Reference Library

Herd Sire Selection From My Point of View
Six Successful Texas Longhorn Breeders Tell What They Look For
When Selecting a Herd Sire For Their Breeding Program

BOB MOORE. Gainesville, Texas.

Mr. Moore has been involved with Texas Longhorn cattle since 1978 and was named TLBAA Breeder of the Year in 1990. He purchased his first herd sire, WR Trails, and since that time has produced his own herd sires through his breeding program. This program has produced many Grand Champion Bulls, including the 1994 World Grand Champion Bull Storm Warning, and the 1995 TLBAA Hall of Fame Champion Bul4 Murphy's Law, as well as Johnnie Reb, Last Call and Rambling Man.

There are herd sires and then there are herd sires. Picking the right herd sire is one of the most important things you can do. After all, he's half your herd. and a good bull should out-produce himself.

Before you look at any herd sire, you must have a plan of where you want to go with your herd. Look at your herd and decide what you want to improve. I try to get the right "nick" for what I want.

If I am considering a young hull, I look for/or at progeny of the dam. This gives me an idea of what he will be like. If he is an older bull, I want to see what he has produced and the cows that he bred. It's always been my belief that a good bull should out produce himself.

Size is important. I like a mature bull that weighs around 1600-1700 lbs. This insures that I can breed him to my heifers without harm. Disposition is also important to me. I observe not only the bull's temperament hut also look for good temperament in the bull's family. I like my bulls to produce horns that complement the body, have pleasing colors, and a gentle disposition. When I find a bull with these qualities, whatever his cost, I know he'll make money for me. As I said before, he's half my herd.

Once you find the right bull, remember that the maintenance of that bull is very important. He is like an athlete. He needs to winter in good condition so when the breeding season starts, he's ready to go.

BOB FERGUSON, Manager of Sutton Ranches, Central Point, Oregon

Mr. Ferguson has worked with Texas Longhorn cattle since 1983. During that time, he managed several well known ranches, including that of Betty Lamb's, where he was able to learn much about selecting good cattle. Since joining Sutton Ranches in 1993, Bob has been utilizing Phenomenon as his senior herd sire, and a Measles Super Ranger son, Rough 'N Rowdy as his junior herd sire.

My first priority in choosing a calf I think will make a registered herd sire is the mother of this calf. She must, without any exceptions, be a good Texas Longhorn momma cow. She must have produced a sufficient number of excellent calves to prove her value. She must be functionally efficient in every way - in fertility milking ability, size and conformation, and adequate horn growth for her age. Her pedigree should contain sires, dams, grandsires and grandams that have produced excellent and well-known progeny.

I hardly ever choose a registered herd sire prospect out of a first calf heifer. That is not to imply that it cannot or has not been done. Out of the 20-30 bull calves horn each year, I will choose about five or six for registered herd sire prospects. The rest will sell as commercial bulls or as roping steers. If I choose my prospects from cows that have consistently produced excellent calves, then my chances are a lot better because I know what I can expect. I would choose a prospect out of a first-calf heifer if she had an impeccable pedigree, bred early in the breeding season, did an excellent job of milking and raising her calf and bred back early. But, I will give an older cow priority over a first-calf heifer.

My advice to anyone purchasing a herd sire prospect is to look at the mother. Ask for production records. Look at other siblings if possible. Every dam of a Texas Longhorn herd sire must excel in every category. There are no exceptions.

There is no way to effectively judge a cow or bull, in terms of production, until they have produced sufficient numbers of calves to evaluate. I choose a herd sire prospect that is sired by a bull that is well known (in pedigree and production) and has sired a sufficient number of calves to evaluate their performance. We have as our main herd sire, a bull that is sired by one of the most popular and well respected Texas Longhorn herd sires. His dam is a very well known and appreciated WR cow. He has numerous siblings in all phases of production-herd sires, embryo transfer donors, foundation cows, and show cattle. I have and will continue to choose herd sire prospects from this bull. On the other hand, we have a young herd sire that is similar in pedigree and popularity. This bull has only sired one calf crop with a total of 12 calves. Although he was bred to cows with the criteria to produce herd sires, I would not choose a herd sire prospect from this calf crop. I will wait until I have a sufficient number of calves from this herd sire to evaluate his ability to consistently produce excellent calves.

