Too small.--How small.

JSelte wrote:

mikejd4020 wrote:

This is about the average of what I have.



This is kind of what I want. I think she is a 05 model.



The problem is, it seems I am getting to much of these. Now this is an extreme headed to Micky D's example.


I don't know what is wrong with the cow in the last picture. I think half of it is her fault and 75% of it is my fault.

Mike

Being new, young, and naive I am not sure if I can add much, but I have two ideas that have crossed my mind.

1. There has been discussion about metabolic size. Could this be part of the problem? She looks like the average but requires more than her fair share of the food in order to stay in the herd. If you have selected for the high milk production refer to Grassfarmer's post, because it sounds like that could be a majority of the answer.

2. The other idea that comes to mind for me is the surface area required to maintain. If we follow nature, there is an average surface area required by animals to survive the winter. It is the reason the deer in my area are larger than the deer in yours. Is there much difference in the general build of the cattle? Is the "failure" cow narrower or shorter or longer than the average cattle you raise?

Like I said new and young, so may be lost already!

Welcome Justin...Daniel Boone, Ky pioneer and explorer said,

I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks

If you`ve never been confused breeding cattle; you `ve never bred any it`s well documented animals get bigger in colder weather, I suppose I should google up an answer why

I got a note from Mark somewhere about calves by the sire of the cow pictured; small etc...



there`s a right kind of small; and a right amount of milk...the picture is not the best, but this cow is as good as I got...and as I said before, tons of semen have been sold on bulls smaller and not as good as her sire



can we stand small steers to get smaller cows that raise a high percentage of body weight when mated terminally? We can in a system where the small calves, cows to be, are born from heifers...
and when grandma looked like this at 15 and produced past 18...

I would take a whole pasture of cows that looked like that Blythe Maker Daughter