This. Thread. Is. Fascinating.
E6, I like the premise. There have to be a lot of overlooked and long forgotten shorthorns who could be very useful. Imagine the bulls born from 1980 - 2000 that didn’t have Rodeo Drive, Dreamboat, Ayatollah, Cunia, or Trump. That narrows it down quick. Here are a few that don’t have the influence of those bulls, who are not “native”, and who I have seen offspring that were very thick (although often times the freakishly thick ones were in show condition). I’m not saying I’d recommend them, but I am saying I’ve experienced very thick offspring from them. Most carry too much birth weight.
CC Cujo - born in ‘83, G9 son out of a Clark cow. His cattle were big, birthweight and frame. However, there were many on the moderate side who were super thick and very stylish. Interestingly, his offspring competed in the frame era and the width era.
C Cisco - born in ‘89, an Enticer son out of a majority Irish cow. His offspring had legs but man some were super thick. I didn’t have first hand experience with them, but I’m guessing they could eat a lot. He shows up in Jakes Proud Jazz pedigree. He was used at Cal Poly.
Elbee Leader - born in ‘92, very different pedigree - nearly all Elbee and Improver III going back four generations in his pedigree. Seen many moderate, super thick offspring.
MSF Equity - born in ‘94, I believe a former national champ as things began to moderate. Goes back to Enticer and some Irish over what appear to be straight Shorthorn cows. His calves were noticeable thick in that era, and pretty. Not sure why he fizzled but it could have been due to the rise of Trump and Doublestuff (maybe).
Deerpark Improver 2nd - born in ‘74, obviously needs no introduction. He sired some giants and was promoted as a big performance bull. However, he also threw some thick ones raised on nothing but grass. I recall the thickest bull calf I’ve ever seen at weaning being an Improver 2nd son out of an Impact 2 cow. His hind quarter looked like a finished steer, his top line was super wide all the way, but like many Improver 2nd’s his back had a slight curve, he had a lot of sheath, some leather up front, and a big square head with horns. But man he had an ass. There were many similar offspring, but this dude took the cake. I imagine what a set would look like nowadays not out of the old school dual type cows. Problem would be birth weights.
I would guess there are many others that weren’t promoted or collected heavily because they didn’t fit with the type during the frame era, or couldn’t compete with the “overnight” thickness provided by the the Maine influenced Shorthorns. Perhaps if the Shorthorn Association didn’t have the appendix program breeders would have been creative and used more thick beef Shorthorns to moderate out of the frame era.
