oakview said:
That's another bull that would look good in my pasture. I really liked the white Timeline bull you sold in last year's sale, too. He's doing a good job for you (even though he's got Trump in him!). Hard to get a bull that long that looks like he's got enough depth. Good bull!
Thanks Lonny! Free Spirit is an ET full brother to the white bull we sold in our sale last year. He sold to Bamberry Farms in Eastern Ontario.
I would also say that sometimes a person has to put some personal beliefs aside when you find an animal that appears to have some superiority in some traits. That was definitely the case with his sire Timeline. I am not the biggest fan of Salute however, I will say that as my Salute daughters have come into production, I have had to change my tune on them as well. My Salute daughters are becoming some of our best brood cows. They have great udders, milk well, produce calves in the top end of the calf crop and get back in calf. I have 6 Salute daughters and all of them are very good producing females, and I have to say that I have not found any significant differences from my females of other bloodlines for their ability to stay in goo condition on only forages for feed.
I have always liked Timeline's mother, Shadybrook Presto 73G. She was flushed to Salute and when Timeline was born, I knew we had something a bit different when he first stood on his feet. When he went into our bull test that fall and we saw that he indexed almost 50% higher for gain to the rest of the pen, we were impressed. His weight per day of age was also near 40% about the pen average, and he also had the best REA in the pen along with a pretty decent IMF. Not only did he have good performance and muscling stats, he also had a great disposition and eye appeal. I waivered for several weeks on whether I would even put him through the sale, and keep him to use myself. I finally decided to offer him in the sale and retain at least a semen interest.
We have now had our 3rd set of calves from Timeline and 100 % of his calves have been born unassisted. I have not bred any heifers to him, however, last summer we did have a heifer calf get bred to him. She was only 6 months old when she was bred, and by the time I figured out she was in calf, she was too far along to abort. I worried about her all winter wondering if it would end up being a hard pull or c- section, but when I went out to do chores on morning in March, I found a beautiful heifer calf nursing this heifer and she was chewing her cud as if this had been an easy delivery. Obviously it was!
Timeline offspring have been well received by our customers and I have to say that he is one of the most influential sires I have used in many years. I thought the Major Leroy calves had the best temperaments possible but the Timeline calves are probably even better. Many of them lead immediately when a halter is placed on their head for the first time. The Moore family from Jerseyville, IL purchased a Timeline son this spring and after the bull arrived there, Hugh Moore phoned and said that I had never mentioned that I had halter broke the bull they purchased. I replied that I had never had a halter on that bull, to which he said" well, that is pretty amazing then, because my sons just haltered him, led him across the yard, put him in a chute and put a nose ring in him, then lead him back across the yard.. and he never pulled on the rope." Free Spirit was the same, as I never had to halter break him.
Free Spirit is more moderate framed and thicker topped than some other Timeline sons we have had, and he probably gets that from his mother's genetics.
I graduated college in 2007 <rock> I could provide you with reference numbers, dates, or my complete resume whatever you like 
