NILE/Billings Show, Lowlines

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dori36

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The Lowlines showed this morning at Billings and my genetics rocked:  All these are sired by my bull, ABF Fitz S219.  The belted bull is the same one I posted
yesterday out of a BueLingo cow and was Gr. Ch % Bull.  The female was Gr Ch % Female and is out of a half Angus/half Lowline cow I still have here, and the Gr Ch Fullblood bull is out of a cow I sold a couple of years ago.  Since I'm easing out of cattle, this was a nice group of wins for me.  My bull also won both Jr.Get of Sire
and Sr Get of Sire.  A very humbling day for my program.
 

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dori36

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Don't know what happened to the other pics but here they are!
 

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dori36

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.....and just to make him feel important, here's the sire about a yasr and a half ago:  ABF Fitz S219.  He's 10 and still breeding.
 

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TJ

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dori36 said:
.....and just to make him feel important, here's the sire about a yasr and a half ago:  ABF Fitz S219.  He's 10 and still breeding.

Congrats! 

The American Royal Lowline show is tomorrow & I've got 4 head that will be showing (2 heifers showing against one another in the same class).  From what I was told, several breeders went to the NILE instead of KC, but Glen Benjamin, Trevor Smith, David Whitehead, Neil Effertz & John Reed all have cattle at KC (all of whom have shown multiple National and/or Res. National Champs) , so it will be real interesting to see how it all turns out. 

FYI... Tomorrows judge for the Am. Royal Lowline Show is also a Lowline breeder (Jerry Adamson).       



 

dori36

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Hey, TJ, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!  Are you showing the heifers yourself?  I think the only breeder from this neck of the woods who went to the NILE instead of KC was George Jenkins because he has some partnership cattle with Jerry, the KC judge.  Let us know how you do!!    (clapping)
 

dori36

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While I'm crossing my fingers for TJ showing at The Royal tomorrow. I'll also be crossing them for a good price on red factored Lowline embryos I'm selling at the Lowline Sale at KC tomorrow at about 11am.  Soooo hoping for a good price! 
 

DL

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dori - nice cattle, fiingers crossed for both of you! (clapping)
 

TJ

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dori36 said:
Hey, TJ, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!  Are you showing the heifers yourself?  I think the only breeder from this neck of the woods who went to the NILE instead of KC was George Jenkins because he has some partnership cattle with Jerry, the KC judge.  Let us know how you do!!     (clapping)

Nope, I hired someone in Missouri to do the showprep & to take them to the show.  I planned to do it myself, but I had a 17 month old, 1/2 blood bull who hadn't ever had a halter on him when September started & I didn't have a good place to board him, break him & prep him for the show.  I was also busy helping someone harvest their crops during September, along with doing several other things & I knew someone in Missouri who could handle the job.  If I had only taken my 3 calves, I absolutely would've done it all myself & I certainly could've saved money that way, but I thought it might be a good idea to take the 1/2 blood yearling bull & I knew that it would greatly complicate things around here if I tried to break him & get him ready myself in that short period of time, so I hired it out.

BTW, I have 2 fullblood heifer calves (both in the same class), 1 fullblood bull calf & the 1/2 blood yearling bull at the show.  I haven't seen the cattle in about a month, but another breeder called me today & told me that they look really good in the display & the guy who is handling them said that he really likes the 2 heifers, so that's encouraging.  I guess I'll get to see for myself tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it all works out. 


 

dori36

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dori36 said:
While I'm crossing my fingers for TJ showing at The Royal tomorrow. I'll also be crossing them for a good price on red factored Lowline embryos I'm selling at the Lowline Sale at KC tomorrow at about 11am.  Soooo hoping for a good price! 

Dang, the embryos didn't bring what I needed for them so I no-saled them.  I'll either offer them again at the National Lowline Sale in Denver in January or I"ll hang on to them and put one in my good cow here.  That's show biz, right? 

How'd your day go,  TJ?

(dog)
 

dori36

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Well, this is gettin' plumb embarassing:  Another of my genetics, a fullblood bull (I sold his dam pregnant to my bull) just went Gr. Ch. Fullblood Lowine  Bull at the Royal this afternoon.  I don't have a picture of him yet but I'm bustin' my buttons for my old sire.  Go Fitz!!
 

Show Heifer

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Congrats dori. A very fine sweep indeed! (clapping)
TJ - how'd it go???? We want reports!!!! We want photos!!! ;D
 

dori36

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Show Heifer said:
Congrats dori. A very fine sweep indeed! (clapping)
TJ - how'd it go???? We want reports!!!! We want photos!!! ;D

Thanks!  Ok, just got this photo of the Ch. Bull. 
 

