pasture pics

[justintime]

Here are a few pics I snapped yesterday while checking pastures.

The first is of Wolf Willow Major Leroy 1M X, at 8 years of age on pasture. He was wintered on grass hay and slough hay. If he even gets alfalfa, he will get too fat.( I think that Leroy and I have the same metabolism!!) Some of his calves are shown with him

The second pic is a 3 week old Leroy bull calf with his mother. I snapped this to show what Leroy can do in one generation. He is really soggy. His mother is one of our frailer cows ( purchased sight unseen in an auction )

The third pic is of HC FL Touchdown 123T ET x*  on pasture. Touchdown is one of the best Shorthorn bulls I have found through his lower quarter.

 

[shortyjock89]

Looks like you guys finally greened up and got some good weather! 

Cattle look good, you need to send me one of those good Canadian heifers one of these days.

 

[justintime]

Here are a few  more.....

The first is two Leroy heifers... raised entirely on grass and alfalfa hay.... no grain. They are fat.

The second is a full Irish cow. She is from the Strawberry cow family

The third is another Leroy bull calf with his dam. She is a ArSuLu Kool daughter and is from a Myrtle Bo cow. Yes, she is clean for both TH and PHA. This guy is a twin and he is an early March calf. His twin sister was camera shy and did not want to get in the picture. She is as thick and soggy as this guy, but may be a freemartin. Time will tell.  Their full brother is now in Texas, and I expect he may get shown some, including Louisville. The mom is doing a great job on both calves.

 

[justintime]

Looks like you guys finally greened up and got some good weather! 

Cattle look good, you need to send me one of those good Canadian heifers one of these days.

Yes it is green, but we are never more than two weeks from a drought.  As my grandfather used to say we get 9 months of winter and 3 months of poor sledding. As for getting a Canadian heifer, it really is quite simple. Send me a check, and I deliver her... haha. I am usually through Iowa two or three times a year. How much more simpler can it be???

 

[oakbar]

Nice looking cattle, Grant!!    I probably should try that skinny, little Leroy bull on  Myrtle or her Vortec daughter one of these days.  Ha, Ha!! 

I keep hearing you come through Iowa all the time, are you allergic to Iowegians from the north part of the state??  I could really use some tips on how to make money with roan bull calves if you're ever in the area!!  Ha, Ha!!

 

[JAG]

Those calves look great, they're very deep made!

 

[justintime]

Nice looking cattle, Grant!!    I probably should try that skinny, little Leroy bull on  Myrtle or her Vortec daughter one of these days.  Ha, Ha!!   

I keep hearing you come through Iowa all the time, are you allergic to Iowegians from the north part of the state??   I could really use some tips on how to make money with roan bull calves if you're ever in the area!!  Ha, Ha!!

Thanks Lynn, I have heard some stories about some of you in the Northern part of the state so I try to quietly sneak through unannounced.  In regards to Leroy semen, I have a bit of predicament here. I sold the world rights in Leroy to Semex and they collected a pile of semen. I thought it would last them forever and a day. But they have completely sold out of his semen in about two years. and they do not plan to collect him again. They would rather move on to selling the other Shorthorn bulls they have. When they told me they were not going to  collect him again, I asked if that meant that I could collect him and sell it myself. They said that I couldn't because they own the world rights in him.

So now, I get phone calls from people wanting to know where they can get some Leroy semen and I have to tell them that at least for the time being, there isn't any. We will see this fall......

 

[Jill]

I'm guessing the thing to do would be to have steer planet bombard Semex with request, that might get the ball rolling.  Nice group of cattle!

 

[nck21]

I hope he keeps producing for you because he's a great looking bull. The calves look very nice..

 

[Davis Shorthorns]

Looks like you guys finally greened up and got some good weather! 

Cattle look good, you need to send me one of those good Canadian heifers one of these days.

Yes it is green, but we are never more than two weeks from a drought.  As my grandfather used to say we get 9 months of winter and 3 months of poor sledding. As for getting a Canadian heifer, it really is quite simple. Send me a check, and I deliver her... haha. I am usually through Iowa two or three times a year. How much more simpler can it be???

a check you would take a check well heck I can get you a check. 

 

[justintime]

Here is a pic of a flushmate sister to Touchdown. taken 2 years ago in the winter. She has an awesome heifer calf on her now, and she will be flushed soon.

 

[forbes family farms]

Those are what i call some impressive shorties WOW! You have some of the best grass i have seen this year.

 

[AStar]

Got any more pics of Major Leroy? What do his daughters milk like? good udders,feet? He looks like a stud. Have you crossed him with Black Angus?

 

[GM]

Wow!  Your cattle look amazing.  Major Leroy is very impressive!!!

 

[justintime]

The first pic is another pic of Leroy I took yesterday. He has been on pasture for two days here. He was on hay before that.

Second pic was taken when he was 6 on the day he went to pasture

Third picture was taken when he was 5 on the day he was taken from pasture to head to stud for collection for Semex. He had bred about 40 cows when this was taken

Fourth pic was taken when he was two at the end of the breeding season.

Fifth pic was taken when he was 6 after breeding cows for 3 months

 

[justintime]

Got any more pics of Major Leroy? What do his daughters milk like? good udders,feet? He looks like a stud. Have you crossed him with Black Angus?

I forgot to answer your questions when I posted the other pictures of Leroy. His daughters are moderate milkers, that is I think they are exactly what I want in my cows. They have enough milk to raise a good calf and still don't fall apart. They have very tight udders with small teat size. Leroy has never had his feet trimmed. When the Semex reps from Canada and USA stopped to see him, they said he was one of the most structurally sound bulls in their entire beef sire line-up.
I have used him on a few Angus cows and he has worked very well. One had some white markings like he has but two others were solid black. Here is one of his first daughters from a purebred Angus cow. She is 4 years old and we used her as a recip last year.

 

[justintime]

This pic is of a maternal sister to Major Leroy. We sold her in the Fever sale last October and she was purchased by John Hagie, Cyclone Trace Cattle Co., Clarion, IA. She will be flushed there. The Leroy daughters we have in production have udders that look much like this female. She was 3 yr old when this was taken.

I would also add that Leroy is proof that a new breeder can produce a good animal. Leroy was the first purebred calf born at Wolf Willow.

 

[thunderdownunder]

Just for everyone's interest, this is an Aussie Leroy son which I snapped this time last year- he was about 10 months old at this stage.
The Leroy cattle I've seen, both here and in the Northern Hemisphere, are lovely soggy, muscular cattle.

JIT, I hope you don't mind me posting this!

 

[justintime]

Thanks Carla, of course I don't mind.  The McDouall's at Dunbeacon should have a bunch of Leroy daughters in production by now. They purchased 300 doses of Leroy before Semex purchased his rights. I do love the way you Aussie's sample a new bull.... when Ian phoned me, he said they wanted to sample him in their herd, so he ordered 300 straws. Here if someone wants to sample him in their herd, I struggle to sell 5.

Like most bulls the Leroy's aren't perfect, but they certainly fit the pattern of what I am trying to do. I am really excited about using some other sires on our Leroy daughters. The top selling bull in our sale this spring, at $9000, was a Saskvalley Pioneer 126P out of a first calf Leroy daughter.

 

[justintime]

Here is a picture of a Leroy heifer calf that is out of a solid black Shorthorn X Angus half blood. The sire of the half blood cow was a solid red bull, so when this girl came along, I was left scratching my head as to where all the roan came from. I actually walked through the rest of the cows to see if some other cow had calved.