“ I like them big-bellied, big-footed. Big-bellied, big-footed. I know they’ ll raise a baby.”
– Tony Lasseter, Windy Pond Farm
Lasseter said that he’ s been raising heifers for years and has always wanted to raise bulls.
“ But it takes a special to raise bulls. Heifers are easy to raise but bulls get to be kind of aggravating. They’ ll tear-up everything,” he said.
He said they DNA test every cow that’ s on the farm and if it’ s a heifer that doesn’ t meet his criteria, they send it to the stockyards.
“ And the reason is I don’ t want to wait 2 1 / 2 years to find out that heifer’ s not gonna raise a calf,” he said.“ It costs just as much to feed a sorry one as it does a good one.”
Lasseter said the DNA test looks for 17 different traits including the docility, milk, ribeye, the marbling and the hot carcass, which is the weight immediately after slaughter and evisceration but before it’ s been chilled.
He also said that he liked the Black Baldy cows and that was where he was at, right now.“ The purebred business is fine. I used to have purebred cows. … It’ s hard for me to sell a purebred cow,” he said.“ I started swapping them over and I can sell them Black Baldys.”
He said, anybody will buy the Black Baldy cows and they’ ll pay good money for them.
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