Page 27 - MWC 4-21-2022s

has chosen live bulls to frozen triplet sons Riley, Peyton and The Midwest Cattleman · April 21, 2022 · P27
semen due to stories told by Emmet, along with younger
his dad that Long is not en- sister Maria (13) each hav- and Sons Limousin. it-or-break-it qualities on the
tirely sure are true. ing mounts to match their “We have the quietest cat- female side.
“The way my dad tells it,” personalities. But, instead of tle,” Long said. “Our kids “Too much thickness and
said Long, “he would ride out wrangling a cow in the mid- push them through the chute you lose calving ease,” said
in the pasture with an am- dle of the field to inseminate and we have no issues.” Long of the balancing act of
pule under his arm and breed her, they leave that to the Their bred and owned sires raising cattle to become beef.
the cow where she stood. If he bulls. To that end, fertility is are turned out about every “But, take out too much mus-
got there and a second cow high on the list of character two weeks from Mid-Janu- cle and they won't grow. I'm
was in, he'd split the dose in trait selection. Docility ranks ary to Mid-April to cover two pretty proud of the muscle in
two and breed both of them.” right up at the top too. Since heat cycles on every cow. The our calves. The dressing per-
The Long family still use many of the calves will even- result is a good, tight breed- centage is unreal when we
horses to work the herd, with tually end up being fed out, ing season, according to Long. feed out! I notice the differ-
Dad, Mom Sarah, 17-year-old disposition is a must at Long The resulting short calving ence right off when our pack-
season is also thanks to those er provides closeouts.”
fertile cows and bulls remain- Long feels like he is start-
ing in service year after year. ing a revolution on his own
“Stayability is a number to to help commercial cattlemen
watch if you trust EPDs,” Long understand the significance
said. “whether on the sire or of hybrid vigor the Limousin
dam side. We watch EPDs breed possesses by having
quite a bit and my daughter that slight twist of other breed
eyes them closely. She goes to influences. He even buys back
the NALF website and uses cattle from customers to be
tools that allow her to cre- sure they are doing right by
ate matings and then predict them and what's good for the
EPDs of those pairings. She breed.
can calculate projected dol- “We are beef,” Long said, re-
lar values and target weights ferring to the Limousin breed.
among many other things.” “The more we can produce,
Genetic selections for mod- the more people will want.”
erate frame scores and calv-
ing ease round out the make- continued on page 30