COWS

'09 - 5 Month Old 22 Son of Cow on Left

Purebred Gus 22 son - no creep

Our cows are very moderate, 1100-1300# by necessity. They are expected to thrive off the grass here in Minnesota, without energy or protein supplementation. We've found that through our intense selection pressure our current cow size is the most economical for us.

In our opinion, the truest measure of maternal traits lies in longevity. It includes and is affected by all of the traits listed below:

Structural soundness with emphasis on feet and legs. Overall health and resistance to disease. Fleshing ability (ease of maintenance), is a trait that is tested each year by our harsh Minnesota climate and our unwillingness to supplement our ranches own resources. Many today are trying to measure "feed efficiency". We may not be very scientific, but find efficiency easy to obtain by "not pampering our cows". The good ones really do survive and thrive in a true grass environment. Because I was raised on a registered Holstein as well as a Registered Angus operation, I am relentless in my pursuit for excellent udder quality, teat size and placement. By the same standard, cows that don't milk - do not last here (we still sell our calves by the pound), and must keep that in balance with all of the other traits.

We have no interest in helping cows to "mother-up" by putting them in the barn to calve or starting a calf to nurse. This will get a cow culled off of our place faster than anything. The temperament of our cattle also is number one and no cow will get away with a bad attitude on our ranch. We believe a cow should not have to be assisted in raising her calf in any way. And last but not least, we pay attention to everything that goes into fertility, from testing and measuring the bulls to the preg rate of our herd and the culling of cows that are outside the calving period.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to select and measure for all of these traits with EPD's. Our natural tendency, in using EPD's, is to always choose the largest number (or smallest in the case of birth weight) and we try to do this for all traits(more is better). Some today prefer all encompassing "indexes" that does all of the selecting for you. My experience observing the infamous TPI index used by the Holstein breed for over 30 years tells me to stay as far away from these indexes as possible! The result of this index usage over many generations, created a breed of cows that live to be only 4 years old!!!! Yes, 4 years old!!! My grandfather had no such tools and had most cows live to be teenagers. Now you know why I believe breeding cattle is still more "art than science" Yes , production driven EPD's & indexes shorten the life of the cow, as shown by many years of research completed recently on the Holstein breed at Cornell University. The research showed there is an inverse genetic relationship between production and reproduction. For this reason (and others), we at TLC use production indexes & EPD's very cautiously . If breeding cattle was as simple as lining up numbers, anyone and everyone would be good at it and you wouldn't have the large differences in quality we still see today.

Our Angus and South Devon cows have the potential to live to be 13+ years of age. South Devon are known worldwide for their longevity and so are the "old style Angus" that we use . Yes, it is in the genetics more than the management as the dairy breeds, and now many beef producers are finding out the hard way.

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