I believe that a lot of breeders make the mistake of thinking that every bull calf born out of good parents will make a registered herd sire. There are a lot of other things to consider when choosing a prospective herd sire.

Color is very important to me in choosing a herd sire prospect. (Please pay close attention. I do not want to he misunderstood on this color issue.) I believe that Texas Longhorn cattle can be any color they want to be. Color has nothing to do with an animal's ability to perform. Exceptions would be in extremely harsh environmental conditions where skin and coat color might prevent sunburn or intolerance to heat. In our business today, there is a lot of prejudice against white cattle. For this reason, and this reason only, I choose my herd sire prospects that have a lot of color. I want an animal that I can sell to a market with the most buyers. If I should decide to keep and use this hull myself, I want a bull I can sell calves and semen out of. So, for these reasons, color is important to me in choosing a herd sire prospect.

Disposition is a very important trait that I look for. Ninety-nine percent of the time, if the mother cow has a good disposition, so will the calf. I won't even consider a calf for a herd sire if he is constantly bouncing off the fence and trying to crawl under the gate every time he is in the pens. Besides that, he or his mother won't stay long with that kind of attitude. Texas Longhorn bulls ale not to be feared, but, respected. They are big, long horned and powerful animals, and they need to have a good disposition. Disposition is bred into an animal and is a very important trait when choosing a herd sire prospect.

Masculine traits are very important. I want a bull calf that looks like a bull calf and acts like a bull calf. I want to look in his face and know I am looking at a bull. As I observe him out in the pasture, I want to see him following after cows that are in heat. I want to see him butting heads with other calves and generally acting like a young boy. It's just like watching boys grow up. They are rolling around, getting dirty, acting tough and chasing girls even though at the time they wouldn't know what to do if they caught one. These are early masculine traits that can he observed and noted at an early age.

A good disposition, masculine traits, a good sire and dam are things you would want in a herd sire prospect of any breed. When I look for a Texas Longhorn herd sire prospect, I look for the traits that made our cattle what they are. An overall view of this calf would show me a clean underline with a tight sheath and navel. The testicular development would be normal and adequate with both testicles down and of equal size. A straight top line, adequate length, moderately broad hips, but not overly muscled, small to medium ears and showing good horn growth for his age. I want to see a calf that is healthy and his general appearance is attractive.

From conception to birth and from weaning to yearling, I have a herd sire prospect. Somewhere along the way, I have to make a decision. Do I have a hull that represents the Texas Longhorn breed of cattle and can he pass on the traditional traits to future generations?

I am very critical when it comes to choosing herd sire prospects. As I travel around to shows, sales and breeder's ranches, I see bulls that ought to be in commercial herds or in somebody's hamburger. A herd sire is the least expensive, but most important investment you can make. Anytime you breed undesirable traits you are multiplying those bad traits many times over and polluting future generations. One year of breeding can take several years to correct.

Using these guidelines, I will have chosen my herd sire prospects. T will closely observe him through weaning and on to breeding age. He will be weighed at weaning and at yearling age. His horn measurements will be taken and recorded. At breeding age he will he bred to a good set of heifers, and his production record will have begun. Hopefully, I have made the right choices, and I will have a great Texas Longhorn herd sire.

JOHNNIE HOFFMAN Seven T Ranch, Metairie, Louisiana

A Texas Longhorn breeder for almost twenty years, Mr. Hoffman has developed several notable herd sires in that time, including Dixie Ruler and Emperor. In 1993, he was named TLBAA Breeder of the Year and he received the TLBAA Elmer Parker Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.

