac cows, we block calve, and many, are still in the first 14 days of service, they have proved, their worth. We use dairy, for the first 14 days, then beef.
 

I thats it

Member
Perfect she ain't but this is the type I like to breed heifers from due to calve her 6th in February has her first in February 2016, held first service last twice to sexed, 7000litres each time. Hassle free cows!
IMG_20201101_100458.jpg
 

More to life

Member
Location
Somerset
You can’t honestly think that? Maybe for an odd old cow this will be true but there are plenty of super efficient cows 5th lactation and beyond. Ridiculous statement.
No I genuinely find lazy cows last the longest as I said there are exceptions.There is 6000kg difference between my highest and lowest yielders over a standard lactation.
 

Sandpit Farm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
If you milk record, you could just look at your herd genetic report... rank based on the traits you want. You should have a list.

Then go through history of calving issues, poor transition, bad feet etc and make sure they are dismissed from the list. If you still have too many, go and have a look at the rest of them and decide which you don’t like.

If you are block calving, surely you want sexed on your front enders as then you’d have your heifers all born in 3 weeks - has loads of advantages.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
I wouldn't discount breeding from a cow on age.
Not getting in calf can be for a whole host of reason, maybe management not the cows fault. But I would be dubious about breeding a replacement from 3 service up.
Never use to breed from heifers , but Tb has forced our hand on that.

We atm have more heifers in the pipeline than cows in farm.

This will either give us the opportunity to make more informed culling decisions or mean we won't have to buy in to replace tb losses. Or even a mix of the 2. I hope it's the first of the 3!


Finally if the heifer you have reared is good it's because of the cow.......if its crap it's the bulls fault!
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Solids will be closer but I sell white water and don’t pay much attention to them, a below average cow here is 9000 kg. I’m currently Tb free and johnes is all but gone I can start to weed them out.

Id sell anything giving over 7000 but guessing that’s not gonna leave you many cows 🤣 best thing about sexed is we can all benefit from breeding off the cows that suit our individual systems and beef on the outliers, the trick is knowing which ones are which before you start serving.
 

Sylution

Member
Location
Carmarthenshire
Pictures of 3 Bradash Tournament daughters in 7th and 8th lactation. All gone EX90 and LP60+ Should of used more of this bull. Great cows.
Snapchat-1600987388.jpg
The cow below has had 6 daughters. In 8th lactation. Always in 1st batch of miliking. My aim is to breed all my cows to be like this!!! But it is suprising how much 1st and 2nd lactation crap I have to cull from the herd, bred to many heifers from heifers!!!🤦‍♂️
Snapchat-1338366334.jpg
 

jerseycowsman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cornwall
We've ended up with twice as many heifers as we need due to the effectiveness of sexed semen.

It appears that farms are serving all their heifers and up to 3rd calvers with sexed then beef on everything older.

Surely it is the old cows genetics we want to keep. As those are the ones that have survived my terrible management?

Genetics is not my area. I only have two areas of selection 1. Is it easy to get the unit on 2. Once on does it stay on with out her kicking it off.

Advice appreciated
I agree with you wholeheartedly, but “experts” don’t. Nothing counts towards PLi after the cows 3rd lactation! Bonkers, how are you supposed to get an honest longevity score from that???
 
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As reported in Independent


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