Never had a year like it!

[Rob R]

We've just tagged the first dozen calves from this year and 11 of them are bulls!

So we've got plenty of steers this year, probably enough for 2014 & a lull in 2013.

Anyone else got a skewed sex ratio this year?

[jems5]

so far 11 calved 9 heifers 2 bulls calves would like more bulls as the shed always gets a mess in the winter with the heifers bulling had nearly all heifers last year as well

[SteveM]

Nine so far, six male, three female.

[Jac]

Five calves - three females, two males.

[Broomcroft]

When we first started with our red bull, in our first year every female calf was red and every male was black, right until the end of calving. I began to think it was genetic! But then at the end we had just one black female, which spoiled the run. That was something like 15 calves in total.

And this year we've had about 80% females, of course we are not keeping females back for replacements this year for a change, so ideally we wanted all males for beef

[domsmith]

Amazing, i was just going to start a thread like this.

Calving just taking off lots coming, and from the first 14 12 heifers!! was looking for maybe 5 replacements but then i need bulls!
Mainly Dangus by the way.

All big healthy calves, just one that gave me the flutters. a 20 month old heifer that shouldnt have calved til the summer must have sneaked the bull and produced an angus. needed a gentle pull but was fine.
Had 1 with hypothermia in the spring driving rain. have another with big teats that the stupid thing cant get to grips with sooking. brought her and calf in and immediately my pet calf spotted a free meal and helped herself whilst i struggled to get the proper calf feeding... air blue temper lost
plus we have feilds full of orange coated lambs huddled behind walls

a reminder of the joys of life.

dominic

[Broomcroft]

Ours are all Dangus as well this year, except we've just had our first three Dexus calves last month. Interestingly, they didn't calve much easier than a Dangus.

[domsmith]

Ours are all Dangus as well this year, except we've just had our first three Dexus calves last month. Interestingly, they didn't calve much easier than a Dangus.

go on Clive enlighten me, what is a Dexus, and how did they calf?

dom

[Broomcroft]

I wondered who would ask . Sounds like a Japanese car. I put my Dexter bull back to my Dangus heifers and I call the 3/4 Dexters, Dexus. I've only had three but very different, so I don't call them Dangus. The calves were a bit smaller but didn't calve as easily as I thought they might, maybe because the Dangus heifers are heftier/thicker set than my Dexter cows. But as I say, I've only done three so doesn't mean much really.

[domsmith]

When you say dont calve as easy? is it needing a pull struggling to get them out themselves?

What do you plan to do with your Dexus?

dom

[Broomcroft]

Well the first one was backwards and took a long time. It had us confused because it was backwards and almost upside down so we thought it was forwards till I went inside and found a tail. Then we pulled it out fairly easily, with ropes but just for grip.

Next two were born normally, just a bit of help because they were heifers but certainly not just slipping out.

Apart from the one backwards, none were a problem. It's just that I expected them to pop out very easily because my current Dexter bull is small and very easy calving, even for a Dexter.

I won't be keeping the Dexus because two out of the three have lost the length the Dangus got from the AA, which was a lot of the reason for crossing in the first place. Could be just my particular bulls of course, might be different for someone else.

[domsmith]

Happy days had a bull this morning!!

d