I'll try to get a picture of Minn Max Leader so you can see the masculine phenotype that is consistently producing females with wide hips, big barrels and good udders, 1100-1300 lb range and feminine appearance. I will say that his sire, Cruachan Leader 551, (Max, dam and sire pictured) is not a bull I would expect to throw volume. He looks like the sort of Shorthorn I generally don't admire for grass type. On the other hand, he shows the sort of development the Leonhardt school of thought describes for cow makers. SO...we must assume judicious outcrossing the beef end of certain linebred dual strains (Haumont in this case) with maternally oriented older genetics is a recombination success. That the success is repeatable from the maternal line, crossed to various unrelated antique bulls points to volume prepotency of something behind the dam. But we all know this....what I'd like to see is a photo and some background on the sire of the 189th cow because I think she is key. Not genetically unique or magic- but representative of a repeatable combination based on generations of built in predictability. Although this thread is titled Lincoln Red influence, it's really about Minn Max Leader influence. I favor a Lincoln Red outcross (so far) for marbling and easy keeping- udders can be fixed easily enough. But it's just an outcross- it could be Galloway or Luing or anything hardy and correct for my purpose. The heritability of the modified phenotype is a matter of diligence.