Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

I enjoy walking through the aisles of all the breeds at shows.  Last week I saw some Angus heifers that had to be pushing 16-1700 pounds.  Time to moderate?  Yeah, right.  The show cattle of most every breed are still big.  15-20 years ago there were ton Angus Junior Yearling females in Denver and I'll bet there will be some again next January.  Many years ago Rick Hoyt judged Shorthorns in Louisville.  He commented about how big the cattle were, but said something that I always thought and really agree with.  He said that show cattle will always be bigger than their commercially oriented relatives simply because of how they have been handled.  Show cattle, for the most part, never have a hungry moment, always have a comfortable environment, and never have to walk around 240 acres looking for feed. Cattle taken care of like show cattle will generally be heavier at all stages of life.  Or at least until their show careers are over!  I still say the best way to buy true breeding cattle is to identify somebody that raises cattle similar to how you do, has genetics you think will work, and pick them out in their plain clothes.  Why anybody wanting a herd bull would buy a bull out of a show barn is beyond me.  Unless, of course, his sole purpose is to produce show calves.

But wait............. AJ, If you agree with Oakview does that mean you are only selling show calves by your Denver Champion?

Sorry AJ I could not resist.I concur with Oakview as well.Happy Thanksgiving !

Here is another picture of Free Spirit. We now have semen stored at Hawkeye for the US. Semen also available in Canada and a large shipment of his semen is in the process of being shipped to Ireland. A group of Irish breeders have purchased the European semen rights in him.

That bull is flat out good.  I liked him in the original post, but his development has been incredible.  I stumbled across some cow named 'Dorothy' that he might work on.  At least he'd be an improvement over the Angus bull she was bred to when I got her!  (Private joke with the UB). I haven't AIed too many over the past few years.  Might be time to get the kit out of the basement.

I think that he would do a lot of herds a lot of good, his dam is one of my all time favorite females in the breed. Free Spirit was one of my favorite bulls at Agribition in both 2012 and 2013.     

I thought I would post a picture of our Free Spirit bull as he looks after a month of breeding cows on pasture. He was 3 year old in February and weighed 2508 lbs then. I am really pleased with how he is holding his condition on pasture after breeding most of the cows he is with. I think he is close to what a real beef bull is supposed to look like. He has tremendous thickness and length and is quite moderate framed. He has great feet and legs and excellent testicles ( 44 cm). After seeing his first calves here, we are using him extensively in our ET program and have already sold embryos sired  by him to Scotland and the US. So far, all his calves have been born unassisted and all have been in the 88-95 lb range. We have sold the European semen rights in Free Spirit to a group of breeders in Ireland. We have semen stored in the US at Hawkeye Breeders, in Iowa and in Canada at Alta Genetics and Eastgen in Ontario. Of all the bulls we have collected over the years, Free Spirit holds the record here of producing 1328 straws of excellent quality semen on his first collection.