A bull that can cross the boundaries between clubbie and cowboy cattle

[justintime]

I have always felt that there are bulls that can work in the clubbie world and the commercial industry, and I think this bull can do it. His name is HC FL Touchdown 123T ET x* and he is the reigning Canadian National Champion Shorthorn bull. He was born on my place and was sold to LA Land and Cattle Co., Leduc, AB at 2 months of age. When they saw him as a baby calf, they said they had never seen a bull calf with so much muscle expression through his lower quarter at this young an age... in any breed. I kept a semen interest in him, but recently teamed up with Shady Lane of SP, to purchase him in entirety. Some of you may have seen him in Denver. We had many excellent comments about him there.

Touchdown is pictured here after running with cows since March 27th. He has had no grain since returning from Denver. He is moderate framed, has tremendous thickness and is possibly the best rear quarter I have seen on a Shorthorn bull, especially through his lower quarter. I think he is a  bull that could work in any part of the industry. He moves like a cat and has perfectly formed feet and excellent legs. He also has a great hair coat.

Touchdown is an ET son of K-Kim Last Call 159N ET x* and Bar P Louisa 33F X ( who was bred by Hilltop on SP). His first calves are outstanding and already are showing his thickness and style. Better yet, the heaviest calf he sired this year had a  BW of 85 lbs. So far all his calves have been polled. I also have a flush mate sister to Touchdown, and she will definitely be heading to our donor program. She is moderate and thick and has a perfect udder.

Here are some pictures of Touchdown. The first was taken today ( May 16th) . The second is at Agribition where he was named G Champion bull. The third was at Agribition when he won the Junior bull calf class as a May baby.

 

[mark tenenbaum]

Arent many last calls due to semen issues-used his paternal brother RS After Hours and really liked him-he looks good-i would use him to ad frame on thick little cows like the ones I had Sold-And Got Ripped Off in Ohio-hed work O0

 

[Silver]

Our ranch tries to get bulls that bridge the commercial and club calf markets. We currently have a couple sons of nautica and ante up. Their mothers where just regular commercial cows and know we know these bulls are good versatile options.

 

[linnettejane]

he looks really cool!  any chance of seeing some progeny pics?

 

[JSchroeder]

Serious question, how do you get around the color issue with commercial guys?  The ones around here have about the most severe distaste for painted/roan cattle you can imagine.

 

[justintime]

In our recent bull sale, our roan bulls were our best sellers, with most of them selling to commercial producers. We have seen a huge swing in recent years to roans and white bulls in our area. Of course we still have commercial buyers who want red bulls, but the people looking for roans is increasing every year. I have asked several of the people who have bought roans why they wanted the roan bulls. Some have said it is because they want to indicate to the buyers that their calves are Shorthorn cross ( ie : British cross) as these calves are bringing premiums.They want roan bulls because a red bull on black cows usually results in black calves and they want the buyers to be able to see that they are crossbred calves.Simply being black does not suggest British cross necessarily like it used to.   Others say they want to add some roan color to their black color, and still others want to try to produce show calves with some color.Blue roans are becoming more popular, and it may just be a fad of the times, but I am not complaining about it.  Some others say that their father or grand father used to have some roan crossbred cows and they were really good producing cows with good dispositions. These people are wanting to have some cows like this again.

In our April bull sale, all the roan bulls sold with the lowest price being $2800. We passed a few bulls, but they were all red bulls. How times change. Last year we had 7 white bulls in the sale. They all sold well, and we could have sold more of them. After the sale, I had two people ask me if I had more white bulls at home. I found white bulls for them and they purchased them. This year, we only had 2 white bulls and they both sold. This year the roans were the most popular and the more roan they were... the higher they sold. My roans all sold well and we averaged $4170 on 8 of them with a top of $9000. One large commercial rancher from Alberta, purchased two bulls at $4750 and $3800. He said he was only interested in roans as he always received premiums from the large feedlots in Alberta for his roan crossbred calves.

For several years, I tried to produce solid colored bulls, but it seems now, that the popularity of Shorthorn bulls in this area is on the increase.. regardless of color. I should also add that interest in our sale bulls came from all across Canada, as well as from 7 states, so it seems to be a growing trend in other places as well.

 

[Silver]

yeah commercial cattlemen like everything to be uniform. because they sell their cattle as a group or lot. something that a lot of buyers for the feed lot judge on is color and herd uniformity. If your selling a calf by itself they don't mid as much, but when you throw one into a sea of black it looks pretty dumb.

 

[justintime]

When we sold our commercial calves last fall, the calves that had roan in their coats ( either red roan or blue roan) brought a 2 cent premium over our solid red and black steers. We retained our heifers so I am not sure if this was the same for them or not, but I expect so.

