K-Kim Gold Count is probably one of the best breeding bulls I ever brought semen into Canada from. I never heard a complaint from anyone who used him and more than a few breeders have told me, that their Gold Count calves were some of the best they ever raised. For some reason, he never caught on in the US like he did here. The semen supply I brought to Canada is completely gone and I sure could have sold more of it. A few years at the Royal Winter Fair, in one of the best shows I have seen in Canada in many years, the only Gold Count offspring that did not win their classes were in classes that other Gold Count calves won.
I also was not a huge Patent fan until his daughters came into production. I have 5 Patent daughters and 4 of them had their first calves this year. I am very impressed with their udder quality and their milking ability, and also am very pleased with how they held their condition while raising very growthy calves. They all calved by themselves and I think everyone of them are going to develop into very very good brood cows. All of them had very good calves.
I just returned from a marathon 2200 mile trip, in 3 days, to the US where I picked up a new stock trailer and then picked up Patent's mother and a set of ET calves I had at a cooperator herd in Minnesota. Patent's mom looks amazing out on pasture after the trip, and I am pretty excited to try a variety of different sires on her.
BTW, I normally find better weather when I head south and east, but this trip it was poorer weather the farther south and east I went. The ground was pretty white through South Dakota and most of Iowa. Barry Jordan had icy roads through Illinois and I met him near the Illinois border. The thermometer on my truck only moved 3 degrees on the entire trip... day or night, until I got close to home and then it rose considerably.
