What is the best Canadian shorthorn bull?

I was wondering who you guys thought was the best Canadian shorthorn bull? Now and of all time.

Mr. Gus 80C has to be up there.  Centurion and Wolf Willow Major Leroy are pretty darn good too.

Irish Mist, IDS Duke of Dublin & Huberdale Mastercharge.

I would nominate JT Titan 3T for the most underated Canadian Shorthorn bull of all time.

anybody got a pic of gus 80c?

attached

thanks...

all makes sense now...

Kinnaber Leader 6th x sired several national champions for, interestingly enough, Millbrook Shorthorns, in the 70's.  Any relation?  Louada Rothes King sired a ton of champions and top sellers in the 60's and was extremely influential in the States as well.  I assume you are asking about bulls bred in Canada, not imported.  I don't think the bulls mentioned so far would come close to his influence, especially considering there was little if any AI at the time.  Leader 21st x was widely used, but not raised in Canada.  Super Flag appears in almost every Canadian pedigree I see, but he was also imported.  There should be some support for Four Point Major x, Ball Dee Perfect Count x, etc., Grant can tell us more.   

The best Canadian Shorthorn bull of all time.... now that could include many leading sires. My nomination is Highfield Irish Mist,  and I am not nominating him because I owned him. He is nominated because he appears in the background of most Canadian Shorthorn pedigrees. For example, he appears 8 times is the background of Saskvalley Pioneer 126P , who would be a nomination for the best bull of today. Major Leroy is also siring some outstanding offspring

Another nomination for best bull of all time is Diamond Captain Mark 27C. He is also my nomination for best underrated bull of all time. His daughters are simply incredible !
Another unknown and unthought of bull is Shadybrook Optimum 75F... Optimum is one of the easiest calving sires I ever used on heifers, and every calf in my herd sired by Optimum has been sold as a breeding animal.... both males and females, including from first calf heifers. He also polls every calf and they are moderate and packed full of meat. 
There have been lots of great bulls, and everyone will have their favorites. IMO, 80C has sired some excellent calves but he has also sired some pretty ordinary ones as well.

justintime said:

Another nomination for best bull of all time is Diamond Captain Mark 27C. He is also my nomination for best underrated bull of all time. His daughters are simply incredible !
Another unknown and unthought of bull is Shadybrook Optimum 75F... Optimum is one of the easiest calving sires I ever used on heifers,

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Funny you mention this as we were going to use our last straw of Optimum on a 4188 heifer in the am. I remember dropping a 1/4cc straw a few years ago in the tank so thought I should check and it was all gone. S*#T!! Almost called you for one straw but then kicked a cow out with bull that we were going to AI to a different bull we just got semen on this spring and will use our last straw of him on the 4188 heifer.
I agree with you on Captain Mark. We are really pumped about our one red daughter of him calving to Matrix next spring. First time for that cross on her! Have you considered flushing Jade to Ol Matrix?
I also think that JT Titan was ahead of his time and could be very useful again, along with a very long list of other bulls.

Well, I by no means know what I'm talking about, but thought I would add my few cents worth.

After visiting 16 different Shorthorn breeders over winter, it was amazing the number of times I would point something out and hear the same bulls mentioned. I know alot are more recent bulls, but there a few 'older' ones there I think. As I'm not up to scratch on Canadian pedigrees some of these bulls may be closely related!

Some of these have already been mentioned, but my picks to date are: JT Titan, Diamond Captain Mark, Eionmor Ultra 8C, Muridale Buster 14K (so I guess I should also say Eionmor Ideal 69F, who's had a pretty big influence out here too), Banner Old Oak, Gafa Mohican. Also there were one or two Kenmar bulls whose names escape me.

One of the best, and a bull that appears in many Canadian pedigrees is Manitoba Sunrise.  Was popular in the early to mid 80's.  Made real good, extreme ribbed, useful cows.  Saw a bunch at Scotsdale years ago and went home and ordered semen.  Had to protect him on udders somewhat but I can't think of a better cow-making bull in the breed than him.  This is a bull that will be needed again to put some do-ability back into some of todays smaller, tighter-wound bloodlines.

Highfield Irish Mist may be the best Irish bull, but he doesnt count as Canadian. I can think of several Gloriadale bulls I would like to use today.

We had good luck with Canadian Image dtrs.

Shouldn't there be a Saskvalley bull on that short list somewhere?

justintime said:

The best Canadian Shorthorn bull of all time.... now that could include many leading sires. My nomination is Highfield Irish Mist,  and I am not nominating him because I owned him. He is nominated because he appears in the background of most Canadian Shorthorn pedigrees. 

Click to expand...

Grant do you have any pictures of Irish Mist that you could share with us other than the one I am posting below or at least a better copy of this one as it is the only one I can remember ever seeing and at least in this version is fairly washed out.  Also wondered if there were other pictures of Duke of Dublin and how old he was in the picture I am including.

I will see if I can scan a picture of Mist and Duke, as i don't have any on my computer. Duke was 3 years old when I took this picture. It was taken after he came in from breeding in the late summer. This was the year we had him and 12 of his offspring on display in front of the Exchange Building in Denver. Duke was exceptionally quiet. When I drove into his pasture, he would walk towards the truck. I would open my window and he would stick his big head in and lay it in my lap for his scratch. When Duke arrived here, it was about 8 months after we had purchased him in Ireland. He were surprised to see that he had been foundered, and the Kevin Culhane eventually admitted that they were trying to have him looking as good as possible when he arrived, and in the process fed him too much grain. Despite this Duke was able to breed on pasture until he was 9 years old. If he got lame, I would take a pail with some epsom salts and water out to the pasture. When Duke saw me coming with it he would lift his feet and wait for me to sit the pail down and then he would lower his foot into it. He would do this with all his feet.

This picture of Irish Mist was taken when he was 13 years old, a year before we lost him to a twisted gut. He is my all time favorite bull on my place. He never had his feet touched and had perfect formed feet which is exceptional for the Irish cattle as most of them were not the best footed animals.He could walk miles every day and at 14 years of age he could still walk across a pasture faster than I could. ( that isn't saying much!!) He calved easily, and he was capable of breeding large numbers of females. I never even thought about running him with 60 females. There were several years where he sired over 100 calves naturally, as he was used in my partners herds as well. He could settle 6-8 cows a day and do this on a continual basis.He always came in from breeding looking better than when he went out, he was an exceptional weight gainer on grass.  You could clean up poor udders by using Mist on them, and his daughters had beautiful udders. One of the best things I liked about Mist's daughters was it seemed you could breed them to virtually any bull and get a calf that was saleable or showable. I have had several excellent herd sires, but Mist will always be my " once in a lifetime" bull.

Tutira Captain Dutch was used extensively in the  70's. Scotsdale Rodney was an excellent bull. As far as imports.....yes Highfield Irish Mist is in alot of pedigrees, but back further in those pedigrees you'll see Bapton Constructor along with others many times also. Mandalong Super Flag would probably be another import that comes up many many times in pedigrees. If you trace alot of pedigrees back far enough in the U.S. you're going to find Canadian genetics.

My only experience with Canadian genetic was a Eionmor Mr Gus 85 C daughter.  Could not get her sold as a show prospect, but her daughters and grand daughters have been my most profitable cows.  I have wished many times I had used him and kept more daughters.