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What it takes to be an SRS donor
We have been utilizing embryo transfer for many
years to increase the numbers and quality of cattle for
our customers. So what do we look for in a donor?
There is a long list of hurdles that she must first get
over. First, we pick older proven females; we would
like to have at least four to five calves out of a cow
before we start flushing her. This gives us the ability to
make sure she has the performance and predictability
that is essential. We typically will pick females that
have high ratios on all of those calves, but we will use
some cattle that are closer to a hundred, if they have
consistently raised light birth weight calves.
Obviously, the next thing is phenotype; at Skinner
Ranch we have a very specific phenotype that we
look for and that cow simply has to fit that “mold”.
We don’t care what breeding, or breed she is; we
are looking for a long cow with thickness, fleshing
ability, good feet, and a good disposition. We also
are very critical on udders. We select females that
have balanced udders with flat bottoms, good teat
placement, and small teats. Overall, we want to pick
out females and build cattle with balance, we will not
sacrifice udder quality for a high IMF ratio, or give
up good feet for performance. We will always breed
sound, functional cattle that are labor efficient so that
our genetics work for you and you don’t work for
them.
The idea is to proliferate top cattle; by making sure
we use cattle with many of the aforementioned traits,
therefore we don’t have to worry about culling out a
bunch of cattle for bad udders, or bad feet down the
road. This gives you confidence that these bulls will
work for you. Not every mating goes as planned;
you still have to pick out sires that you believe
will enhance and continue these traits. We spend
countless hours on the road and researching different
herd sire potentials, we like to see bulls’ mothers, their
offspring and how they are doing in different herds
across the northwest. We talk to different breeders,
breed representatives, and people that see different
herds on a regular basis to get an idea of what cattle
may fit our “mold.”
Donors in our program are both raised and bought.
The cows we buy are cows with proven production
in another herd. They are then brought here to prove
themselves in our program. Our experience with
these hand-picked, proven cows is that a little under
50% will actually make our donor program.
Flushing a young unproven female with big EPDs
without proving herself and her production is not
sound genetic planning. Any person with a calculator
and computer can breed for numbers. We select and
breed for balanced, functional cattle that work in the
“real world”. “Real world” cattle must be able to climb
a mountain and travel lots of miles for forage, while
bringing home a big calf and breeding back.
This is our passion and while it can be extremely
frustrating it can also be very rewarding when you
can put a top set of cattle together for the sale and
feel good about offering them to the public. You can
expect us to continue to seek out genetics that will
move us forward and keep on the forefront of the
industry so that you can buy cattle here that will move
you forward with confidence.
S
SR
Seedstock
Skinner
ranch
