A new calving ease Shorthorn sire

trevorgreycattleco said:

4 countries? Which ones? That's great.

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Canada, USA, South Africa and New Zealand

justintime said:

knabe said:

how about a pic update on what sold last year JIT?

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What do you mean " what sold last year?"

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http://www.bouchardlivestock.com/pdf/2009/sep23/Fever2009.pdf

Lot 38

Hows that bull doing you sold? Did that lot turn out to be Bar Code?

Bump

trevorgreycattleco said:

Hows that bull doing you sold? Did that lot turn out to be Bar Code?

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tgcc... sorry for the delay in replying. I've been away the past couple days hauling donor cows to the ET centre in Alberta.

I'm not sure I understand which bull you are referring to here. We sold 4 Leader 4th sons last spring not including Bar Code who was kept here. It was a very hard decision which bull to keep here and I changed my mind several times before our bull sale. One sold to Ontario at $5500 and he has developed well and the owners have shown him some down there. Another sold for $3800 to a commerical producer in Northern Quebec. Two others sold to commercial herds here in Saskatchewan at $3400 and $2850. Last I heard every one is pleased with how these bulls calved and how they have developed. I also sold a set of 4 embryos in the Fever sale in Alberta in 2010 and I still have some in my inventory yet. As I mentioned earlier, there is no Leader 4th semen left so these are the last offspring there will be from him.  Let me know if it was one of these bulls you were referring to, or if it is some other bull.

jit, I think they're referring to the lot 38 pregnancy in the '09 Fever sale

Stick is right. Just curious to see how that turned out. When you read the footnotes , you were really high on this pregnancy. You were willing to share expenses in promoting the bull. I thought that was pretty ballsy to talk up a pregnancy like that.

trevorgreycattleco said:

Stick is right. Just curious to see how that turned out. When you read the footnotes , you were really high on this pregnancy. You were willing to share expenses in promoting the bull. I thought that was pretty ballsy to talk up a pregnancy like that.

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Sorry, I could not open the link for some reason so I was unsure of what you were referring to. That pregnancy sold in the Fever sale to an American buyer who did not realize that the recip had to be a Brucellosis vaccinate to enter their state. ( Canada quit allowing brucellosis vaccination at least 15 years ago so no Canadian animals are vaccinated now other than US imports)I offered to keep the recip her and calve her out and send the calf to them at weaning. The buyer asked if I would exchange the pregnancy for 3 frozen embryos. I agreed to do this. The pregnancy calved here and the calf was the bull we sold to Northern Quebec at $3800. It was a real toss-up which bull I would keep, and it was between this bull and Bar Code. I eventually decided to keep Bar Code. I would love to see the other bull now, as he was super thick and a little smaller framed. He is about 2000 miles from here in Northern Quebec, and the owners speak very little English so it is hard to even communicate with them.

I was really high on this pregnancy because of the uniqueness of bloodlines it represented. I knew it was going to be a bull calf as I had ultrasounded the recips.

Any updates on Bar Code, how his offspring look/perform? How does he look now, since this is an older post?

We purchased a Bar Code son in  2014 Sun Country sale on Grant's recommendation. He was not wrong. Consistency with a capital C.  Maybe no show winners, but no dogs either. All calves just like clones. Solid red. First daughters calved this Spring... nice udders. plenty milk.  But where he really excels is in an often overlooked trait that we have in the shorthorn breed.....  Docility !!!!    He is quiet, calves are quiet, daughters after they calve are quiet !!!!!

I lost Bar Code a few weeks before I was planning to take him to stud to collect semen. It was a big loss as I would still be using him on heifers if he was here or if I had semen from him. I sold a Bar Code son to a young couple who raise a lot of clubbies and they say he has been one of the best bulls they have used as well. They sold every steer calf in the calf crop two years ago for a 4-H project and several of them did very well at the shows. After I had urged them to collect semen on this bull, they agreed to do this, once he was done breeding cows last summer. In late July, they found him dead from a lightning strike. It appears this bull takes after his father, Bar Code! 
I still have a full sister to Bar Code and I love her. She is moderate framed and easy fleshing with a great udder and lots of milk. I am thinking she has to make the trip to the ET center before I lose her as well. I also still have 4 full sib embryos to Bar Code and I need to get them into recips and try to produce another one. The 3 full brothers to Bar Code have all bred very well. The owners of all of them have told me they have kept almost all their daughters in their commercial herds.

That sucks. Not the update anyone wants to hear. Good luck with the embryos. He looked like a good bull, and sounds like he was doing the right thing, the breed needs more of those.