Posted on March 12, 2009 - by Russell

She’s a 10-Julie Pack’s answers to our survey questions.

I would like to thank Julie Pack of Lazy JP Ranch for taking the time to answers the survey questions. If you have not completed the survey questions you still have time to do so. Your answers can be short or as detailed as you would like. I will be posting the answers from several other breeders over the next few weeks.  

Julie's ideal Texas Longhorn Cow

1) What type of conformation do you look for in a brood cow? Does conformation affect the birth canal and calving ease? 

Part a) When evaluating replacement females for my own herd, or offering my opinion on other breeders females as a judge, the first thing I look at is structural soundness.  The longhorn was bred to be a self-sufficient, long lived productive breed of cattle.  With this in mind here are a few of the most important things for a female in my book. 

First, a female should have four uniform, well attached quarters with evenly spaced small teats.  Many people don’t consider the udder to be at the top of the list for conformation but when you think about it what good is a female with all the genetic potential in the world if she can’t raise the calf to pass on those genes? 

Second, females should have sound feet and legs.  The front legs should be straight with the toes neither pointing in or out.  Her shoulders should slope about 45 degrees to give extension and reach to the front legs.  The rear legs should be angled so that a line can be passed straight from the pin bones through the hocks and down through the rear dewclaw.  The hip should show a slight to moderate downward slope from the hook bones to the pin bones to allow for proper motion of the hind legs as well as calving ease.  Pasterns on all four feet should be at approximately 45 degree angles to the ground to properly absorb shock, and should not pop or click when the animal is in motion.  When the female is in motion viewed from the side the back feet should land in the track the front foot just made.  When viewed from the front the feet should land square with out “paddling out” or swinging around.  When viewed from the back the hocks should not twist sharply in or out when in motion or when at rest.

Third, females should have body capacity.  What I mean by this is that the animal should be deep in the heart girth and flank when viewed from the side, have a good spring of rib when viewed from the rear or front, and have a wide natural stance indicating a wide body floor.        

Part b) Conformation most defiantly affects the birth canal and the calving ease of a female.  As I stated before females should have a slight slope from the hooks to the pins, this allows for the widest possible configuration of the birth canal.  The pin bones should also be spaced decently wide apart for maximum calf clearance during birth.  When the calf is delivered in a normal presentation the head and front legs come first with the widest part of the calf’s body coming next, the shoulders.  If a calf is going to get in trouble it is at this time, when the calf’s head is starting to emerge and the shoulders are in the pelvis of the dam.  The umbilical cord is now constricted between the calf’s chest and the dam’s pelvis and is no longer supplying oxygen to the calf.  The calf must then be delivered quickly to avoid this problem, thus the slightly sloping conformation is ideal for calf delivery.

2) What is the most important trait you look for, horn, conformation, or functional efficiency? Would you over look a genetic defect if the cow had record setting horn?  

Part a) Because of what the longhorn is I feel that there is no one trait that supersedes any other.  With that said I will say that conformation/functionality and horn are the two most important traits in the breed.

Part b) In regards to my previous statement I offer the following opinion on genetic defects and faults.  According to our Official Handbook cattle exhibiting genetic defects are not eligible for registry.  However, if a horn record setting cow can not raise a healthy calf on her own or has trouble maintaining herself in the pasture under good conditions (this is assuming that there are no management caused reductions in fertility or natural causes of less than optimum nutrition) she is worthless and should also not be making genetic contributions to the next generation.  Converlsy, cattle that exhibit outstanding conformation and show ring titles but do not meet the minimum standards for acceptable horn growth set forth in the breed guidelines should also not be contributing the gene pool.

3) How important is frame size when selecting a brood cow, and why?

            Cattle should be of a moderate frame size, 900-1,000 lbs. in pasture condition.  This type of female will be more profitable in the long run than smaller or larger framed individuals.  Small framed type cattle typically have more calving issues and wean off smaller calves.  Larger framed cattle require more nutrition than they are able to produce in terms of calf weight.  A good rule of thumb is that females should wean off a calf that is about half of their weight.  A 450 to 500lb calf is a reasonable goal for any producer and will translate to more profit per cow in the long run.

4) What is the ideal age for a heifer to have her first calf?

            This question can be affected by location, but for many breeders the ideal age is two years.  Females should be bred for the first time when they have reached 65% of their mature body weight.  If a female is to weigh 1,000lbs at maturity then she should weigh 650lbs at breeding.  If the same heifer weighed 500 lbs at weaning at 6-7mo old, she only needs to gain approximately 0.8lbs/day to reach her target weight of 650 lbs.  It is a long time scientifically proven fact that females that calve at two and rebreed to calve at three are more productive throughout their lifetime.  No matter what you are breeding for in your herd all breeders should be striving for production.

5) Are there any advantages in waiting to breed a heifer?

            If the heifer does not meet the requirements for frame size and weight during the breeding season it would be more advantageous to wait and breed her for the next season than to have calves born out of season.  Also many people believe that longhorns should be bred to calve as three year olds to facilitate horn growth.  I feel that this negates the value of having an early maturing easy calving breed of cattle such as the Longhorn, but that is once again a management decision.  I do acknowledge though that it can be necessary to modify the calving at two guideline to accommodate for regional weather.

6) What is the ideal weight range for a newborn calf?

            Longhorn calves should be relatively small but vigorous.  A good range on heifers is 55-65lbs, and bulls is 65-70 lbs.  Some individuals will of course lie on the extremes but to wean at 450 to 500lbs a heifer that weighs 60 lbs at birth needs to gain 1.9 to 2.1 lbs/day, which is well within the bounds of what a baby calf can gain on good pasture with a good producing mother.

7) Do you think the sire or the dam affects the birth weight more?

