wall hangers

Progress is not about using progeny differences to change cattle, it is about sustaining the good ones absent self-inflicted problems.

"Injecting outside blood into a proven, attested, selected genetic pattern is a crime of the same enornmity as a burglar's breaking into one's home and leaving furniture, fixtures and precious keepsakes in a state of utter disarray".

The first step to improving cattle for the long haul is to get over the Great Bull Syndrome.

True cow efficiency is measured by what she cost versus what she produced to sell.





needed a place to store these as I'm running out of space.

Our basic objective here is to present ideas to stimulate the development of parent stock that can REGULARLY produce beef animals which at the lowest possible cost and expenditure of labor give the highest possible and longest lasting net returns. Not just for ourselves, but moreso for the commercial producers.

the PRINCIPLES of the successful breeder have been EXCEEDINGLY SIMPLE. He ISOLATES and FIXES a GOOD type by careful selection and CLOSE breeding. If ambitious, he takes a greater step in advance, he CROSSES types with the characteristics which SEEM to offer POSSIBILITIES for a DESIREABLE COMBINATION and FIXES the new ideal by continued SELECTION and CLOSE breeding. He brings inferior stock up to a HIGHER LEVEL by THE CONSISTENT use of PREPOTENT sires of the SAME improved type. The DIFFICULTY lies not so much in knowing the principles as in APPLYING them."

I found this to often be the case back in the days when I was much smarter than I am now .... when I must have enjoyed wasting thousands of dollars buying or using the "best" bulls out of the "best" cows I could find for the thrill of producing that next rare one.

what is so pathetic, is they claim they need registration papers for authenticity in order to sell their stock. Whatever happened to breeder integrity, did it go out the window along with functional purity? If cattle bred like they looked or better, we wouldn't need piles of expensive time consuming complex records.

there is no secret in spending;

the secret is in saving.

norcal wrote:

Problem is we are generally evaluating micro managed over fed pampered outliers that are terminally focused.

mrvictordomino wrote :

To make an assumption, even if all things were equal year to year.....Don't think there would be that much gain in yearling weights.
I say that because I have not made any significant changes in type or frame size over the years. Don't always select the highest performing bulls for in herd use if they are not going to maintain the ideals I have for this herd. Bull selections are heavily influenced from the maternal side.

"Emotions excited by any craze interfer with discussions about the justifications for it."

"Regardless of any size level preferred, it seems dependability with consistency must be maintained before any stock can qualify for the distinction of being called a purebred. ”

“Each breed needs to capitalize on their strong points to maintain a foothold in the commercial market.”

“What good are higher 205-day. or 365-day weights when the percent calf crop drops?”

". . . the only reason any breed or breeder really exists is to improve the quality and efficiency of meat production. Any breed or breeder who forgets their purpose will be short lived.”

Some think they have to be registered, to be seedstock.
Some think they ought to have to be seedstock, to be registered.

Bootheel

Purity is when a strain reproduces itself regularly...

“Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.”

― George Carlin -

"I know in my short lifetime more good stock, excepting possibly the race horse has been produced by the average farmer and breeder in America than all the governments and millionaire playboy breeders put together." Pete Moore

We should think about this because it is a fact. Money may make a lot of noise and buy a lot of printer's ink and it is powerful stuff, but noise and ink never breed great cattle. Simon Lee Yoder, Amish Dairyman

price is closely related to popularity; popularity is created by promotion; genetic value is the only value transmitted from one generation to the next; and that is dependent on prepotency ...only close breeding builds greater prepotency ibc is a measure of an attempt to build prepotency..

MK

I speak only as the worlds foremost expert of my own opinion...


I have wasted 25 years learning the history of my breed as recorded by a few very dedicated breeders who improved the functionality of the lines of cattle they built, but mostly it was written the great marketers. Interesting stories, but now that I am aware of the BS of the present, it does taint what could be the BS of the past. It really isn't their fault. The majority will always go with the flow and do what is done. It's just the way it is. Human nature. Not just tolerated, cultivated. Many are true believers. I can't fault the true believers. I envy them in many ways. I truly believe in little, especially when that belief tolerates problems to perpetuate tradition at the expense of improvement. Lasting improvement.

I don't see Registration papers as the problem. Mine exist in virtual reality for the world to see, if they just take a little time to look. What can anyone learn from them? A closed herd whose data is not "tied in" to the system built from animals used only here. what do those names filling the slots mean? If you haven' t calved every cow for several generations and tended to every calf, what does it all mean? What it doesn't tell is just as important.

The problem is that they are used in ways they shouldn't be used. For my own selfish purposes, it is a problem because the breed association floods my customers with advertising, articles, and promotional materials aimed at educating my buyers that they just made a bad decision purchasing my bull based on a few easy to measure, easy to understand figures. Calculation which tell only a small part of the story of the big picture. Who are they going to believe, me or everything they read? Those customers who try to educate themselves end up knowing just enough to be drawn into whatever is being justified at that moment without knowing the whole story. Just a distraction away from commercial economic importance.

Kent Powell

a strain is defined as a lineage of presumed common ancestry, a GROUP with physiological distinctions..... however, the distinctive difference is that the major emphasis is to increase prepotency by reducing rather than expanding variation, or "differences"......to STABILIZE the exceptional or unusual ability of the ENTIRE STRAIN to transmit its specific FUNCTIONAL characters to offspring with continuity......where the worship of mortal individuals is superseded by the immortality of "population" genetics......purebred breeding in its very finest form to provide a more consistent renewal process IN BEEF PRODUCTION.

LL

over time we've seen how every encounter with a problem creates a new EPD. By now I think we are up to about 30 problems to "measure & rectify" as listed in sire summaries and AI catalogs.

If we're going to select bulls for maternally efficient beef cows as the FIRST PRIORITY, the first bulls we oughta cut the nuts from would be the outliers to save us a lot of aggravation down the road instead of paying a small fortune for them.......

good

promoters promise a brighter future; tru-line offers a better now



better

TRULINE has never been about what I think, but rather its philosophy ..... at first glance it seems overwhelming , as well it should . Then , the author's words direct your attention to the future . I strongly feel it is a mindset . And the following quote describes what TRULINE means to me . Jon

" A Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in . "--- Greek Proverb

I believe all performance trait expression difference is subtle; eg 50 ww epd versus 20ww epd ..however, phenotypic problem expressions are about as subtle as a 2 by 4 up the side of the head...

MK

Printed this one for my wall:

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Sometimes the last thing you want to hear is the first thing you need to hear.

It is unfortunately too common to see people who acquire sudden wealth to start spending wildly and to eat away their revenue and capital in a short time.
P T Barnum

Ruin is the only thing you win in this kind of ridiculous game of wanting to impress people and have them talk about you.
P T Barnum

When a man is in the right path, he must persevere.
P T Barnum

With the young man starting in business, let him understand the value of money by earning it.
P T Barnum

Tom Lasater said breeding cattle is a relatively simple endeavor, the difficulty is in keeping it simple.

The single point I am trying to make is that it is absolutely imperative that we SIMPLIFY THIS BEEF BUSINESS, if not for others, at least for ourselves.
LL