This is the "girls" page. Listed below are
all the producing cows and up-and-coming heifers in our herd. One of the advantages of Beefmasters is the wide variety of colors they
come in. This makes it easy to tell them all apart, and makes calving time a
real surprise! In 2007, faced with loss of our leased pasture space and the worst
drought in 50 years, we severely cut down our numbers. We retained a strong nucleus for continuing on with our breeding program, however,
and with our current polled bull are producing better calves than ever.
All of our cows have been inspected by BBU. We are participants
in the BBU upgrade program, and all the females below that are not purebred and who are at
least a year old have been inspected and accepted into this program. We also participate in
the voluntary classification program for our purebred and 2X cows, usually at 1 and 3 years of
age -- results are shown below for those that are old enough to have been classified.
FH Alexandra 04-8, BBU#C958881, U (Chernobyl II x Richland) 05/17/08.
After five bulls in a row, Richland finally produced a heifer in 2008! She's solid red with just a few white
hairs on her face and small patches on her underline. She's a pretty and very feminine cow, ultra smooth and meaty with a pretty face, and her
first four calves by Osiris and Commander, all lovely heifers, show her quality as a Mama cow. Several of her heifers are shown below. Her calving interval between her first and second calves
was only 11.5 months. She is bred for early 2014 to Wild Oaks Crimson Commander, a son of Advantage
out of the excellent donor cow Second to None. She is for sale; you can see a current picture of her at http://sss-mag.com/fernhill/cowsales.html.
FH Wings 06-10 #C989591, purebred red paint heifer b. 4/10/10 (Osiris x
FH Richland). This is the one we waited for as her dam's replacement. Everything
is right about this beautiful, well built, pretty-faced and extremely flashy heifer! She was born
strong and active and is a real go-getter. She had a polled red bull calf (her first) by
Commander on September 25, 2012 and is doing a good job raising him. Wings is bred back to
Commander for spring 2014.
FH Flight 08-10 #C989593, purebred black paint heifer b. 5/3/10 (Osiris x
FH Mayfly). Just what we ordered -- and slick polled too. Out of our #1 cow Mayfly, we love her bone,
length, topline, long neck, underline, overall femininity, and the flashy color doesn't hurt either! Her first calf, a super-nice
dark brown or brindle heifer, was born Septebmer 29, 2012 by Commander. Flight is bred back to Commander for spring 2014.
FH Ireland 04-10 #C989589, purebred dark red or brown heifer b. 3/26/10 (Osiris x
FH Janiebiker). Janie's first -- a big, solid and very feminine purebred cow with a heavily mottled underline,
an interesting star like an Irish harp on her face, a small roan patch on her off side, slight dappling all over, and brockling on both hind legs.
Very smooth and super pretty, great bone, very gentle. She had her first calf, a flashy paint polled bull on October 2012.
We think he is pretty spectacular -- large and beautifully built, gentle and friendly. You can see his picture here.
The sire is our Commander and Ireland is bred back to him for spring 2014.
FH Rain 02-11, BBU #C1001483, purebred red or brown heifer b. 2/28/11 (Osiris x
FH Alexandra). Very pretty and feminine polled heifer with a lovely long neck, smooth body, excellent topline and good
bones. Rain has a white underline, a few small white spots on her hind feet, and a white-tipped tail. Looks very much like her mother Alexandra (see above),
only she is bigger, longer through the body, a more interesting color and POLLED. Her first calf, a gorgeous heifer (see picture of FH Liz Perdew below),
was born February 20, 2013 by Commander. Rain, like her mother before her, is handling her first
mothering assignment without ANY loss of condition. She is bred back to Commander for spring 2014.
FH Juliette 01-12, BBU #C1015180,, purebred bright red heifer with plenty of chrome, b. 2/10/12 (Osiris x
FH Iris). There's a lot to like about this fancy heifer. Her mother is one of our best-producing cows and year after year throws
really good looking calves. She looks even better as a yearling, with a wonderful underline, smooth topline, and a lot of meat and class. We have reluctantly sold
this heifer to free up some pasture space; she is still here being bred to Commander for a 2014 calf.
FH Valentina 02-12, BBU #C1015213,, purebred black polled heifer b. 2/14/12 (Osiris x
FH Mayfly). Valentina is a full sister of the elegant Flight, pictured above, and
looks very much like her except for having less white. We will be keeping this premier heifer since Mayfly, our number 1 cow, is 10 years old. She is
bred to Commander for a spring 2014 calf.
