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!

Happy New Year!

Cosgray Polled Herefords wants to wish all of our friends and customers a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2012!  We have had a great year at Cosgray Polled Herefords and can't wait to see what opportunities arise in 2012. 

We have quite a few exciting matings expected in the coming weeks and the anticipation is growing.  We will start calving in the next week or so and won't finish up until early this fall.  We are expecting calves from our herd sires AA LF Airline 849 ET and AA LF T-Bone 9132 as well as many popular A.I. sires such as Star TCF Shock & Awe 158W ET, Harvie Tailor Made ET 7W, LCC Back N Time ET, and H Easy Deal 609 ET to name a few.  We will also be having the first calves from our popular bull AA HRD Chuckwagon 0138 hitting the ground this spring.  Be on the look out for updates and photos of the calves!

Cosgray Polled Herefords will be kicking the 2012 show season off at Fort Worth.  With the help of B2 Custom Fitting, we are taking our partner bull with Able Acres, AA HRD Chuckwagon 0138 and a yearling heifer to show.  Nick has them dialed in and looking great and it will be exciting to see how they do down south.  Be sure to check them out while you are down there. 

For updates on our calving season and show season be sure to friend us at Facebook!

Alex

Thank You!

We would like to thank John Murdock and Family of Rocking M Farms for purchasing our consignment to the Hoosier Beef Congress sale.  She will be in good hands with John and his family and we look forward to seeing how she shows this spring and summer. 

Hoosier Beef Congress

It's that time of the year.  Time to make the annual trip to Indianapolis for the Hoosier Beef Congress.  It's a first for Cosgray Polled Herefords at the Congress this year as we have entered a heifer into the sale Saturday morning.  She is a March daughter of AA LF T-Bone 9132 and AMC Ms Extra Load 19.  She is a soggy middled, sound footed, smooth made heifer with that dark red color that everyone is looking for.  She is a true combination heifer in that she will show well and when she leaves the tan bark, she will excel in the pasture.  Don't miss your opportunity with this heifer.  I will be there from Thursday on to answer any of your questions.  As an added bonus, this heifer has been to two national shows where she stood in the middle of both classes against very stiff competition!

For a detailed pedigree check out cosgraypolledherefords.com under the sales page.  

Alex

New Additions

It has been a pretty active fall so far at Cosgray Polled Herefords.  We have added many new additions to our herd.  One of those additions has been in the form of a new website.  We have worked with Ranch House Designs on creating the website and they have done a fabulous job.  I couldn't be more happy with the job they have done.  You can find us at www.cosgraypolledherefords.com.  If you are in need of any design work, they are the place to go, very professional, very creative, and very fast at what they do.

We have also added many cows to the operation as well from all over the country.  We have added a CJH Harland 408 bred heifer from Churchill Cattle Co. in Montana, a CJH Harland 408 2 year old from Lowderman Cattle Co. in Illinois, an AA Destiny 9127 show heifer from Show Time Cattle Co. in Indiana, an H Easy Deal 609 ET 2 year old from Nelson Land & Cattle in Oklahoma, a MH Monument 3147 bred heifer and a MH Monument 3147 show heifer from Able Acres in Indiana.  We are extremely excited to put these young cows to work and to show off the heifers in the ring. I have attached a picture of the Harland 2 year old from Lowderman's.  More pics to come!

The last addition to the herd comes in the form of a calf.  One of our donors, Fortress Blue Ladybird, laid down tonight and had the last calf of the year for Cosgray Polled Herefords.  He is out of our herd bull AA LF Airline 849 ET and weighed in at a robust 75 lbs.  Here is a picture of the little guy.

We will be attending many sales this fall as well as the NAILE show in Louisville.  We look forward to seeing some great cattle and meeting new people!  Until next time.


Alex

Sale Season!!

I just love this time of year.  The corn is turning, the weather is changing, the calves are weaned, and there is sale after sale of great Hereford cattle.  The catalogs keep showing up and I can't help but think that our breed is thriving.  It is always exciting to see how the new sires calves turned out and see how everyone's calves are looking.

We will be traveling all over the country this fall looking at Herefords.  We will be showing heifers and a bull at the Royal in October as well as at the NAILE in November.  I am looking forward to meeting many new people and seeing those calves in person.

We have many heifers, steers, and bulls for sale this year.  We weaned our first pasture last week and they are looking great.  We have already started selling calves for 4-H next year, so if you are in need of a calf, come on out and have a look.  We are available to show the calves anytime and we can be reached at cosgraypolledherefords@gmail.com. 

Alex

Pictures

I went out the other night and snapped some pics of calves and cows.  These calves are out of our Online son and our T-Bone son.  Our calves are on a first come first serve basis.  So give us a call and come pick out your next show calf. 

AA LF T-Bone 9132 Daughter

AA 29F Boomer 620 Daughter

AA HRD LF Airline 820 ET Daughter

Wideload Ladybird

Fortress Blue Ladybird(Wideload Ladybird's Dam)

Wideload Ladybird and daughter AMC Heiress 109(Airline heifer)

Congratulations Tayler Conn

Congrats to Tayler Conn on her Champion Hereford steer at the Cass County fair today. Fully Loaded X Kodiac

Show Season

July marks the start of the county fair show season for many juniors around the country and especially for the juniors in our area.  There is something soothing about getting up before the sun, driving to the fairgrounds, and watching all the chaos going on there! Of course it's much more relaxing now that I'm on the other side of the show ring! 

