Which limousin bull?

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Been looking at these two bulls which one would you use? Iam not familiar with beef ebv but iam guessing the higher positive is easier calving.

Mereside jester.

Or tomschoice jet.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Alicecow]

For keeping or killing?
Scrotal circumference is directly related to daughter fertility, but the better one for that seems to be less docile.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

For keeping or killing?
Scrotal circumference is directly related to daughter fertility, but the better one for that seems to be less docile.

The straws would be used on our dairy cows so long as they have a nice calf and calve ok that's all we want.

 

[Alicecow]

I don't know much about the figures, but for calving ease the second bull seems better, with a slightly better Beef Value as well.

 

[harperfarmer]

Marginally in favour of the Tomschoice bull, but to be honest, if you believe in figures, I'd say that both would be spot on to use. The only slight downside might be that they both have negative fat depths so might be a little less easy to get finish on them, and as has been said, the daughters of the Tomschoice bull will be harder calving. But for what it is you want, they both would look to be ideal with hardly a gnats whisker between them.

 

[AGN76]

Jet will throw the better calves I would think. Does it have to be Lim? A Blue will result in milk in the tank 10 days sooner

 

[Johngee]

Their calving figures look fairly similar, both being in the top 1% for gestation length. Perhaps Jet would be a better bet as he's got better accuracies and he's from a proven bloodline, his father Eravelle is well known as an easy calver, with short gestations. Jester, on the other hand, has a lot of French breeding, unproven in this country. His accuracies will improve as he has more calves on the ground.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Thank you for your comments I think I will order some jet he looks a good bull.

 

[tr250]

My opinion only but I wouldn't pay much attention to figures on limousin breed I think they are fairly worthless

 

[Purli R]

Depends who you are buying the semen from,have/is there an actual calving survey? for example GENUS calving survey the bad calvers are culled &you only get semen from proven bulls, ROCK SOLID GENETICS .Certain other companies send out a big glossy catalogue then ring up for your order,you ask about calving " oh we just go of the EBV & our bull buyer liked it, COMPLETE GUESS, take your pick.

 

[Alicecow]

Always bear in mind, too, that they can print anything, that doesn't guarantee that it's accurate.
I only half believe the figures etc. One catalogue one year was a complete mix up, ch marked as a lim, same pedigree put down for 2 unrelated bulls, etc, etc.
They must have compiled it the day after the office party!

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Depends who you are buying the semen from,have/is there an actual calving survey? for example GENUS calving survey the bad calvers are culled &you only get semen from proven bulls, ROCK SOLID GENETICS .Certain other companies send out a big glossy catalogue then ring up for your order,you ask about calving " oh we just go of the EBV & our bull buyer liked it, COMPLETE GUESS, take your pick.

They are both from cogent and no there is no calving survey at the moment. They are only young bulls and so if we get a calf we will be sending the survey back. A gamble I know but no different that buying a stock bull. As @Johngee said that jet is sired by a easy calving bull surly he won't be to bad.

 

[Whitepeak]

I think this has raised an important point. Which EBV's should a dairy farmer selling calves at 3wks to a month old be looking at? I know calving ease and gestation length will be the two big ones but which ones indicate calf quality? When the difference in price between the top and bottom calves is from over £300 to less than £100, it would surely pay to select bulls that throw better quality calves.
Maybe this is something EBLEX and DairyCo (or whatever they call themselves now) should look into, as after all, half the beef produced in this country comes from the dairy herd.

 

[Johngee]

My opinion only but I wouldn't pay much attention to figures on limousin breed I think they are fairly worthless

That's a bit of a generalization. I think they're a bit more accurate than they used to be. Calving figures can be quite accurate, especially if the sire is a widely used AI bull. Everyone knows which are the hard calving bulls and their figures tend to reflect this.
The DNA tests for double muscling has also helped - many of the hard calvers like Vantastic carry a double muscle gene. Hopefully this information will be available publicly soon.
For a dairy farmer like @Holsteinfriesian90 the important criteria would be ease of calving and short gestation and he's got a fairly good chance with this bull.
On reflection though perhaps Jet's father Kaprico Eravelle might be a better bet. He's a proven sire, with accuracies around 90% and he's available on Semenstore at £7.50/straw.
http://www.semenstore.co.uk/limousin/products/kaprico-eravelle.html

 

[Sandpit Farm]

I think this has raised an important point. Which EBV's should a dairy farmer selling calves at 3wks to a month old be looking at? I know calving ease and gestation length will be the two big ones but which ones indicate calf quality? When the difference in price between the top and bottom calves is from over £300 to less than £100, it would surely pay to select bulls that throw better quality calves.
Maybe this is something EBLEX and DairyCo (or whatever they call themselves now) should look into, as after all, half the beef produced in this country comes from the dairy herd.

Good point. All depends on when the calves will be sold. We know that 400-day weight will have a slight inverse correlation to calving ease so I would suggest that calving ease would be key. A high birth weight but good calving ease figures should give a good saleable calf at 7 days old.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Anyone used lodge hamlet? Any good?

 

[shearerlad]

Used hamlet on sucklers with a huge

 

[Henarar]

Depends who you are buying the semen from,have/is there an actual calving survey? for example GENUS calving survey the bad calvers are culled &you only get semen from proven bulls, ROCK SOLID GENETICS .Certain other companies send out a big glossy catalogue then ring up for your order,you ask about calving " oh we just go of the EBV & our bull buyer liked it, COMPLETE GUESS, take your pick.

cogent do calving surveys

 

[davieogrutha]

Just ordered some Jet from cogent. They have a deal on a mix of sires, buy 20 get 10 free. On till the end of June. Got Eravelle calf this spring, had to use calving aid, shoulders bigger than back end. Evened up now. Good like calf. Also have a Hamlet calf, very easy calving on the cow and is looking good. But not as good as the Spittalton Hugo calf. Lucky when I got the straws when I did as they've nearly doubled in price now.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Just ordered some Jet from cogent. They have a deal on a mix of sires, buy 20 get 10 free. On till the end of June. Got Eravelle calf this spring, had to use calving aid, shoulders bigger than back end. Evened up now. Good like calf. Also have a Hamlet calf, very easy calving on the cow and is looking good. But not as good as the Spittalton Hugo calf. Lucky when I got the straws when I did as they've nearly doubled in price now.

Have used jet no calves born yet though. Had some nice calves from jester as well. Just ordered some hamlet so time will tell. Was jet a good price?