FH Leap Day 04-12, BBU C1015215,, purebred red heifer b. 2/29/12 (Osiris x
FH Alexandra). Leap has two full sisters, Isis and Rain, and a
half sister by Commander, Georgina.
These four quality heifers place their mama Alexandra in a very special category as all of them are keeper quality! Sadly for us, we don't have enough
pasture space to keep them all, so Leap has been sold and is here on the farm until June being bred to Commander for a spring 2014 calf.
FH Hiwassee 06-12, BBU pending: purebred brown or brindle heifer b. 9/29/12 (Commander x
FH Flight). Although she looked red at first, this heifer is turning very dark, sort of a deep chocolate color, with
one white hind sock, a white-tipped tail, and some white on her underline. She is a beauty and would make an outstanding show heifer. She
will be for sale at weaning in the spring. It will be hard to part with this one! She got a heavy winter coat and hasn't finished shedding it out yet,
so a picture will have to wait until she looks less like a yak!
FH Noelle 08-12, BBU pending: purebred brindle or black heifer b. 12/25/12 (Commander x
FH Iris). This girl is Iris's second 2012 calf (the other one, Juliette, was born in February). Out Christmas present from Iris,
She is one gorgeous heifer, with a white lightning splash on her right shouler. Like all of Iris's calves, she is thick, sturdy, and outstanding. She appears to be polled as well!
It has been many years since we have had a brindle calf, and we are hoping that she stays brindle and doesn't turn solid black. Hard to tell till she finishes
shedding out her heavy calf coat.
FH Liz Perdew 01-13, BBU pending: purebred brown or red polled heifer b. 2/20/13 (Commander x
FH Rain). This girl is Rain's first calf and we couldn't be happier with her. She looks red now, but has some very dark hairs at
the tip of her tail and around her navel, so she may turn out to be a dark brown when she sheds out her calf coat. Red or brown, it's hard to find fault with
her conformation! She may be for sale, but we will have some problems parting with this one.
FH Georgina 02-13, BBU pending: purebred red polled heifer b. 2/22/13 (Commander x
FH Alexandra). This girl is Alexandra's fourth calf and fourth heifer, and she is as nice as her sisters. With her
half-white tail, she is easy to pick out in the pasture! She is for sale only because of our pasture limitations -- details here.
A Second Cross or 2X cow is at least 75% Beefmaster. Under the terms of the BBU upgrade program, heifers
must be inspected by a BBU representative at 12 months of age or older before they can be registered as a 2X.
The offspring of a purebred Beefmaster bull and a registered 2X cow are considered to be
purebred without further inspection. We usually do not sell our 2X candidate heifers until after they have been
inspected and registered. The boys are normally sold at the local sale barn at weaning time, but a number of them have been
purchased for use as bulls on commercial herds.
"FH Mayfly" BBU#S22252, U1-2 (Secret Weapon x **September).
Black brindle close-to-paint polled cow, born 5/23/03.
Our poster cow, Mayfly is a real doll with lots of eye appeal and a friendly personality. A tiny calf when born,
she has grown up to be a larger cow than her Typesetter mother, **September, and is even better looking.
Accepted as a second cross on August 1, 2004, and classified as U1-2 in September 2009, she has had eight calves so
far, including two red paints, three solid red, two blacks, and one black paint.
All to date have been polled.
FH Iris 02-5, BBU #S22863, U2-2, b. 04/15/05. This black mottle-faced
polled cow was born on Tax Day 2005(IRS = Iris) and looks like a clone of her mother, but with more meat on her
hindquarters. She had her first calf in May 2007, a heavy-boned black and white paint heifer
that was the best of our very nice crop of 2007 calves. Her calves since have always been among our best (for examples, see her
2010 model, a black paint bull, and her 7th calf born December 25, 2012, a
brindle heifer with a splash mark on her shoulder. Like her mother Midnight, Iris is a
wonderful mother with copious quantities of milk, and is very caring of her calves. She is for sale
to the right home, bred back for a spring 2014 calf.
A First Cross or 1X cow is at least 50% Beefmaster. Under the terms of the BBU upgrade program, yearling heifers
must be inspected by a BBU representative before they can be registered as a 1X.
Heifers by a purebred Beefmaster bull out of a 1X cow that passes this inspection are eligible for
inspection and certification as a Second Cross. We no longer have any first cross cows in our herd.
