Sale Season

September marks the start of some of the most exciting times of the year.  You have college and NFL football starting, the temperature starts to drop to sweatshirt weather, and sale and show season is in full swing.  My favorite time of the year is when you go to the mailbox and there is a shiny sale catalog waiting on you.  It's always exciting to see the new calves from the sires that you have been watching and see what has been clicking with different females.

September also marks the start of weaning for many cattle farmers around the country.  For us weaning started a couple months ago in July thanks to #drought12.  Well we finally have everything weaned and started on feed and the calves are progressing very well.  We have many nice heifers that will be available this year.  There are some really nice Airline and T-Bone daughters that would make nice additions to any herd.  The bull crop was strong as well and I am extremely excited about a Purple Tonic 10M bull calf that we have.  He is out of a first calf TLR Dom heifer that did a fantastic job of raising him.  There is also a nice TH 122 71I Victor 719T bull calf and some cool Airline bull calves as well.

The calves will be ready to look at and take home after Sept. 16 and we look forward to showing everyone the calves.  Be sure to follow us on Twitter @amcherefords for picture updates on the calf crop.  We already have one up of the Tonic bull after he found the mud the other day.  If you want to set up an appointment to view the calves I can be reached by email @ cosgraypolledherefords@gmail.com or by phone @ 765.490.6286. 

Alex

Fair Season

Fair season is here for most of us in Indiana.  This year we have calves in Carroll, White, and Greene county.  It has been a success so far with a Champion banner at Carroll county and a reserve champion banner at Greene county with White county left to show tomorrow.  The kids really have the calves tuned in and looking the part.  It's a great sight to see all the hard work paying off for them.

With fair week, comes rain and it couldn't have come at a better time.  The pastures were torched, the corn was dead, and the beans were heading in that direction as well.  Since fair weeks have started two weeks ago we have received a much needed 3.5" at the home farm with it all coming in a nice 1"-1.5" rains.  It has really perked up the beans, the hay ground, and the cows can actually graze for the first time since April!  We are praying that the rains keep coming to stretch our hay crop and salvage the pastures so we won't have to liquidate as many.

After county fair we have a couple weeks to regroup and then its State Fair time.  This year we are taking our herd bull, AA HRD Chuckwagon 0138, back to the State Fair.  You are definately going to want to check him out if you will be at the state fair this year.  We pulled him from the pasture right after Junior Nationals and have been amazed at his fleshing ability.  He was with cows from April 29- the middle of July and I think he gained weight even without pasture available!  We are extremely excited for the show season to see what he will do.  We will have semen available for pickup at the State Fair on Chuckwagon, so give me a call or shoot me an e-mail and we can get you hooked up!

I hope everyone is having a great summer and wish everyone an amazing fair season! 

Alex

Spring Update, Summer Outlook

It has been a crazy and odd start to the summer around here.  We got in the fields extremely early compared to last year and have been extremely dry.  What a difference a year makes!  Last year I was writing about how wet we were and now we can't buy rain!  It really has only affected the hay and the pasture ground for us so far.  We have yielded about half the hay that we normally do with 60 more acres to cut for the first cutting.  The early heat coupled with the later frost really nipped the hay and forced a lot of guys around here to mow the wheat for hay.  Also with the pasture pretty much being nonexistant we have been forced to feed more hay than we would like to.
That being said the cows and calves are looking great in spite of the pasture!  The calves are hitting the creep and the cows are getting bred.  It is an awesome time of the year for predicting matings and invisioning how they will turn out in the coming months.  I am extremely excited about the opportunities for marketing the calves this fall.  We have a knockout Bismarck 243R heifer that will sure turn some heads as well as some great looking Airline and T-Bone heifers.  Also their is an April Lock-N-Load heifer that will garner a lot of attention this fall.  We still have roughly 20 more to calve and some exciting matings yet to come that have got me excited.  The calves will be marketed privately this fall and we will also be consigning a heifer to the Hoosier Beef Congress sale again this December.  Calves will be available for viewing after the 1st of August and I will try and snap some pictures in the pasture as the summer goes on.
Until next time!

Alex

Spring Update

It has been an exciting spring for us at Cosgray Polled Herefords. We have 50 calves roaming the pasture and they are looking really good. The Airline calves are stout hipped, wide topped, with a lot of bone. The T-Bone calves are all cherry red, with a lot of bone and thickness. Our A.I. Sired calves all look great and we will have plenty to offer this fall no matter what you're in the market for. It is also breeding season and we are in full force synching up cows and getting everything A.I.'d. We will have some great matings for next year as well as many new E.T. matings to hit the ground next year. Since I last posted we have acquired a new herd sire. He comes from Topp Herefords and is a TH 223 71I Victor 755T son that we have named TH 25P 755T Alcatraz 46Y. We are expecting big things from him and should have semen available in June. We feel he will be a moderate birth, high growth bull that will excel in making great females. We will also be breeding a lot of cows to AA HRD Chuckwagon 0138, the 2012 Division Champion at Ft. Worth. Chuck is a moderate framed meat wagon of a bull that we feel will moderate frame and birth, add depth, dimension, and thickness. He is by far the easiest fleshing bull we have ever seen and gains on minimal inputs. Ask us about semen options on this exciting bull. We will be marketing the calves in a variety of venues this fall and I encourage everyone to come on out and walk the pastures and check everything over. This is the most balanced set of calves we have had and we have roughly 50 more to calve. Give me a call if you are ever in the area or simply want to talk cattle! Until next time. Alex

Calving Season

Calving season is in full swing at Cosgray Polled Herefords. We have 35 calves on the ground from many different sires and they are growing like weeds. The Airline calves are cut from the same cloth. Big hipped, big boned, with a cherry red color. We are expecting some ET calves any day now from Nelson Land and Cattle and we couldn't be more excited. They are 719T's out of two of their most consistent donor cows, 33N and K077. For all calving updates you can find us at Twitter @amcherefords and on Facebook at Cosgray Polled Herefords. I will try and update the blog more often with pictures added!

Alex

Thank You!

A big thank you goes out to the Dave Wolfe family for their recent purchase of 3 show heifers and 3 bred cows.  We can't wait to see how the show heifers develop and show this summer!  Thank you for the repeat business and for the continued confidence in the Cosgray program!

Thank You!

We would like to thank John Murdock and Family of Rocking M Farms for their recent purchase of 5 bred heifers.  We look forward to hearing how they turn out for them!  Thanks for the confidence in our program!