It will be a very busy couple of weeks.  We have many local county fairs that our cattle will be shown in and I couldn't be more excited for the 4-Hers.  We have more calves this year than any previous year and many new customers.  I would like to wish all of them good luck during their showing season. We will have calves at Jasper, Cass, Carroll, and White counties as well as the Hereford Junior National show and the Indiana State Fair.  This is an exciting time for Cosgray Polled Herefords.

Keep in mind it is never too early to pick out your next 4-H calf.  We have many special heifers and steers for sale and would love to show you around.  The Airline's and T-Bone's get better and better each day.  So if you are in the area or at one of these fairs, stop on by and have a look around. 

I apologize for the lack of pictures of the calves and cows but with the wet weather we have had, I haven't had the chance to snap any.  As soon as I get the chance to take some pictures they will be uploaded for all to see.  Thanks for reading and as always if you ever want to talk cattle, give me a shout! cosgraypolledherefords@gmail.com

Alex

Rain, Rain, Rain

This has been one of the wettest springs I have encountered.  It seems like every time the ground gets dry we get another two inches dumped on it.  First cutting of hay got dumped on, our replanted corn is back under water for the second time, and the pasture has more water than grass it seems like! Hello aquaculture!

However the rain hasn't stopped the calves from growing.  They have found the creep feed and are really starting to shine.  This is one of the most complete and balanced set of calves we have ever had and I couldn't be more excited.  Some of the young lads are already showing that they could be nice herd bulls and the ladies have that special "look" to them.

So if you are in the area this summer and want to look over the herd and talk cattle stop on by or give me a call.  Until next time.

Alex

Finally Done

This breeding season has been challenging, exciting, and extremely educational for me.  At the start, I set out to A.I. my whole entire herd.  I had carefully thought out matings, bought the necessary drugs to bring them into heat, and set up the barn to accommodate the process.  Throughout the entire process the biggest thing I have learned is that when dealing with A.I. anything can and will happen.

The biggest learning experience of all came on the very first heifer that I A.I.'d.  She came in on her natural heat and 12 hours after seeing her stand, I got everything ready to go.  After loading her in the chute and bringing all of my equipment out I was ready to go.  That's where things went wrong.  First, I pulled the straw out of the cane and thought the canister was right beneath the cane and dropped it and the 4 straw left in the cane all the way to the bottom.  Then, I loaded the straw into the wrong gun and needed handle the semen again and put it in the right gun.  Finally I get inside and nothing feels like what I had been taught or practiced on.  So needless to say I pretty much put the gun in and hoped for the best.

The next heifer that I did worked a lot smoother.  I didn't have any semen malfunctions, everything felt like it should, and I emptied the gun where I should.  After anxiously waiting 18 days to see if they came back into heat, of course the one that sticks is the first heifer I did and the one that went smoothly came back into heat.  That is when I realized that you can do everything right and still not get the expected results.  After that experience breeding has become a lot less stressful and easy going!

I have also learned to expect the unexpected when breeding cows.  Mostly I would bring 4 or 5 at a time into heat using a shot of estrumate and estrotect patches.  Well one day I decided to bring a group of 6 into heat.  So I give them their shots and turn them back out into the little pasture and two mornings later I go out to check cows and notice a new addition to the little pasture.  Well apparently during the night the electric fence charger decided to short out and the cleanup bull was able to jump the fence and breed 4 of the 6 for me!  Needless to say it has been an interesting breeding season for me!

Well that is it for now but be sure to check back for pictures of the calves and cows!

Alex

Spring

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there.  Today was a great day spent with family and enjoying some great beef at Covington's Beef House!

I would like to welcome everyone to our new blog!  I will try and keep everyone updated on the happenings at the farm.  We are a little over half done with calving.  The early calves are really taking off and looking great.  We have a great set of AA LF Airline 849 ET, AA LF T-Bone 9132, MCF Fully Loaded 701, and AA 29F Boomer 620 calves on the ground.

Breeding season is in full swing.  We moved all the cows to summer pastures on Saturday and will be moving bulls in on Monday.  We have A.I.'d a handful so far and will be synching about 20 more.  We have some exciting matings for next year.  The A.I. sires we chose to use this year are Star TCF Shock & Awe 158W ET, the reigning two time Supreme Champion at Denver, CRR About Time 743, the 2009 Supreme Champion at Denver, TH SHR 605 57G Bismarck 243R ET, a great performance and maternal herd sire from Topp Herefords, Harvie Dan T-Bone 196T, an exciting outcross bull from Canada, SHF Rib Eye M326 R117, a great carcass and heifer bull from Sandhill, and AA HRD Chuckwagon 0138, an exciting young herd sire from Able Acres that we bought a share in, look for him this upcoming show season!

Check back often for updates and pictures of the calves!

Alex