 

[Doc]

JIT, He looks really nice. I also like how clean sheathed he is. It seems like a lot of the bulls , north of the border seem to have a little more sheath than I like to see.

 

[justintime]

Arent many last calls due to semen issues-used his paternal brother RS After Hours and really liked him-he looks good-i would use him to ad frame on thick little cows like the ones I had Sold-And Got Ripped Off in Ohio-hed work O0

I don't think Touchdown is a bull that will add frame. He is a very moderate framed bull. I have not taped him but he would not be more than a 5.5 frame, maybe a bit smaller. He has tremendous thickness and yet has a excellent shoulder and shoulder angle. He had a BW of 82 lbs and it appears from his first calves that he is going to be a calving ease bull. His heaviest calf was 85 lbs from a Salute 3 year old cow.I will try to get some pictures of calves in a few days. The next few days are looking rather large here!

 

[mark tenenbaum]

Arent many last calls due to semen issues-used his paternal brother RS After Hours and really liked him-he looks good-i would use him to ad frame on thick little cows like the ones I had Sold-And Got Ripped Off in Ohio-hed work O0

I don't think Touchdown is a bull that will add frame. He is a very moderate framed bull. I have not taped him but he would not be more than a 5.5 frame, maybe a bit smaller. He has tremendous thickness and yet has a excellent shoulder and shoulder angle. He had a BW of 82 lbs and it appears from his first calves that he is going to be a calving ease bull. His heaviest calf was 85 lbs from a Salute 3 year old cow.I will try to get some pictures of calves in a few days. The next few days are looking rather large here!

Hes definitely larger than some of the clubbys-and if hes thick butted-should put em back in the mid 5s-some of them are alot  smaller than that-but can still raise a caf etc

 

[CAB]

Who's handling distribution in the US and what are you going to price semen and certs for please?

 

[ELBEE]

Grant, I guess we need to schedule you to come preach at our local sale barn here someday. Last group of roan steers I took had to be no-saled (lucky I was there). Auctioneer started them at .40 cents (that's without a 1 in front of it).


                                                                                                          <cowboy>

 

[kanshow]

Elbee must market cattle in the same place we do..    Hereford marked, roans, off color grays all get hammered hard on price. 

 

[ELBEE]

Then this weekend I had a clubbie guy come through, he says "To bad you don't have any roans."

Yah, too bad !
                                  <cowboy>

 

[kanshow]

So don't look for roans when I go by today?

 

[simtal]

Elbee must market cattle in the same place we do..    Hereford marked, roans, off color grays all get hammered hard on price. 

Id say find a feedlot to sell direct to if you can, you go around these yards and you see all kinds of colors, but black does dominate

 

[trevorgreycattleco]

I agree with Elbee. Around here in Ohio I call the local United Producers "United Reducers" I sent two loads of steers this yera all out of a 7026 son. The first load were black and topped the sale, the red and roans the next week got hammered and were close to the bottom. Whoever got the latter load should be laughin all the way to the bank. I had to be asked to leave because I got a little upset when I went to pick up the check. Unfortunately black is still where it's at here.

 

[trevorgreycattleco]

Nice bull by the way. Hope he works out well for you. <beer>

 

[justintime]

Our grading system in Canada is a little different that the US grading system. It is a marbling based system, and some ( not all ) of the major feedlots are now finding that they can get higher percentage AAA grades from the Shorthorn and Shorthorn cross cattle they feed. Some are reporting over 90% AAA on the Shorthorns with the next closest being Angus cross at 75-78%. Some packers are paying premiums for high quality and the largest premium ever paid was for a set of 105 Shorthorn and Shorthorn cross steers from one ranch. These steers all went on feed the same day and all went to slaughter the same day and 96 % graded AAA. The premium paid to the feeder was over $100 per head. This set of steers was also on feed an average of 12 days less than any other set of steers in this feedlot and gained more total weight.

Because of this, we are seeing a slow but sure change in what the feedlots are demanding. Most of them want British cross for sure, but they are no longer discounting these roans like they used to do. This is another reason more commercial cattlemen are looking for the roans, because they want to have calves that have Shorthorn influence.

I was a bonded livestock dealer here for several years when we were operating our feedlot and I sat and watched these cattle buyers appraise and purchase cattle. I have to say, that some of them are good judges of cattle, but the majority are rather poor cattlemen.  I would suggest if you are getting raped at the local auction,look for some feedlots who are willing to try your calves. Sell them direct and deliver them if you have too. If they work for them, you will have them wanting them next year regardless of their colors. This color thing is the stupidest fad ever!!