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TJ

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Show Heifer said:
Congrats dori. A very fine sweep indeed! (clapping)
TJ - how'd it go???? We want reports!!!! We want photos!!! ;D

How'd it go?  ;D

Show Report coming soon! 

In the meantime this is why I haven't posted before now... I left at 3:30 AM yesterday, drove 6 hours to KC, watched the sale, took a nap in the parking lot while it rained like crazy!  Got up about 30 minutes before the show & returned to the barn.  Watched the entire show.  Helped load the cattle & tear everything down.  Left around 8 PM.  Drove through some NASTY weather for about an hour.  Stopped & got something to eat.  Drove to St Louis in on/off heavy rain.  Stopped, got gas, a big cup of coffee & drove through more scattered rain on the way home.  Got home around 3 AM.  Went to sleep.  Got a phone call @ 6:30.  Went back to sleep. Got another phone call @ 7:30 & got up.  Went to go check all my cattle, etc.  Sent an email @ 11 AM, then left to go meet/pick up my cattle in Mount Vernon, IL.  Ate a late lunch with the guy hauling them, who had hauled them back to his place just south of St Louis last night along with his bull.  Had a blow out on the trailer on the way back & had to change the tire.  Dropped the babies off at one barn & fed & watered them.  Dropped the bull off at the other barn & fed & watered him.  Unhooked the trailer in a storm and I just got back to the house just a little bit ago... It's been a very interesting last 40 or so hours!!  And although I had some brief frustrating momoments with the weather & blown tire, it was actually kinda fun!! 

Drum roll....    ;D       
 

TJ

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1st,  I'm glad that I took that yearling 1/2 blood bull BECAUSE... 

;) ...

He was named the Grand Champion Percentage Lowline BULL!!  (cow)  (clapping)  (cow)    He had some pretty stout competition too!!  A couple of the percentage bull calves were 1/2 Maine X 1/2 Lowline out of females purchased from Mid Continent Farms.  Also, the Res. Champion was a Lowline X Gelbvieh, who was a couple of months older than my bull & he was closely related to last years Grand Champion.  However, my bull looked awful, awful good out in the ring... the judge commented favorably about his soundness, his thickness, his large testicles, his performance, his length, his softness, his shoulders, his neck, his overall phenotype & how he was the best bull suited for commercial producers.  I was excited to say the least!!   

I'll try to see if I can get a pic off Browarny's website & post it soon. 

More about how my calves did in a bit & they didn't do too bad either!!       
 

TJ

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dori36 said:
BIG congrats, TJ!!!  Was he a son of Doc?    (clapping)

Thanks & congrats to you as well!  I meant to post a picture, etc. last night, but I fell asleep while watching Rutgers & USF play... woke up @ 5:15 AM & realized that not only had I fallen asleep in chair, but I also didn't know who won the game...  (lol)

Nope, this bull was sired by a Transam son.   Actually, I only had 4 Lowline sired bull calves total last year...  BUT, we had 19 Lowline sired heifers born here last year!!  I'll never be able to do that again!!  What's even more interesting is that I sold a 3/4 blood female to a gentleman in Alabama right before she calved & it also had a heifer!!  I also bred Murrumbong Mary Ellen (one of Ian's imported fullblood's that he sold) to Doc & I was told that she had a really nice fullblood heifer last year too!!  So that WOULD HAVE MADE 21 Lowline sired heifers compared to only 4 bulls!!  Of the 19 heifers, I was also counting Murrumbong Ebony's calf, another one of Ian's females, who had a fullblood Robert the Bruce heifer last year... I didn't own that pair, but the calf was born here.  I don't know what caused all those Lowline sired heifer calves to be born, but I wish that I could figure it out!!  Actually, because of the heifer that my Grand Champion bull was out of, I was hoping that he would be a bull... and he was!!  SO LAST YEAR WAS VERY GOOD TO ME!!  I don't know the exact percentage of bulls & heifers born this year, but it's real close to 50% of each. 

Doc did sire several really nice heifers last year, but his only bull calf was a smokey colored calf, out of a Charolais female.  That smokey calf was a tank & would've made a nice heifer bull, especially for producing smokey show steers out of 1st calf, maine or club calf heifers, but I was not thinking about that at the time.  He was a really good calf, but the only thing I didn't like at the time was the fact that he was smokey/white colored.  Anyway, we didn't have a lot of extra room & we couldn't keep very many bulls & I didn't think that very many people would be interested in a white/smokey colored Lowline cross bull, so I cut him.  I also had another smokey bull calf that was a 1/2 brother to the KC Champion percentage bull, but he wasn't nearly as good as Doc's calf, so I cut him too.  My other Lowline sired bull calf was out of a Tarentaise heifer & was sired by Rufus.  That calf grew like a weed for a Lowline, but he couldn't match the quality of this Grand Champion bull, so he got cut as well. 
 