A good bull can make or break you. Before I even start to look at bulls, I spend some time in the pasture looking over my cow herd. I want to find the traits I want to preserve and complement. I think about the improvements I need to make in my brood cows.

That brings me to genetics and eye appeal. I have crossed on all the Longhorn families. I feel each family has important and unique features, just as people have different qualities. These qualities are what I strive to combine in an individual mating. Sometimes I get what I'm looking for; other times I have to try again. I haven't always been successful, but I never give up. Somewhere out there is a bull that will improve my herd. I'm always looking for tomorrow.

I look at other breeders' efforts. When I see something I like and think will work on the blood in my herd, I start looking for the herd sires. When I find the bloodline, I think will improve my herd, I then look for the individual hull.

My advice to breeders is always get the best genetics you can afford. If you have to, buy semen and artificially inseminate. By using the best genetics on your best cows, you can then raise your own. If you have several hulls to pick from, think about pedigree, size, color, conformation and horns. Ask yourself if his family keeps the traits you are looking for. An important trait to me is temperament.

I've used several bulls that I bought or raised, for different reasons. I started with Texas Freckles for conformation. He was the best I could afford. Then I felt I needed more horn and began to look at Butler bulls. I then used Monarch, Dode's Classic and Dixie Hunter. These were the bulls that produced the quickest horn growth on my cows. The females were very feminine, good milkers and had lots of horn. I then needed more size and also wanted to keep the horns. I chose Dixie Ruler (Doherty 698 and Butler breeding) and he did what I wanted to do. He gave me size, horn and conformation, but he was a rambler, so I had to change. After looking for two years, I found Emperor. He has done more for my herd, keeping the size and horns I wanted. I have some 60" females at four years old, weighing 1000 pounds plus. I'm back looking for a sire that I feel is as good as they are. I want to move to the next level, and I'm working on that now.

The comments above are what has worked for me. Don't let this change what you are doing because you may have a better way.

STEVE HANCOCK, Ranch Manager; Creek Plantation, Martin, South Carolina

A long-time cattleman, Steve Hancock has been managing Creek Plantation '5 unique breeding program for eight years. Creek maintains herd sires from each bloodline in their program, including WR 1218 (WR); Dos Rio Yates 112/89 (Yates); Black Draught (Wright) and now Butler breeding. Several of their herd sires now have the CP in front of their name.

Our herd sire selection at Creek Plantation gets fairly complicated due to the fact that we are maintaining straight family lines. Where most producers have the luxury of purchasing bulls most anywhere they choose or using artificial insemination, we are faced with a very narrow field of choice. With a very limited number of breeders doing any preservation of the old family lines, we are nearly forced to breed our own herd sires.

We have strict criteria for the bulls we use in each of the four families, many of which relate to trying to maintain enough genetic diversity in a small gene pool so that we don't get too much inbreeding. This is a problem that is somewhat unique to our program, so I won't dwell on it other than to note it.

When looking at a bull or a prospective sire, we pay very heavy attention to the phenotype and pedigree of the bull's dam. We put a lot of weight on conformation, color and milk production. We feel that the dam is especially important since she not only provides one-half of the genetics of the calf, but through milk production is partly responsible for the environment in which the calf survives and grows up. Since we can't study milk production and udder conformation on a bull, we look to his dam and grandam for the kind of features we want passed to our future generations of females.

We also place a lot of emphasis on early horn development in the hull to be considered as well as the horn development and dimension of his sire and dam. I use the word 'dimension" rather than "length" because we feel there is more to horns than tip-to-tip measurement.

The hardest and most important test we use to select a major sire is using the bull on a limited number of selected females as a yearling. This set of females would consist of mostly heifers that are out of our top end cows plus a few core mature cows.

