Jaime- Thanks so much for putting up the pictures! Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to post ‘em myself. I was barely able to figure out how to take these pictures with my phone camera!
The first calf is a Boa Kae Royal Oak (1963) son with an 84 lb BW. He is out of one of my DRC (Dover Ranch) cows. To me, his phenotype exemplifies the type I consider will make a “maternal” sire. Playing around with these older genetics is kind of fun for me. I am a bit concerned about not having had the opportunity to evaluate the females in the paternal lineage. Maternal excellence is the cornerstone of our program and I sure don’t want to mess it up with unknowns. This is the 3rd calf for this young dam. She has a picture perfect udder and also had excellent carcass ultrasound as a yearling.
The red calf is by Coalpit Creek Leader 6th and out of another really nice Dover Ranch female. I think he most closely resembles his sire at this age. He’s a bit younger than most of his contemporaries. He had a 78 lb BW. The kids and I weigh all the calves on a good scale slung from the bale spear within 24 hours of birth.
The light roan is by Coalpit Creek Leader 6th and out of a DRC 101VM (“Dover”) daughter. He had a 79 lb. actual BW. ( 83 lb adj.) The maternal line comes from some old Trexler breeding as well as RB Ruby 126th who ended her career here at age 18. This calf has been a favorite of many visitors over the summer. I would sure like to see this calf go on to be used on a commercial black herd as I feel he would produce a lot of outstanding blue roan females.
I took this picture of Coalpit Creek Leader 6th about 2 weeks ago. I had to load him to haul to haul to another pasture so went in the trailer with the measuring stick and got an accurate hip height of 55.5 inches. This would put him exactly at a frame 5 according to the BIF guidelines for a 3 year old. I didn’t get a chance to weigh him. I think 2,200 lbs would be close at this time. He does very well on summer pasture and on straight grass hay in the winter. We nicknamed him “Easy” due to his fleshing ability as well as disposition. He seems to really pass on these qualities to his offspring. His dam was HHFS Impossible Dream by HHFS Dream Weaver. She maintained a perfect udder until she died at 15. His sire, of course, is Kinnaber Leader 6th, a three time “Sire of the Year” over his career. I always admired Grant’s Pheasant Creek Leader 4th bull and hope that this ½ brother will prove as good. I’ve long suspected that some of the older genetics may have marbled well and was not disappointed when, at 508 days, this bull had an actual Rib Fat measurement of .32 and his actual IMF was 4.89 on very low inputs.
While on the subject of good females, I want to publicly say that I am really pleased with the Frimley Ultra Susan 43U that I got from Dan and Jill (Okotoks) as a calf. So far, as a 3 year old, she has produced 2 very moderate BW heifer calves that have outstanding in-herd ratios for weaning weights. She shows every indication of being around here a long time!
