Sugar Ray

[chambero]

Have any or you or anyone you've known gone back and used Sugar Ray again for anything in recent years?

His steers are what won everything back when I showed in the mid 80s and you still see him showing up in the pedigrees of lots of females.

One thing I've been thinking on is "dropping back" in years to use some of the older bulls.

We weren't breeding cattle back when Sugar Ray was popular, but I seem to remember that he was used to best effect on smaller, very thick, and and "steery" females.  Is that correct?

What were some of the knocks on Sugar Ray back in the day?

I've got a few little short and thick Kadabras I'm thinking about trying something "old" on for their second calf. 

I'd also welcome suggestions on any other older bulls that you can still get semon on.  We've got lots of Pistol Pete, Magic, and Smithbilt blood running through our herd.

 

[Dero]

The cattle that were on the uper side of being a toad is wat really clicked with Sugar Ray for us.

 

[yuppiecowboy]

I have actually seen a few recently. One was a very cool "Sugar Ray" looking steer calf that just got too big. He was out of an Ohlde cow with a negative frame score. A buddy of mine got a nice heifer that was, once again, too big and tight gutted but is going to make a great cow.

Truth is Sug isnt much for hair, even on lowlines they will be a little big, and  anyone that thinks heatseekers can be nutty never met a Sugar Ray calf. They could be absolute maneaters.

I have a few straws and I have thought about using him as an experiment because I have known some GREAT sugar ray cows, but I always chicken out.

I would use Total Play again if it were readily available.

 

[chambero]

I certainly remember the attitude on some of the Sugar Ray calves I showed.  Don't remember them having bad hair in the day, but of course that was 20 years ago.

Weren't most of the winning calves in the late 80s in the range of 56" tall?  I didn't know how much the shorter cattle of today would bring them down. 

Does anyone else remember the Woody steer that Priesmeyer's won almost everything with down here in Texas?  I thought he was prettiest steer I'd ever seen.  I don't think he was ever beaten till Houston where he stood Reserve Grand.

 

[Dusty]

A friend of mine was thinking about using Sugar Ray on the real squatty steery looking HW females.  I don't think he ever went through with it though.

 

[CAB]

  A friend of mine bred Sugar last year & I have been trying to get myself to pull the trigger. Cows are good uddered and fertile. Can calf tuff and also have the chi brains of coarse.

 

[Telos]

You will find Sugar Ray in Who Made Who, Full Flush (through Throttle), Taz the sire of Heat Wave's momma. I think he would work great on Maine's that have been down sized. Perhaps a real short and thick Cunia Derivative with a puppy dog attitude.

In most cases they can sure be goofy between the ears.

 

[Thornberry]

I showed many sugar ray's as a teenage and had a herd a chi cross cows back in the day.  Sugar Rays are one thing NUTS!  I never saw one or had one that wasn't crazy!  Even to this day if I see sugar ray in a pedigree it's not for me or anything I would want a young one to try and show.

 

[Jill]

I think the NUTS thing would do me in!  He might work on some REALLY soggy small framed cattle, but you had better start with some major depth.

 

[Thornberry]

Now that I think back on it.....I was nuts for having them. LOL  If my memory is correct Nero was a son of Sugar Ray.  They were just as bad.  I had fullbloods that I got along with as far as attitudes.  That was the rage at the time to have sugar ray  and nero sired steers.  I think at the time there was a bull called power play that sired usable show steers at the time. 

 

[shorthorns r us]

buy the semen now and save it for a time when frame size and performance will be rewarded more than what the next few years will yield.  

the preismeyer was 1987, right?

 

[yuppiecowboy]

Nero was the sire of Sugar Ray. Thats where sugar got his stupid. And the real cool head. Black Power Play was a big hitter steer producer before Sugar Ray hit. Yeah theres one you may want to use. 72 inches and 3600 pounds. Heard a story that Paul Clapp found Black Power Play in a salebarn and paid 500 bucks for him. I know of at least one quarters semen check was six figures.

 

[shorthorns r us]

Some names that will be a real blast from the past.

High Roller - sired by Nacho - if i recall he was owned by Copus
Black Joker - that limi craze got wild
Stilts - wasn't he the bull that first brought about the Hilbert name in IA
Polled Power - more limi anyone? - anything sired by Texs Ranger Ted was hot
Stinger - he came along about that time
Superformer - was he a Sugar Ray son?
Atlas - wasn't he popular in the chi world
"The Right Cross" - it was always in quotes - i think he was a Maine - he was highly touted but never produced
These are just names that i recall - Magnum & Steereo - they were probably chi or maine

 

[Steve123]

If you are looking for a throwback Chi try "Ildeno". Moderate frame, good feet and legs with great fronts.

 

[OH Breeder]

What about SCHWARKOPF ? 56% CHi out of Total Play