Morris Halliburton's British White Cattle
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This nice Doc sired calf belongs to Darry Heinlein and was born at his farm near Conroe, Texas on 3/29/10. His dam is a Bohaty bred heifer that stopped over at our place for a short visit on her way home from Nebraska last year.
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Above picture explains why I don't grade off too much for an overmarked cow. This cow is half British White and half Lowline Angus. The calf is 3/4 British White. I have 5 heavily overmarked cows and all 5 have standard marked British White Babies at their side. If you are able to come to our Fieldday on April 3 you will get to see
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One of our newborns, look how clean it is. I think this was the first day without rain since it was born. We hope he has as much muscle when he grows up as he is showing in this picture. Maybe the scrunched up pose is not what exhibits the muscle. Hard to tell at this age, that is what makes it such an interesting guessing game. Notice that green tint to the grass, won't be many more days until they will have green grass to eat.
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Our 2009 yearling heifers early one morning in February 2010, nine of them. We think they are going to make a nice set of cows. We hope to breed them to calve in spring of 2011 about the time I expect the cattle market to begin to gain momentum again.
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We had a little break in our winter weather and boy did our new calves enjoy it. This one had to stop and see what all the fuss was about. And you guessed it, the next thing was to walk over to see what I was doping. The docile nature of this breed is almost unbelievable until you experience it..
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New born heifer calf, good calf, Standard Marked, sired by W.W. Doc born on 2/12/10 but question is why will a big old cow like this insist on a newborn being that close to the edge of a large pond? So far I have had 3 calves born this year and all 3 were born within a few feet of the pond's edge. Can't help but wonder if they think there is more safety from varmints at least from one side. Not real comfortable when I find them that close to the water but have never had but one go into the water and drown. That one was also born with snow on the ground and when born it just slid right into the water.
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A reminder why February 12 is not a good time
to calve in North Texas. This is an Embryo Transfer heifer calf by my Colonel bull. I only have
3 straws of Colonel semen left so I won't have many more by him. He has been way above average
for siring animals with high intramuscular fat and especially on females, up to 9.85%.
Calf was about 12 hours old in picture and has really done good in spite of the cold
weather. |
From the archives so I won't forget that we did have a summer in times past. I'm tire of all this winter (Global Warming) junk.
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This cow is half British White and Half Tuli and so far as we know she is the only one in the World. She has been an excellent producer for us and most all her calves have been heifers. We have also used her for raising Embryo calves and she excels at that as well. Usually real good at accepting an implanted embryo and turning it into a pregnancy. She is a little more Stand Offish than a full British White but still more gentle than the average beef cow.
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This is the kind of heifer I am trying to
save back to try to improve my cow herd and be ready when the market rebounds again. This
picture was taken yesterday, 1/27/10 about 5:00 pm on a cloudy dark day. Also lots of mud
around as you can tell by looking. This is an American Fullblood natural born heifer that was
born on 1/31/09, sired by W W Dock and out of my Showgirl donor cow. I have not weighed the
heifer but estimate 800 to 900 pounds. Her winter ration is free choice Johnson Grass hay and 7
pounds of 14% creep daily. Looks like she should be an easy keeper, but all of Doc's calves
are. |
This is a recent picture of our Yearling
W.W.Doc son we plan to use in a line breeding experiment by crossing him over some of his half
sisters. |
Hi Noon is boss of the pastures at Upper Lost
Creek Farm in Minnesota. He was born in September 2001 and has several crops of progeny roaming
the pastures for Don & Shirley Hrstka near Chatfield, Minnesota. How would you like to have
a pasture full of cows that looks like him? Give Don a call at 507-867-4501 and twist his arm a
little, he has some really nice ones. |
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This is the same group of heifers as last week, minus one. They are right outside the back door of my house. Very easy to get pictures this time of year, they hear the door open and close and start looking for me to come give them a hand out but that's ok, gotta keep them growing.
