The Heart of the Herd – The Females If you have gone through and read the footnotes, you will notice that nearly every bull’s dam gets some mention. That’s because we truly love and value our females! Over the years, we have spent a lot of time, energy, and money, selecting the females that will continue to improve our herd. Always keeping our environment and end goals in mind, we have focused on breeding for moderate sized, efficient, and structurally sound cows. All the while, we have focused on improving their performance and carcass values, which they will pass on to their calves. To do all of this, we have been very strategic with our bull selection and mating, while at the same time gathering and reporting all data. One example is ultra-sounding our yearling heifers, along with the bull calves, which we have been doing for over 20 years. Just like our Registered herd, our Commercial females undergo the same scrutiny. Our cows are expected to cover the country and breed back each year in a timely manner. They have got to be good, moderate-sized mamas with udders and teats that hold up over time, and they must raise calves that will generate money for us. As a result of our efforts, the quality of our heifer calves continues to improve. Each Fall after weaning, our normal routine is to evaluate and sort our heifer calves into 3 basic groups – Keepers, Sale replacement heifers and market calves. Twenty years ago, this was a “bottom heavy” split, with us usually only keeping the top 20-25 head and selling the rest at the Sale barn, for replacements or feeders. However, times have changed and so has our herd. We are getting “top-heavy” with more and more quality heifers. So, each year we offer our customers a chance to choose from several pens of heifers as part of our Bull Sale. This year, we will continue to have 2 pens of 5 heifers, but we are adding something a little different - offering the pick of our three NWSS Balancer Pen of Heifers. If you need more replacement females, let us know. We will still have 25-30 to choose from.
Dams of Dominance Wilkinson Gelbvieh is #1 in Colorado - AGAIN
Each year the AGA recognizes the top-performing Gelbvieh and Balancer females and their breeders/owners through the Dam of Merit and the Dam of Distinction Program. Both programs recognize the cows that excel at what Gelbvieh and Balancer cows are known for – fertility, production and stayability. The Dam of Merit program is an elite group, with only 5.32% of the cows qualifying, but the Dam of Distinction is even more special – only 1% of active cows are able to meet this criteria, as it involves EIGHT years of production records. For 2025, Wilkinson Gelbvieh was the #1 Owner of Dams of Dominance in Colorado, with 36 total – 32 Dams of Merit and 4 Dams of Distinction, and they were 11th in the Nation for BOTH owners and breeders. Considering the arid and brittle environment of SE Colorado, that is a true testament to the Gelbvieh cow.
3
Focusing on Function - in the Pastures, in the Feedlot and on the Rail
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online