Showcattle.com Forum · General

The ability to breed 30-day old heifers back immediately after flushing them has been changed.

Great....More Rules

Nope, not a new rule. He just fixed a loophole.

Correct, it's not a rule that can be violated.

It's something that shouldn't have been possible in the first place.

Alright So this is no longer usable then?

Depends on what you mean by "no longer usable".

Like so after you breed and flush a 30 day old you can't breed it again that day?

That's exactly what it say's...

So no more 38 day old heifers with 500 calves? Darn

Thanks Jeff that will give everyone else a chance to become a better ranch

how do you people even figure out that these things are possible? re-breeding an animal immediately after flushing is so impractical, much less impossible, I never wouldve thought to try it

I am getting lots of email messages asking how losing the 30 day glitch is going to impact Rex Ranch. So, let me address a couple of things about this great adjustment/fix to the simulation:

1) The admin has been telling us that he would eventually fix this glitch since it first appeared. It began when the simulation stressed that all 30 day open females would be in estrus. I've watched every cycle for a few years thinking this might be the last time to super-duper-ovulate 30 day old heifers. The fix of this glitch was expected and announced.

2) The first impact that this will have on Rex Ranch is that I learned from former member 3xDB that you didn't have to worry much about structure if you were creating a bunch of calves from the same mating. I modeled some of my breeding choices after a real world operation in Montana that uses extreme EPD and carcass animals that have dreadful structure. They cross them with exceptional structured animals and produce many many calves to get a few that combine one parent's structure with the other parent's performance. The strategy worked great for them and it has worked great for me. In every flush involving structurally flawed parents, I've produced a few that were extremely close to perfect. It is true that there can be more deviation in the next generation due to the poor structured grand-parents. But, this hasn't been much of a problem for Rex Ranch as evident by the generations of show cattle with great structure that Rex Ranch has produced as well as Rex Ranch customers. Fixing the glitch means that structure is more important in breeding cattle than it was before if only because there will be less calves and less likelihood of producing great structure from structurally flawed parents.

3) My goal has always been to share Rex Ranch genetics through semen, embryos, pregnancies, show cattle, herd sires, and donor females. With the glitch in place, I was able to replace my donors every time they turned 37 days old. With herd sires it took more like 60 days. Without the 30 day glitch, I will still share the genetics. But, it is probably going to take more like 60 days for both donors and bulls. One advantage that this new method will have is that in the past I couldn't use 30 day old sires on 30 day old females. Now, I will be able to use 32 day old sires on 32 day old females. As a result I can better utilize my young sires without having to wait for the next generation of donors to mature.

4) Another adjustment that I will be able to make is that Rex Ranch will probably (eventually) be able to return to the show circuit as more of a focus. Over the last seven or eight months I have been very satisfied to produce show champions that someone else showed and I only worried about the Rex Ranch breeding program. Now, I will probably set aside a portion of my 150 AU's for show entered animals.

5) I have always been well aware that success in the simulation and in the real world cattle business requires diversity among breeding programs and in the success of multiple partners within a breed. Fixing the 30 day glitch will increase the parity of all of the Angus and Red Angus ranches. But, that isn't a problem for me because I always wanted to see a dozen or more ranches competitively showing their bred and owned animals, winning classes, and championships. I like to see Rex Ranch cattle win championships. But, I really like to see Doyle Farms, Stout, 3T, Kidron, Iowa Gertrudis, Zac, Zeek, Jacobs, FF, Money, and others win championships also.

6) Cam Cattle is my son. Calloway Cattle is my daughter. My son likes to win in the shows. My daughter likes for them to be as close to perfect structure as possible regardless of anything else; but, she likes to win too. Sometimes they are interested in showcattle.com and sometimes they are working on other things. They have learned volumes about life and the cattle business through showcattle.com. Their mother and I are very thankful for the tool of showcattle.com to teach them valuable lessons. My son in particular makes all of his own choices about his herd and he is pretty head strong about it. My daughter is a bit more impressionable, except when it comes to a discussion about conformation. In that case she won't budge. The 30 day glitch will only affect them in that Rex Ranch will have less animals available to sell to everybody.

7) Showcattle.com is an excellent tool for learning many many lessons. I hope you do great with your breeding program and have as much enjoyment, education, and entertainment as I have with the excellent experience of studying beef cattle through the simulation the admin has graciously made available to the public...for a fair price.

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Last edited by Rex Ranch on 1/13/2015 10:04:34 AM

Your names not on it cause you weren't logged in when you commented on the post

Ha. That's the trouble with being long winded!

#lancearmstrongspeech