leanbeef said:vcsf said:I was always intrigued by the Fortune 500 bull but never actually used him. The main reason I never used him is that he is heterozygous polled and I did not want to risk getting horns. I know leanbeef said both Joker and Fortune 500 are homozygous polled but I was was sure Fortune 500 was heterozygous so I went back to look in an old Genex catalog and that is how they had him listed. I never saw many Fortune 500 calves as he saw limited use in Canada and in fact has less than 30 daughters registered here. I did have a friend who used him a little and was quite satisfied with the calves and the did look good. I do think that overall Fortune 500 was probably used in programs with more of a commercial focus than where Joker was used heavily. There are some very good cattle showing up with him on the bottom side of the pedigree. I found it interesting that when Ankony was getting into Simmentals and spending a fair bit of money that Fortune 500 was the black bull that they sourced and went out and bought as a mature herdbull. If you wanted to know more about the bull I would not hesitate to give Nelsons in Montana a call as they ran him for a number of years.
Joker has definitely sired some excellent daughters and I believe that has to be considered his strong suit.
I don't think anyone can argue the influence and impact of Legacy on the breed. If he had only sired his three sons in Dream On, Shear Force, and Ellingson Legacy M229 'Olie' he would still be one of the most influential bulls today. I have never seen that many direct Legacy progeny as he is another bull that only saw limited use in Canada but most of the ones I did see seem to be lacking in depth of body and bone. To me they seemed to be too refined and hard doing and I wondered if other people saw this also or if it was just the few that I have seen. Just wondering and not trying to cut the bull down at all.
I really liked the Nichols Blk Destiny D12 calves that I had and the ones I kept turned into excellent cows for me with lots of milk and good udders. I felt that they had more rib and bone than the offspring of his son Legacy that I saw. My only complaint about a few of the Destiny's was that they were a little bit heads up. They were not wild and would not try to take you but some did not take well to tight spaces and just wanted to keep a bit of distance from people. He is definitely a bull that I have considered going back and using again.
I also have used Bold Future on a couple of black cows fairly recently hoping to get some moderate blaze faced daughters. He is a non diluter but once again heterozygous polled.
You are correct!... Fortune 500 is HETEROZYGOUS POLLED & heterozygous black...my mistake! I remember that now. He came out about the same time as Franchise who would be Dream On's maternal grandsire. We debated on which of those bulls to use and ended up using them both just a little. The Franchise calves were also good, but I think the Fortune 500s made better cows in general. We didn't use him much because he was heterozygous for both, so we never kept any in our herd, but I have seen a few. He's one I would have liked to have found a homozygous black & polled daughter of... Momentum would be the son to use to add his influence without the horns/red gene.
My favorite cow maker hands down is Legacy. We have several in our herd and they are good doing, calf raising brood cows. Every one is in the top cut of our cow herd. I've seen some that were frail and narrow or tight ribbed, but if you use that bull on good, broody cows, you will LOVE the females! I notice him in a LOT of pedigrees of cattle I like in sale catalogs and AI stud books...how often do you see Destiny as the MGS of something you really like? I'm just saying...
We also had some Destiny calves with disposition issues. I had one bull calf that was nothing more than a wild animal! He was out of a very gentle cow and had two full sisters I showed and kept for several years... I still don't know what happened to him. He was wild from the very beginning.
I had seven Bold Future calves out of Angus cows this past fall. I have three heifers I'll keep and I can hardly wait to breed them next fall! Maybe I should come back with Legacy on them?...