A productive cow

[cowman]

A couple of years ago I had a little Angus/hereford heifer who never got weaned. She wasn't a keeper but she wasn't all that bad. So she stayed out with her mother all winter and got bred somewhere along the line. The next fall it was very apparent she was in calf and I decided rather than give her away at the mart I'd take a chance on her. She laid down and had a big char bull on Christmas eve...no problems,licked him off, got him up and fed and bedded him down. Well this fall he was almost as big as her and he sold for good money. Last week she had twin hfrs., no problems and calves and mother doing well. Now I would not have kept this cow because I thought she was sort of small and light boned. Best mistake I ever made! I wouldn't recommend this to anyone else but it has made me wonder about how we select our repacements.

[Muttley]

I kinda can relate to your story. I had a pen of heifers for sale last fall, well they all sold but one. In fact I am not so sure I could have given anybody a good enough deal to take her. She was good enough put together, but small. She was a later calf.
By no amount of planning she ended up staying. She calved mid April, weaned a 500 lb. calf off in end of Sept.Is bred back to calve in March. On top of all that the calf was good enough for us to put in our replacement pen for next year. No creep, no special attention. We didn't even notice her much this summer but what a surprise in the fall.