After doing all this comes the slow and painful process of watching the resulting calves develop to two-year-olds. If the calves are good enough, the sire will get another chance. If not, he gets a ride to town!

Although we have a relatively large herd of females, there are only a few we deem good enough to raise a herd sire. To be in this group, a cow must have 50+ inches of horn, excellent color and conformation, near perfect udder conformation and must possess a tractable disposition.

GREG BRINEY. Cattle Operations Manager El Coyote Ranch, Kin gsville, Texas.

Mr. Briney has been involved with Texas Longhorns since he was a teen. A TLBT alumnus, Greg managed several prominent Longhorn herds before joining El Coyote in 1991. Because of the great number of cows at El Coyote, the ranch maintains a large herd bull battery including Doherty's Cowcatcher Bonham, Vision Quest and interests in Phenomenon, Emperor and Tri-W Copenhagen.

Herd sire selection is probably the most important decision you are faced with in developing a quality breeding program. You must first understand and accept the fact that there is no perfect hull. All hulls have their strengths and weaknesses. The Texas Longhorn industry does not yet have the benefit of EPDs (Expected Progeny Difference). Therefore, sire selection requires more reliance on your evaluation of the animal's various traits, measurements and statistics to achieve your goals and objectives.

Because there is not one ideal bull for every use, you, as a breeder, must establish the direction and goals you are trying to attain in your breeding program. Consequently, selection criteria for bulls will be significantly different between breeders. This depends on their geographical location, marketing target and deficiencies in their cow herds that require improvement. Approximately 90% of the genetic improvement in a typical cattle operation is due to sire selection. Therefore, the most desirable herd sire is the one who genetically produces offspring to correct the largest faults within your cow herd.

Genetics are the primary necessities for all Great Herd Sires. A great bull has to have an outstanding sire and dam! In fact, a great herd sire in today's Longhorn industry must have a stacked pedigree with well known, high quality individuals, thus reducing the number of genetic unknowns. This will also reduce the number of genetic "throw backs" that are undesirable in your breeding objectives. Nervous, ill tempered disposition cattle and bloodlines should not be tolerated.

The reputation and management program of the breeder is an important consideration not to be overlooked when searching for your next herd sire or herd sire prospect. Guessing or estimating weights, horn length and even age is simply not acceptable to serious cattlemen. Breeders with adequate and accurate herd data and statistics will be taken much more seriously by other cattlemen.

Young herd sire prospects must possess adequate horn and a desirable color. In addition, they should weight about 500 pounds at weaning (205 days) and 900 to 1000 pounds as a yearling. Essentially, young herd sire prospects are a gamble. You are merely selecting prospective genetics. Therefore, pedigrees must be closely evaluated on these young hulls. Remember, ALL great herd sires have a great mother!

Evaluation of mature, proven herd sires is somewhat different. You are selecting an individual to correct your existing deficiencies within your herd. This can be difficult because many times the solution is actually a multi-generation answer. In other words, to truly correct your cow herd's weaknesses, it may be easier to do it in stages with herd sires specifically selected for that particular stage. Therefore, you must have a vision or idea of where you want your herd to he in five to ten years.

W.O. MARQUESS, Circle K Ranch, Ben Wheeler Texas

A Texas Longhorn breeder for over a decade, Mr. Marquess maintains an intensive A.L and Embryo Transfer pro gram. He has purchased some of his bulls, such as the two times World Champion Country Liberator, and bred his own, including Circle K Donovan. Mr. Marquess was named TLBAA Breeder of the Year in 1995.

Selection of herd sires to become parents of future offspring is one of the most important steps in developing a successful Texas Longhorn program. Obviously, any bull's principal role is to get a high percentage of females assigned to him pregnant during the breeding season. His offspring should also be vigorous at birth and grow out to become useful, productive calves. But while both of these objectives are important to the success of your program, the necessity for these calves, his offspring, to he marketable and in demand by other Texas Longhorn breeders is essential to the financial success and future development of your program. In addition, his daughters must be sound, functional herd replacements and his sons which are utilized as herd sires must carry his influence and generate herd improvement.

