Having raised Beefmasters for over 40 years, one of the biggest mistakes a cattleman or cattlewoman can make is to become too attached to any one of the animals in your herd. It is easy to become so attached to a specific cow in your herd because she is the color you like, she has a great disposition, or she has been with you so long there is just no way you can part with her.  As responsible breeders of cattle, it is paramount for our herd to continue to improve itself year after year. When we become too "attached" we become too forgiving and we allow animals to remain in our herd that are taking us in the wrong direction. For example, you have owned a specific cow for several years and she always delivers a calf every year. You have noticed that her calf always weans out with less pounds than most of the other calves in your herd. But..... she has that beautiful color that you like and you are going to let her slide on milk production because you can just feed a little more creep to her calf to improve the poundage at weaning?????  Take a second look, this is an example of becoming too attached. This cow needs to be culled and you know it, especially if you want your herd to move forward in this breed.  Our founder, Mr Tom Lasater, was a stickler on culling cattle that did not exude the six essentials of our breed. He was so intense with not becoming attached, that if a cow allowed a coyote to get her calf, she was a "goner" from his herd. There are so many variables as cattle raisers that we have to be cognizant of daily.  We have to watch for teat size, milking ability, chronic foot problems, and now more than ever we need to strive to raise animals with great EPD"s.  EPD's are a predictive measure one can use to improve their herds exponentially!! When purchasing a bull or choosing one to purchase semen, demand great EPD's.  Don't get attached to the color, the way he walks, or anything else.  If he does not have the EPD's desired for our breed, don't use him. Using a bull with the right EPD's can improve your herd in very short time!  Back to the females.  How many times do we decide to give a cow a second chance if she is not able to deliver her calf without assistance. Quite often, if we are honest.  We wait another year, a loss of income for a year, when we could replace this cow with one that has been scored for calving ease.  It truly is possible to reduce birthing problems in cattle to a very low +percentage by two measures - Bulls with EPD's that predict low birth weight in calves, and purchasing or retaining heifers in your herd that have had their reproductive tracts scored!!  It is a great day when the vet comes to score your 12 month old heifers and you have 100% with scores that are 12 to 15 inches.  It is a sad day when that one heifer you like the most scores a 7 and you have to make the decision to send her to slaughter. But, that is the way it is in this business.  Calving problems cost us more dollars than we want to think about and this practice of scoring, in this old breeder's mind, is one of the best things we can to do to save ourselves heartache, valuable time, and dollars, after all we are all in to make money, right?  if one of your cows that you are so attached to, starts having enlarged teats at a later age, that requires your assistance to help the calf get milk, what should you do.  Once the calf gets started, let her stay, and keep the beautiful heifer that is on her now?  If you do, you are too attached,  A wise cattleman will not only cull this cow and calf, but he or she will look through the herd to find any more offspring from this cow, and take them all to the auction and send their papers to BBU to be cancelled. Well, enough for this Blog, hope you enjoy it and as always I appreciate and invite you to comment and give me your opinions.  Love this Beefmaster Breed!