Shorthorn Bull

[sue]

Dover Ranch ad  1984 sire summary issue of Sh Country:

DOVER RANCH- PERFORMANCE SHORTHORNS

"Since 1968 nearly 5000 hd of our shorthorns have been performance tested at Dover Ranch facilities through Montana Beef Performance Association."

"The demands of a tough environment on the cow herd plus excellent performance program have kept these shorthrons clost the mainstream of the cattle industry. Hundreds of Dover Ranch raised bulls and females at work in commerical herds."

This quarter page ad goes on to say they are in a 2nd year severe drought and wish to sell 100 hd of females from the heart of the herd- bloodlines to include : LR Randolph, Massive Major Green Valley Captain 3rd ( CO's granddam is linebred this way kinda why I picked that name)  Walern Monarch  G9  and others....

I have had a stack of the 80's Sh countrys for the last year and enjoyed reading DRC ads,  I enjoy the influence of the cattle even more... you cannot get enough of the gene pool. time tested

 

[sue]

okay Im on a roll:
Page 22 1987 issue of the Shorthorn Country "the Tartan Plaid" .... for those of you who dont "get the whole Lassie thing" .... read this article. In a nut shell - Shorthorn Lassie rectifing the distribution of shorthorn influence .
Page 22; written by Faye Korthaus ( pres of National shorthorn lassies) article in the bottom right hand corner appears a picture of Maurice Korthaus holding  Sutherland Mick 434 for activities before the game at the Louisville Redbirds field "at the left of the bull is Faye holding a young baby.... shorthorn owns docility. Great caption under this photo " seizing the opportunity to do some excellent promotion and accomplish some good public relations with urban segments, the Maurice Korthaus Family, managers at Stonlea Farm.

 

[sue]

bACK TO DOVER ARTICLES- 1985 pg 56. "Dover Ranch Shorthorns making their Heritage

Dover recalls 1000 of hd of feeder calves sold in  ASA feeder calf sale ( seems like Red Angus does this today?) all of the cattle from Montana producers, recalls Sindelar . Hey I have the paraphrase button on.... article goes on to say they maintain a Red hide color .
Facinating phot of Dover females on pg 62 - udders, feet and beefy look.
"the some 300 hd cow herd is under an intensive performance program thru the montana beef Performance Assoc. The production testing weight were taken in 1956 and the firm joined the state group in 1968. Literally thousands of testiing records are on firle at DRC ( Dover Ranch), like many others, is very conscious of BIRTH WEIGHT figuresas part of their performance progrm. To emphasize the fact, Sindelar recalled one bull with a 105 pound birth weight . "He was an excellent calf, probably one of the best, but the commerical men just kept passing him by when they saw the figures. He finally sold to a guy going to use him on Mature cows". COMMERICAL men getting real aware of birthweightss"
This articlel goes on to say - both bull test entries and on ranch testing program from Sept to March . Fed a growing ration consisting of ground hay and usually spelt. bulls average nearly 3 #/ day. Some 80-90 hd of bulls sold privatley..... again this article was written in 1985.

 

[r.n.reed]

I will always remember a visit to the Dover Ranch in July of 2005 during the BIF meeting.Probably one of my most memorable Shorthorn conversations took place in Dover's living room that afternoon.Present were Les Mathers,Barry Jordan,Bill McLean,Nick Hammett,Ron Bolze ,myself and of course Dover.We covered a lot of ground in a short time,a lot of great stories and words of wisdom from Dover that day.

 

[sue]

I think it is fair to say that " DRC is a brand ". 

 

[sue]

what happened to ALSCAL POLLED SHORTHORNS, Cayucos California??

Love the looks of  Silsadra Spicy Hope 2nd

 

[r.n.reed]

He kind of reminds me of the old LR Randolph bull Dover used in the 70's.

Interesting thing is he has many crosses of LR Randolph 14th way back in his pedigree!

I have seen this in my own herd.A bull that I last used 25 years ago has made his presence known in my herd again.

Hopefully it was a positive presence!

If you can get past the two headed 3 tail deal they look pretty good! ;D

 

[RyanChandler]

Picked up the Drover bull a couple weeks ago. I turned him out with the 5 heifers from Lovings and the 2 AHL heifers I got at the Texas State sale.  I am very impressed with the bull. 

 

[DRB]

Picked up the Drover bull a couple weeks ago. I turned him out with the 5 heifers from Lovings and the 2 AHL heifers I got at the Texas State sale.  I am very impressed with the bull. 

Nice looking bull XBAR.  I try to stay away from horns, but definitely still have some that turn up every once in a while   I'm a fan of the Dover breeding.  (clapping)

Apparently you can tell quite abit about a bulls life (fertility impairements) by looking at the horn growth and colour.  Have to look up which way it goes but I thought it was light/white coloured rings/sections on normally dark horns would indicate a fertility impairment several months back.  If they returned to normal colour than he likely has recovered (never back to 100% though).  More of a life record, rather than immediate indicator like looking at hair.

 

[RyanChandler]

Here's a better pic of his horns.  I know he's been rubbing trees like a buck. Horn flies are pretty bad.  The red on the horns is from him peeling the paint off in the inside of my cattle trailer. 

 

[Okotoks]

I really like the Drover bull (thumbsup) I don't think he has what they would have considered good horns back in the day but that said a lot of good bulls were overlooked because of their horn type. I have attached a an excerpt from Alvin Sanders SHORT-HORN CATTLE wher he talks about one of the breeds most famous bulls Champion of England being by Lancaster Comet, a bull that wasn't used much because of his horns being the wrong type!

 

[cornish]

I didn't know something that gets cut off played a big role into selection.

I sure don't breed for that at my place-- they don't get longer than 4 or 6 inches around here.

 

[RyanChandler]

I didn't know something that gets cut off played a big role into selection.

I sure don't breed for that at my place-- they don't get longer than 4 or 6 inches around here.
[/quote ,

I dehorn heifers as calves.  I personally like the looks of horns on my bulls - gives em a rugged look    I've never understood the resistance to horned genetics really, I guess dehornings just not that big of a deal to me. 

 

[garybob]

I didn't know something that gets cut off played a big role into selection.

I sure don't breed for that at my place-- they don't get longer than 4 or 6 inches around here.
[/quote ,

I dehorn heifers as calves.  I personally like the looks of horns on my bulls - gives em a rugged look    I've never understood the resistance to horned genetics really, I guess dehornings just not that big of a deal to me. 

wasn't there an article in last year's July Shorthorn Country issue about a rancher down in the Brush Country of South Texas that was selecting for horned Shorthorns, due to the feral hogs and coyotes and big cats down there? I think he was down around San Angelo.

GB

 

[cornish]

I didn't know something that gets cut off played a big role into selection.

I sure don't breed for that at my place-- they don't get longer than 4 or 6 inches around here.
[/quote ,

I dehorn heifers as calves.  I personally like the looks of horns on my bulls - gives em a rugged look    I've never understood the resistance to horned genetics really, I guess dehornings just not that big of a deal to me. 

wasn't referring to dehorning either--  like I said-- all of ours get cut off as calves-- and we have them every year-- so I would personally rather run 10 through the chute, as opposed to one... makes the whole process more worthwhile...

My comments were towards breeding to shape of the horn. 

 

[Dale]

When we were using the imported Scotch bulls, a flat horn that was not too large in diameter was preferred.  Once a bull imported by Les Mathers (granddad of the Les at Leveldale now) with us in mind had too coarse a horn for my family to like.  While that is just one more trait when selecting for multiple traits, who among us does not have specific characteristics to select either for or against?