Your herd bull should be considered the "cornerstone of the program". Through his influence and marketability of his offspring, potential customers will desire to view your program and purchase his influence to be used in their herds. The herd sire serves as the herd identity. Texas Longhorn breeders will view your overall program in the same light as they view your herd sire.

Knowing what is expected from bulls in your program is the first step in identifying bulls that should he selected as potential herd sires. A sense of direction or purpose must be established for your operation, and herd sire selection should be directed toward those potential herd sires that should produce offspring that will accomplish your desired breeding objective. Ranch direction or purpose should be directed toward present and future markets.

Clearly, the traits of economic importance and traits that should be used as selection criteria for a potential herd sire must be directed toward those traits that create value within the breed as well as correct any weaknesses of the cowherd to make their offspring more marketable and in demand by potential customers within the Texas Longhorn industry, then the information required for selecting and evaluating the traits that create value within the breed is precise knowledge of what most breeders desire and what they are willing to pay money for. After all, we must satisfy our customer before we can reap financial benefit.

The only real way a breeder can improve the value of his/her herd is by selecting the animals to become parents. Selecting bulls to sire the next generation of offspring is the most important step in building value. The important thing to remember, when buying a herd sire or selecting one from within the herd, is what is really being sought is breeding value-the value of the bull as a parent. It is mandatory that the sires selected for future use within a program excel in the traits that are most important to the particular ranch objective or marketing strategy.

I. Pedigree. Is the pedigree marketable? Are other Texas Longhorn breeders desiring to own animals with this genetic base? The pedigree is most important because there must be demand by other breeders for this genetic material. In order to correct weaknesses and build upon the strengths of your cow herd, your herd sire must be genetically strong in those traits that are important to your program.

II. Overall Ouality. Overall quality is a combination of functionality, conformation, structural correctness, breed character and merchandiseability. This is a very difficult term to explain, but simply put,. "Do you perceive this animal as a breed improver?" Before you can merchandise effectively, you must have something worth marketing.. .A QUALITY PRODUCT.. .a product that other Texas Longhorn breeders desire to own and for which they are willing to pay top dollar!

III. Functional Efficiency. Bulls should be masculine and rugged in their appearance, prominent in their masculinity and possess desirable shape and adequate circumference to the scrotum for his age.

IV. Conformation. This refers to the general combination of growth, muscling, capacity and volume of the animal. The production of superior seed stock that can ultimately be used to improve the general cattle population should be the goal of every Texas Longhorn breeders.

V. Breed Character, Horn Development and Color: (A) Breed Character. Breed character is a very subjective trait and may be viewed differently by breeders of Texas Longhorn cattle. The importance of breed character in the evaluation of any breed of cattle should be apparent to any purebred cattle breeder. The purity and integrity of the breed is paramount. Texas Longhorns should look like Texas Longhorns. (B). Horns. The horn development of Texas Longhorn cattle make this breed unique to the other breeds of beef cattle. The heritage and significance of horns in Texas Longhorns requires that considerable emphasis be placed upon this trait when evaluating Texas Longhorn cattle. Selection for horn length along with other economically important traits to the beef cattle industry is a satisfactory ranch objective. (C) Color. As the Breed Guidelines suggest, there are colors more varied than those of a rainbow. Different breeders have their own preference. The importance of color to the marketability of Texas Longhorn cattle is well understood.

My primary objective in breeding and selecting Texas Longhorn cattle for today's market has been to select those cattle that possess functionality, performance and conformation while maintaining acceptable Texas Longhorn breed character, adequate horn development and color to he marketable and in demand by other purebred Texas Longhorn breeders. Stated in a simpler fashion, Superior Texas Longhorn cattle with greater market value and in demand by other Texas Longhorn breeders."