            It is a well documented scientific fact that neither the sire nor the dam has a significant genetic impact on birth weight, and it is only a mildly heritable trait.  There is however an impact of dam age on calf birth weight.

8 ) How important is milk production? How do you determine whether a brood cow’s milk production is sufficient? 

Milk production is very important, without milk a cow’s calf would starve.  Females should produce enough milk for their calf so that the calf thrives and can be observed to grow and maintain a good standard of health.  It should be noted that udder size is perhaps the poorest indicator of milk production.

9) When you select a young heifer for your herd, how important is udder development? 

As stated previously a good udder is a must for a female in any productive setting.  Good udder development and strong genetic background are very important.

10) What do you look for in the udder of a mature brood cow?

            As a female has more calves she will of course be expected to loose some udder conformation.   Never the less, all females should have an udder that attaches high in the back and forward in the front.  The udder should not look like a ball between the back legs, but rather it should fill out the flank and the area between the rear legs.  The teats should be small, but proportionate to age.  The quarters should be even and well defined with the teat placed squarely in each quarter.  Extra teats do not bother me as long as they are not large and do not interfere with the calf nursing.  I would also like to see a female with color on her udder to avoid problems with sunburn.  The udder should have some hair for protection, but should not be excessively hairy as this can be an indication of lower fertility. (This holds true except in females in colder northern climates or in those females that have been used in embryo transfer as both of these situations can lead to hairy udders.)

11) In your opinion, are udder defects a result of improper management, genetic imperfection or in some cases a combination of both? 

Udder conformation can be affected by both environmental and genetic factors.  Intensively managed cattle, such as show cattle, tend to deposit fat in the udder which will lead to eventual udder problems in most cases.  A female that has been fed intensively for several years and that develops bad suspension or large teats, but which has paternal sisters and a mother with  good udders most likely has problems due to management.  Udder conformation however, is defiantly an inheritable trait and comes most strongly from the sires side.  Bulls from mothers with bad udders should be evaluated extremely critically before they are kept as herd sires as they will pass on udder defects.

12) How many years should a good brood cow produce? Do you think modern day breeding practices are improving or harming the longevity trait? 

Ideally the longhorn should calve into the early 20’s or the late teens at least.  Traditionally the Longhorn was the longest producing, most fertile breed of cattle in America.  Over the years, however, other breeds of cattle have been doing great things with EPDs and genetic selection for productivity whereby increasing their productive years.  The Longhorn, on the other hand, has been moving in the opposite direction in that our cattle are not living as long nor are they producing as long as they used to.

13) What do you believe is the ideal number of days between calving and rebreeding? 

In order to maintain a 12 mo calving interval a female needs to breed back between 60 and 80 days post-calving.

14) What are your standards for culling? What characteristics in a brood cow are justifications for immediate culling? How does disposition affect a brood cow?

Part a) (Note:  We are a small ranch and while this question does not necessarily apply directly to us the following are guidelines that we follow and recommend to other breeders.) For yearly culling females that no longer meet ranch goals need to be culled to make room for replacements that will advance the genetic goals of their respective ranches.

Part b) Cause for immediate removal from the herd include:  inability to nurse a calf due to enlarged teats, failure to become pregnant under optimal conditions, dangerous dispositions, and fence jumping.  Fence jumping makes it on to the list because if you have good fences that keep the rest of your cattle in the one who leaves may do any of the following: visit the neighbors bull, get hung in a fence, get hit by a car (in some states the livestock owner is responsible for damages), teach other livestock to leave with her and, finally, go missing for good in which case you have lost your investment in her as well as wasted time and resources looking for her.

Part c) In short, life’s too short to deal with dangerous or crazy cattle.  We won’t keep a female that is dangerous or aggressive towards humans and we won’t sell her to a fellow breeder.  Cattle that constantly show the potential to seriously injure someone go straight to the local barn or packer.  Protective mothers are tolerated until the calf is older and wandering off on its own as long as the aggression subsides as the calf ages.

15) How important is femininity to you when you select a heifer for a brood cow? Why is it important, and how is it expressed? 

Females should obviously look like females.  When calves enter puberty, just like any other mammal, they begin to exhibit secondary sex characteristics due to a change in hormone levels.  Females that show a broody appearance, refined heads, udder folds and overall just “look like a girl” will be more productive throughout their lifetime.  You wouldn’t pick a replacement female that looked like a steer would you?  Obviously not.  Females that look more like males generally have hormonal problems resulting in reduced fertility.

16) How important is horn size in selecting a heifer for a brood cow? Do you like for a heifer to show a lot of growth early, or are you satisfied with a cow which gets her horn growth gradually over the years? 

Horn is very important in selecting replacement females.  We are after all breeding Longhorns.  Early horn growth brings a premium in the market place, but as a breeder retaining my own heifers the end result is what is most important to me.  Early growth is nice but the final result is shat matters, especially when you consider that animals with more shape to their horns have a tendency to grow in spurts.

17) What other factors do you consider when selecting a brood cow, and which is most important to you? 

The pedigree is very important to me when looking at replacement females.  If an individual does not have the genetic backing to be a great female they most likely won’t be.  60 and 70 inch horned females don’t come from 50 inch sires and dams.  When I find an animal I like phenotypically, I like to look at her sisters, her mother, her sire’s mother and her sire’s sisters.  When a female has the traits you are looking for, a family that possesses the same traits and the genetic makeup to back it up you are making an investment in a heifer with a future, not taking a chance on a heifer that comes from a long line of illustrious nobodies. 

A good brood cow should raise a good calf, carry a good sound udder, be of medium build, be able to travel well, have good relatives, have an impeccable pedigree and of course have beautiful long twisty horns and a traffic stopping coat.