Shorthorn News !!

[Will]

What is your opinion of Hazel Leap.  I have one daughter and several granddaughters.  They do not look that great but consistantly raise really good calves.  Some of our more successful show calves we had sold goes back to Hazel leap.

 

[Doc]

Will, I have always liked HL dtrs & Lazy D HL Quane (Hazel Leap son) dtrs. I had a Hazel Leap dtr of the original Miss Springfield cow that was a real good cow. They are usually mod. frame with real good milk production. Still have semen on both bulls.

 

[Will]

Will, I have always liked HL dtrs & Lazy D HL Quane (Hazel Leap son) dtrs. I had a Hazel Leap dtr of the original Miss Springfield cow that was a real good cow. They are usually mod. frame with real good milk production. Still have semen on both bulls.

One of the biggest mistake I ever made was not buying some Hazel leap semen.  About ten years ago I could have bought a semen tank that had  several straws of hazel leap,  it also had a lot of other really old shorthorn semen.  Alot of it was in amples.  I was not that familiar with most of it so I passed on the opportunity.  The worst thing about it was a widow who was trying to sell it and I later heard she sold the tank and contents to a dairy and he probably just through it away.    I wish I had a few more of those Hazel Leap daughters.  Mine are on the moderate side and are finer boned than I like, but thier calves are always stouter than expected and have a really good rib shape.  As you pointed out they all milk really well and breed back quickly.  We sold a steer a few years ago that had a lot of success out of our old hazel leap cow.

 

[justintime]

Hazel Leap was, in my opinion, one of the better breeding sires to come to North America from Ireland. He certainly did not get the promotion or the recognition he deserved, and his breeding merit did not get noticed until he was gone.Some people said his daughters did not milk as good as those from some other sires. That may be, but I never heard of a Leap daughter that did not bring in a good calf in the fall and usually they held their condition as well.  I have often wondered if there was any semen from him or his son, Lady D HL Quane around. Hazel Leap was one of the few animals by Deerpark Leader 8th to come to North America. If my memory is correct, the 8th was lost ar a young age so there was only a few cattle born from him. He was a brother to Deerpark Leader 4th who was in my opinion, possibly the best breeding bull of the Deerpark strain. The Leader 4th females were usually very tremendous females.
Hazel Leaps son, Quane, was a great one. Again, he probably appeared on the scene at the wrong time to get the proper recognition. Quane daughters are great producers. I saw Quane as an older bull and he was impressive, probably weighing close to 2500 lb and a real beef bull. If there is any Quane semen around, someone should try to gather it up before  it is lost.

 

[Show Heifer]

Here's a few thoughts....
First, shorthorn plus is just plain awful. First thing that crossed my mind was "gee, a commercial shorthorn is BETTER (plus) than a "purebred". Whoever thought of that sure wasn't thinking!!

Second, I agree with a thought from above (maybe itk), that there is no purebred breed anymore. Genetic selection works only so fast and angus getting super frame-y in a few short years along with white udders didn't happen because of "selection". Nor did the maines and simmies get black due to "genetic selection". Its pretty sad when you have to look at the sign to see what breed it is, or worse, call the number in the ad to see what breed the picture is suppose to be.

Third, My brain is foggy on this but, the limis have a Fullblood, purebred, and so on....I think that is good. The full french limis had a bad attitude, but you sure wouldn't confuse them for some other breed...no sireeee~!

Fourth, You mention the word heterosis to the typical bull/heifer buyer, and they look like your speaking ancient greek. But after explaining, and maybe proving, what it is, most will go for that "purebred" bull.

Fifth, most bull/heifer buyers don't give a darn about registration papers, as long as they trust the pedigree you tell them. My cattle are "registered". Meaning, I can give you at least 3 generations on both sides of the pedigree AND performance data. And it is even on my computer!!! I have a good reputation, so people trust what I tell them and realize of piece of paper means nothing to them.

Sixth, I still have a huge gripe with the angus assoc. Seems like they just don't give a darn about registering cattle from "little guys". I am hoping I will have better luck with the limi assoc...so far they have been great!

Seventh, Maybe all the breeds should just combined and make "The Amercian Black cattle Assoc" and "The Amercian Red cattle assoc." That way, color would be the only consideration, and the purebred would be equal to the crossbreds and no one would be paid too much money to come up with silly crossbred breeding names.

Eighth, Every breed has a place in the industry. Yep, even the Dexters, even the longhorns (like the one in the classifieds   ). As well as the belted galloways, limis, maines, shorties, angus, charlies (sorry can't spell!), correntias, beefmaster, braunvieh, gelvieh, etc. But if we continue to crossbred, the differences will disappear and so will the breeds.

Ninth, It is ok to have diversification within a breed. Clubbie shorties, and breeding shorties. That is ok, but lets not confuse the two.....heck, do we want to turn into the hog industry?????

Tenth, Do what works for you, and let your neighbor do what works for them. We can all get along if we both are honest.

I will now climb off my soap box and take some aspirin....I have a headache!! (clapping)

 

[stick]

I think I remember seeing in an old Shorthorn Country that Gordon Brockmueller still had semen for sale on him ( H L Quane). Not sure if he still does or not.

 

[garybob]

I remembered from 4H (circa 1987) the other day, that the one thing to put in your reasons, if you needed a "tie breaker" in placing a class of breeding stock, was "Breed Character", follwed by "sex character".

Where have we gone in 20 years?