TJ

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Here he is, my Grand Champion Percentage Lowline Bull @ the American Royal in Kansas City, Mo... 

1/2 blood Lowline, sired by DCB Barclay (Transam X Admiral/Tara) & out of a 1st calf Tarentaise heifer (probably my dad's best Tarentaise cow family).  He's 17 months old in the picture & was just halter broken within the last 40 days.  Also, he could've stood some more weight & he is a "what you see is what you get" type of bull.  They don't get any more sound or travel any better than this guy.  As a matter of fact, he didn't even get blown off before the show (he hates a blower)... he was sprayed lightly & brushed before the show... that was the extent of his pre-show prep.  64 lb. birth weight... 675 lb. 205 adj weight.  38 cm testicles @ 11 months.  47 inches tall @ 11 months.  Also, he's a total outcross to all the clubby genetics & should be PHA & TH free!   ;)   

BTW, I added another pic with a little different angle... 
 

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TJ

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RE my 3 calves... I did pretty well & I thought they placed about where they should have.  My 3 calves were by far the least conditioned calves in the entire show, but none of them placed below 2nd!   

1st, my fullblood Doc Holliday heifer had some heavy hitters in her class.  One of the heifers in her class sold for $10,000 & was the high seller just a few hours before the show.  Another heifer in her class was a daughter of the 2 time Res. National Champion female, who is also the $33,000 all-time high seller @ the National Lowline Sale, & was sired by Trungley Tiger's Eye (a hot Australian Grand Champion bull).  However, my Doc heifer looked really  sharp in the ring & won that highly competitive class!!    (clapping)


My Tiger's Eye heifer was the prettiest fronted heifer in her class (according to the judge) & she placed ahead of another really nice Tiger's Eye heifer, but she got "out horsed" by the class Champion, who had been previously named the Iowa State Fair Calf Champion & who was later named the Grand Champion at this show.  So I didn't think that was too bad at all & it was hard to argue with the judges choice.

Later all the heifer calf class winners came back to compete for the division, the judge picked the my Doc Holliday heifer as the Reserve Division Champion behind the calf that was later named Grand Champion.  Once they all got out into the ring, we thought that my Doc heifer had a really good chance, but like my Tiger's Eye heifer, she also got "out horsed" by the same heifer that had already won calf champion at the big Iowa State Fair Show & my Doc heifer was named the Res. Division Champion.  No shame in that at all & once again, I couldn't argue with the judges choice... it's just came down to what you like more. 

Then in the Grand Champion drive, we thought that my Doc heifer had a legit shot at Res. Grand Champion & the judge looked at her long & hard, but she got beat by a really good bred heifer.  And even though I really liked my heifer compared to the others, once again, I couldn't argue with the judges choice... that was a nice animal as well, with a lot going for it.  BTW, I thought that judge did a real good job, IMHO. 

My bull calf also placed 2nd in his class.  He got beat by an imported ET calf.  The judge said it was really close & he said that he liked my bulls front end better, but the other calf was better conditioned & looked a little stouter in the ring. 

All in all, not a bad day & I was very happy with the outcome, especially since it was the 1st time that I had ever taken any of my own Lowlines to a Lowline show!!  After seeing the other cattle at Kansas City, I really like my chances if I decide to take my Doc Holliday Denver.  With some more condition... she's going to be TOUGH!!  I regret that we didn't take a picture of my Doc heifer at Kansas City, but I will take some here & post one soon.

However, despite doing well in the show, my favorite part of the Kansas City Show experience was the display... we tied my Doc heifer beside the center aisle & everyone who stopped to talk basically the same thing everytime... "she's nice" or "she's cool" or something very similar to that & I mean EVERYBODY... a lot of those people weren't Lowline breeders.  I obviously didn't talk to everyone, but I did talk to several & another breeder had cattle in the same display as mine & that was the same story that he told me & the fitters told me the same thing also.  2 college girls from Purdue (Indiana) borrowed her to show their friends.  Also, after the show, the fitters took her up stairs & paraded her around.  Part of that was for kicks, but I do think that everyone was genuinely impressed!  Regardless, we got as much traffic as could be asked for considering the small crowd that attended the Royal on showday.   


I also want to add that Dusty Morris did an excellent job getting my cattle ready for the show on short notice (especially the yearling bull who'd never seen a halter until after labor day!!) & he did an excellent job handling everything at the show!! 
 

TJ

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This is my friend's percentage Lowline bull who won it's class @ Kansas City.  His name is John Kaeshofer & he owns River City Farms near Beaufort, MO.  His bull, RC AL, was sired by a Transam son that I used to own.  So my genetics had a pretty good day at Kansas City.       
 

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red

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wow! great job to our Lowline group!!! Some awesome looking cattle to be sure.
(clapping) (clapping) (clapping)

Red
 
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