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This is not a good time of year to be taking pictures of cattle and especially when everything is wet and muddy. But in spite of all this I still think this is a good looking group of heifers. Most of them are planned to be replacements for some of my older cows because about 50% of my mature cows are 10 to 15 years old. All of them are still good producers but about to pass their prime production years. This picture was taken about 4:30PM on 12/30/09 at the evening feeding. They are getting a maintenance ration of 7 pounds of 14% creep feed plus free choice hay and as you can tell they staying in excellent condition. Looks like I have a nice bunch of Doc sired easy keepers. Doc semen for use in the USA is available on our Semen Sales Page.
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This is a current picture of one of my Doc
sired yearling heifers. She is line bred to her sire for a spring 2010 calf. We're hoping to
create more just like her and it seems to be working. So far only have one born that was bred
the same way and it looks great as a baby.
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This picture was taken about 3:30 PM yesterday, December 16, 2009. Cow on the left is 13 years old and bred for a spring calf. Cow on the right is a W.W. Doc sired heifer that is nursing her first calf that was born 9/17/09. Overmarked cow in the middle is 10 years old and bred for a spring calf. Don't you agree that all three are in adequate condition for this time of year. Their main winter ration is stockpiled pasture like they are standing in and are supplement with 3 pounds of range cubes daily. I could write a book on the quality I see in these three cows, would have to grade off the overmarked one a little for color but she has raised some excellent herd bulls. I am keeping the last calf from the cow on the left, a Doc sired bull calf, hoping he will continue to develop and become my next her bull.
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A 2009 fall born
British White baby at Halliburton Farms. I try not to have too many fall born calves because I
think it puts more stress on a cow to nurse a calf through the winter. However a healthy
newborn baby calf is just as exciting in the fall as it is in the spring. Picture was taken
about two weeks ago and not much green left in that grass and now there is none, two hard
freezes in a row. Still not bad in comparison to what our Texas news media reports for Northern
states. |
I went way back into the archives for this week's picture, early 1990's. They are both half blood British White x Fullblood Chianina. This is the most unusual color pattern I've experienced and both parents were white with black pigment. Kind of pretty don't you think? The lighter one stayed the same color as it matured and the darker one got darker as it matured. I did not keep eithe one as breeding stock.
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This weeks picture is borrowed from Kevin
& Diane Reed's Oakridge Family Farms
Website. There are many more pictures available on their website, visit it HERE. While you are there
remember this is where our 2010 Annual Membership is scheduled on October 2nd, 2010. |
Two fall babies born at Halliburton Farms, sire is W.W.Doc. Doc does an excellent job of marking his calves to look like British Whites.
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This WW Doc heifer baby is 6 days old in the picture, 3/4 British White x 1/4 Lowline. Her mother is a heavily overmarked black sided cow but check the markings on this baby. Marking animals like this out of most any color cow is one of Doc's stronger traits as is easy calving. On my cows the average gestation length for Doc bred cows has been 276 days. Calves have been born small and hit the ground growing with some of the bull calves weighing up to 700 pounds by weaning at 7 months old.
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One of our heifers with her first calf, also a heifer. Our entire fall calf crop has been heifers, a total of 3 and all are just about like this one. Born small but hit the ground growing.
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This picture of our herd bull, WW Doc, was taken a few days ago when we removed him from the herd until next breeding season. I feel very fortunate to have a bull that can maintain this kind of condition for the entire breeding season. My problem during his off season is trying to keep him from getting too much condition, not complaining though, that is a good problem.
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This is a still shot captured from my Flip Video camera as I was moving the cattle to a new pasture on October 20, 2009. The bull calf in front was born 3/18/09 and is still nursing, next is a young cow on far side, in center is a first calf heifer nursing a calf that was born 9/17/09 (must be coming in heat early) followed by my herd bull JWest's W W Doc. Doc is the sire of the bull calf in front and the bull calf's mom is a 15 year old cow. The new lush grass they are walking into is Coastal Bermuda, been a good year for our pastures. Strictly non-typical for Texas, especially this time of year.
