Can anybody tell me about this holstein sire ?

Middle River · #1 02/19/08, 02:34 PM

I'm buying some heifer calves soon ( when they are born, and once they have at least 3 ) and the gal emailed me to say she has one so far - she is sired by Bocaddon BSP Monday ET ( via AI ) - she also said her dam is very nice and has great conformation for a 7 yr old. I think this is him, but i really don't know what they are saying. http://www.dairysemenonline.co.uk/ho...don_monday.htm

I know they show their cattle, but even though i can't pass up the prices on their calves, i'm just wondering if a heifer like this will be easy to sell, and bring a good price this fall - as this is my first year trying this, i'd like to get some more advise, and maybe a bit of what to expect. If all goes well we will be doing this heifer calf raising on a small scale every year - and it is exciting to think this may be a way to let our farm pitch in - even if it covers our hay costs it's worth it.

She has some more holsteins due to freshen ( which is not my favorite breed, but i was told sells the best- so i'm hopeing for more hols. heifers ) as well as some Jersey's and Ayrshires - i'm wondering what they would bring as well. We plan on getting them by March or mid March, and then selling in Oct. - Dec. so we don't have to over winter them. Any other tips ?

DaleK · #2 02/19/08, 07:39 PM

I'd think you should be able to get the same kind of price as any other run-of-the-mill registered Holstein, which should be pretty good, but there's nothing there that would get you any more than any other black and white heifer. That isn't a pedigree that anybody is going to be looking for to buy show heifers or high-end breeding stock. Notice that he's a - on type, which means that an average daughter of his will have less type than her dam. Also not great production numbers.

JeffNY · #3 02/19/08, 10:18 PM

Not a bull that I recognize, and not a bull that would probably sire any show winners, unless its the exception. It is a bull that is european, and has some european genetics which isn't a bad thing, just slightly different.

Finding something to market out of isn't hard, it depends how much you want in return. Buying something that will calve out, or you sell as bred shouldn't be hard. However if you want to make more in return, you have to spend a little to do so. It is important when buying an animal you plan on selling, especially registered stock, is to know its pedigree. What you need to ask is the following.

Dam, 2nd dam, 3rd dam and if possible back to the 5th dam. Ask what each is scored. If you do not get that information, call the holstein association. They WILL help you with this. When you call tell them what your trying to find out. When you do get the scores for the dam's, also get the mammary score. That is very important, as it helps even more so when marketing. A batch of animals that have consistently scored udders in the 70's to low 80's, wont sell as well as animals with udders scored in the 85-89pt range. Without spending a lot, you should be able to get ahold of a heifer for a couple grand that has a few generations of VG, with VG mammarys. What starts to curve the price are familys, the deeper the family, the higher the cost. So staying with consistently bred animals, will keep things down, will not loosing quality.

Now the other aspect of it, are lines bred for production/index, not so much based on good familys.

Wihout getting into it in too much detail, because there is a lot involved. Ask what the dam is scored, gdam and if possible the great granddam. Also find out what the dams sire is, gdam and ggdam's sire. That bull's sire has some blackstar in it, and the bull's sire was a leadman, however he seemed to faulter a bit with what he is sired by.

Also show or not, anyone can show. I have seen some nasty looking cows in the ring that didn't belong there, so show doesn't dictate quality, good breeding, pedigrees, sire stacks etc etc generally dictate that, its what sells the animal at any sale. I would focus if I were you, on pedigree. That will resell better, post here any animals of interest, and we can hopefully help you disect the animal...

Jeff

Middle River · #4 02/20/08, 08:01 AM

Thank you so much - that really helps me understand quite a bit more :+)

More or less with this batch of calves ( which will be our learning batch ) we are planning on selling them at around 9 months of age, possibly 10 or 11 months old - we just have to wait and see. We will first try to sell them off the farm and if that doesn't work we will bring them to a sale. I might hold back one jersey calf for a family cow/nurse cow in the future as well.

I would just like to get to know more about cows, and pedigrees and general information- especially if we are going to be doing this every year. Right now i'm just wanting to have marketable heifers so we can sell them and get a decent price - but for the future i'd like to know what markets better - if that makes sense :+)

Thanks again, and i'm sure i'll be asking more questions !