anyone been to the bull stud lately?

Has anyone seen anything remarkable, both good and bad, at any of the bull studs recently.  Who were some of the standouts?

I went to Hawkeye West (Genex)in Febuary for work.  We saw only typical breeds like Angus, RA, Charolais, and Simmental.  Not sure if anyone would be interested, but I have a bunch of photos of bulls like Traveller 004, LT Bluegrass, and Major League. 
I must say that ALL of the bulls I saw impressed me more than their pictures did.  All but maybe one looked better in person. 

Bawndoh, could you go ahead and post the pics so that we can see them?

Traveller 004

LT Bluegrass
This bull is PHENOMENAL!!  Many producers from around the world have said that he could possibly be the best BEEF bull they have ever seen from all breeds.

Outback 604S (Black Simmy)

Photo 1-Kappes Detonator 626 (Black Simmy)

Photo 2 & 3-BHR Durango (RA) 

Photo 4 & 5-Beckton Hustler S426 (RA)

Photo 1 & 2-Doc Holiday 2N

Photo 3 & 4 & 5-LCC Major League

Photo 1 & 2-Sinclair Extra 4X13
If "gorgeous" could be a term for a bull, then that is how I would describe this guy.  He has exceptionally clean lines, and you can tell by his phenotype that he would be a major female maker.  He is linebred to EXT over 30 times. 

Photo 3-GDAR Game Day 449
This bull (IMO) looks very similar to the above bull as far as conformation.

Photo 4-Connealy Thunder- One of the heaviest muscles Angus bulls I have seen.  Notice the impressive topline. 

Photo 5-Woodhill Commander

i would hate to have to pay their feed bills!  lord have mercy!  i have never seen such "well conditioned"  bulls!   

(did not mean to offend anyone by my first comment....i apologize for my poor choice of wording...i have never seen bulls at stud...and it wasn't quite how i had pictured them looking...)

Isn't "fat" the same as "thickness"?        :-\   (Smilieys didn't work!!)

I do not consider any of these bulls to be fat. They are in very good condition.... and they should be. Nothing bothers me more than to have a bull come home from stud in poorer shape than when he went there. True sometimes they have to slim a bull down to get him to produce properly, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Most studs charge royally to house your bull and it is these places where most people see them. I  ently got one of our herd sires home from a stud 600 miles from here. He left here in January and came home in April. There were no issues with him producing semen as he averaged 470 straws each collection. Seeing I was only wanting about 1000 straws, he was only collected twice. He came home much thinner than when he went out and I was charged $8 per day for board. That really annoys me!!! I do not question the board charges when the bull is cared for properly, as I know it costs the studs money to maintain their premises and pay the workers.... but at least keep the bull in good condition, unless there is a very good reason not too. These studs get more vistors and many international tours to see the sires, so I would think they need to maintain these sires as close to optimum condition as possible.

From the pictures I think Hawkeye West is doing a nice job. There are some real red meat bulls pictured here as well as a couple that don't really turn my crank.

Show Heifer said:

Isn't "fat" the same as "thickness"?        :-\ 

Click to expand...

Thickness is a term used to describe natural muscling.  Usually animals are just thicker than others, although some may have thicker rear ends, and a not-so-thick topline.  You cannot feed thickness into an animal.  Fat makes them look thicker, but any good cattleman can see through fat.

Linnettejane
Not getting mad at you, but its like justintime said, some of these bulls are worth millions (in progeny), wouldnt you like to see them in good shape?  I would not really consider any one of them to be "fat". 
The only bull that was overconditioned was an "easy fleshing" bull.  I dont have his photo up.  Hawkeye does an excellent job from what I saw.  All bulls had plenty of wood shavings and excellent housing.  Not one of them gets their feet trimmed by Hawkeye themselves, and ALL of the bulls were athletic!!  Even the charolais bull I pictured came running in like a cat.  I have never seen-nor expected to see bulls who could move and jump and play like them.  I do have video of a couple as well.  Not sure if I can post video's or not.  I will look into it.

Bawndoh- Thanks for the pics and the report from Hawkeye! The bulls you have pictured here look pretty good to me.  You said that you saw Major League? Do you have any pics of him to post? If so, I'd be pretty interested in seeing them, I've been told that he would work on some of my Shorthorns.

The smiley things didn't work on my first post.

I meant it to be sarcastic....I don't remember how many times I hear a judge say "boy that heifer/bull is thick...." when really the animal is FAT. Same with going to bull sales!!  Just because an animal is fat, does not mean it is thick!!!

I know you can't feed thickness in, but lots of breeders try and lots of buyers buy into the fat=thickness theory!!!

But no, the bulls don't look over fat to me either.

Thanks for the pics!!!

Olson Family Shorthorns said:

Bawndoh- Thanks for the pics and the report from Hawkeye! The bulls you have pictured here look pretty good to me.  You said that you saw Major League? Do you have any pics of him to post? If so, I'd be pretty interested in seeing them, I've been told that he would work on some of my Shorthorns.

Click to expand...

The major league pics are on there.  There's two or three pictures of him.

My bad..I musta missed them. I guess I looked through them rather quickly before.  Thanks for catchin that one  ))

edited first post...

Bawndoh said:

Show Heifer said:

Isn't "fat" the same as "thickness"?        :-\ 

Click to expand...

Thickness is a term used to describe natural muscling.  Usually animals are just thicker than others, although some may have thicker rear ends, and a not-so-thick topline.  You cannot feed thickness into an animal.  Fat makes them look thicker, but any good cattleman can see through fat.

Click to expand...

Bawndoh,

I'm not sure I agree with you that any good cattleman can see through fat.  We've confused fat and muscle for so long, I'd go so far as to say far too many of them can't.  If they could, we wouldn't see all these "super thick" show cattle with more than an inch of fat on them.  It wasn't that long ago that many of the breeds were using ultrasound to gather data at their major shows - some actually gave the judges the data but a lot didn't.  What happened - the cattle that "good cattlemen" were selecting for being "thick" were in reality really fat.  I won't embarrass anyone, but a national champion female, in one of the most popular breeds, actually measured 1.1" of fat.  And guess what - that breed quit using ultrasound the very next year. A few years ago I found the data on one of our top show bulls from almost 20 years ago - his frame score and REA were almost exactly the same as the bull that won the same age class at Louisville.  Our bull was actually 1/2' taller and measured .4 sq in more of REA, but was outweighed by almost 300 pounds.  Now if frame is the same and muscle is approximately the same, what made the difference ----- FAT!

Need more proof - today's cattle are supposed to be heavier muscled and more "consumer desirable" than ever before.  If that's true why do today's cattle have basically the same REA with MORE fat than cattel from 10 to 20 years ago?  Look at the research data - we all think cattle need to be thick and easy keeping to be efficient, but too many are fat and light muscled.

I REALLY wish you were right - but until we learn the difference, we really won't see any changes in the cattle.