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There are many ways to promote your British White Cattle and all are good but have you ever thought about promoting the use of your British White Cows as stand-ins for a wedding? Neither have I but it sounds like a good idea. I won't mention any names but that sure looks like the JWest Cattle pasture at Colmesneil, Texas. In case you want to check to see if I'm guessing correct a good place to start would be by calling Jimmie West, 409-837-2338. One thing for sure though the cows and Newly Weds all look very happy and contented.
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Sometimes you just wish there was a way to
ask them what they are thinking about. |
This is one of our Doc sired yearling heifers, she is bred to calve next spring as a 2 year old. I know this heifer will not fit everyone's liking but she is my kind. Someday I hope my pasture has nothing but her kind in it. She is what I would describe as moderate framed, deep bodied, heavy muscled, easy keeping and is very gentle. This picture was taken about 3:00 Pm on 9/30/09 and not with a telephoto, I was only a few feet from her. And you can see I was awful close to another one to my right. I do not try to be all grass fed but she has had nothing but pasture grass since last March and even before that was on stockpiled forage plus about 2 pounds of range cubes per day.
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This heifer baby was born unassisted on
9/17/09 while I was out of town over 1,000 miles away and it is the cow's first calf. Looks
like a really nice, well marked British White heifer prospect, time will tell. The calf is 4
days old in the picture and in normal British White fashion she is already coming up to have a
close smell of you. Even if mama does look at her pretty hard. Look at the body condition
of that cow with a 4 day old calf, she should breed back without any problem. |
Current picture of my herd bull, JWest's W.W. Doc. Doc's sire is DFTX Watson and dam is a Halliburton bred cow name Wilma T219F who is a half sister to Popeye. Notice Doc's condition and this is after being in the pasture with cows for 3 months. I don't think I have ever had a more easy keeping animal, he stays this way year round, pasture, dry lot or bull pen does not make any difference. He has a knack for converting any kind of feed or forage into something worth while. Doc is 56 inches at the hip but this picture does not really show his height and length due to his extreme body depth. In my pasture Doc's calves have been born small (low 60's) and grow fast with several weaning weights over 600. He is not for sale and I do not have any sons for sale but I do have semen available. The animal to his right is a steer (not sired
by Doc) we are trying to grow out a little and then fast feed him for the deep freeze. |
This picture was taken when the calf was a few hours old on September 8, 2009. I waited until it was nursing just in case some non-British White person sees the picture so they might be convinced that the calf did indeed belong to this cow and no it is not an Embryo Transfer calf. Comes from a natural breeding. Hard to convince us British White believers that black is the so-called dominant color. Side note: I think this is about 340 weeks I have been posting my Picture of The Week and don't remember missing a single week. Now that may give you something to do? Check all my archives and prove me wrong. You'll see some nice pictures but most of the good ones came from other breeders.
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One of our bull calves born 3/31/09, a
purebred with 2 generations of purebred ancestors. The heifer behind him is a 2008 model.
Cattle had only been in this pasture a couple of days a nd were ready to move again. They sure
get spoiled or trained easy when you move them every day or two. |
This week's picture compliments of Yolanda
& Nick Stone, Mt Vernon, Texas. They invite you to their first British White Production Sale with guest
consignors on Saturday, September 26th, |
One of our 2009 American Fullblood Heifers sired by JWest's W.W. Doc that we are pretty proud of. We have another that is even larger than this one and probably equally as good. However one of things I wanted to show off in this picture is the grass, in Texas, in late August and no fertilizer. Look at the heifer's front legs and that is very typical of all of our pastures this year. This is not a real good picture of the heifer because she had her head down in that lush grass until I spoke to her from a few feet away. Picture was taken early morning 8/19/09 and heifer is right at 6 months old. |
