Doc
Well-known member
justintime said:I am beginning to think I am repeating myself here. I do not think you can role all the offspring from any bloodline into a blanket statement in regards to anything. If you have been around the Shorthorn breed very long you certainly will remember the Ayatollah era and his offspring. Most everyone would say that Ayatollah sired cattle were too tall, too hard doing and not structurally sound to work most anywhere, let along a commercial setting. I will say this.... that the very best Shorthorn female I have ever set eyes on was a daughter of Ayatollah. She was a tank on a moderate frame. She was probably the thickest biggest volumed female I ever sae. She was raised in a herd that ran it's cows very commercially and this cow had a perfect udder and came in each fall with a big calf and was rebred to calve early the next spring. She milked well, but did not millk so much that she looked like an Indian dog when she came off native pastures in the fall. I tried many times to buy this cow but never got the job done. She was still working hard at 13 years of age and still looked like a 4 year old, that last time I tried to buy her.
My point is that we all need to applaud the good ones regardless of where they come from and what bloodline they represent. We also need to be willing to send the bad ones packing, regardless of the bloodline they represent. I think it is far too common for someone to keep a really poor animal simply because their sire or dam was a supposed " great one". I see this all the time at sales. I saw a cow sell in excess of $15,000 last year that in my world was not worth $500, but her dam was a " big name producer". I also saw a set of ET calves at a leading breeding establishment that really brought home the fact that they all aren't great ones. There was one heifer in this set that was truly outstanding, and she sold for more than 5 figures. Another couple of heifers were quite acceptable, but not in the same league as the real good one. One bull calf was good enough to make a good herd sire for someone.... BUT there was one heifer and one bull in this set of full sibs that were JUST PLAIN GOD AWFUL!!.
I have attached a picture of a Trump grandson I used that was about as easy fleshing as any cattle beast comes. I purchased this bull in Denver and bought him for a song simply because he was horned( that is a good topic for another discussion on here... that being, how much extra should polled cattle sell for comapred to horned cattle of equal quality). I turned him out with 35 polled females and we had 2 horned calves in his first and only calf crop. He died two days before he was supposed to go to stud ( he rolled over in the night and got stranded in a hollow, bloated and died) . As I said this bull gained weight just thinking about his feed and his offspring were the same. His dam was a US National Champion female sired by Trump ( YOU KNOW.... that bull whose offspring really stink once they come off the self feeder)
JIT, Was his sire Mastercharge?
