red
Well-known member
This was written by Knabe. He did a great job with some of his comments & information!
My Vote this week for bull hall of fame is, and to quote, too many
livestock auctioneer's, but not in this case, the immorrrrtal, ILDENO.
Other's hopefully will ad to the following. Chianina's were one of the
later imorted european breeds due to quarantine space limitations when the
craze for leaner and growthier beef hit the 70's.
Ildeno was one of these
imported bulls by Tim Ohlde (don't know if that's true). His Semen
was $30.00 a straw (accuracy?) When crossed on angus, maine anjou and
amerifax cattle, they sold like hotcakes in the show steer arena for
$2-5000 on up in the 80's. Calves were sold all over including a sale
every year at Cal Poly where college students with no experience learned
to gentle cattle and gain show experience. Most of the students who
supervised these projects were excellent show jocks, were on the judging
team that won a lot.
Ildeno stood out as a sire of show steers. During
this time, black hair coats finally gained traction as a standard for
carcass quality, so breeders went looking for that next Ildeno, as long as
he was black. There was an endless play on words indicating black,
as well as %chi to take out some of the growth. I thought Ildeno was
a somewhat moderate growth bull compared to some of the other chi's
available. Steer divisions had to be changed to allow for larger animals.
Carload after carload of steers won at Denver.
Of course there was a few
problems. Chi's could jump higher than hunter jumpers, some were spooky,
especially the curly haired ones, birth weights were an issue, I pulled a
few over 150 pounds, resulting in a lot of labor expense. I feel the
attitude issue was a little overblown, i've known a few angus i wouldn't
get near, and i'm sure everyone has their own special noted exceptions.
one time I was feeding a curly haired steer tied to a donkey and he jumped
on me. All I saw was his belly. Knocked me out cold, tore my favourite
shirt and bruised my ego. Many a chi steer jumped over the wash rack.
Ildeno created a buzz in the steer jock game, the likes haven't been seen
since.
A few bulls have come along since with similar success such as
sugar Ray, but none with their original coat of paint. If you couldn't
pick out an Ildeno butt or head, you didn't have any cred. A lot of his
steers had a mole on their right cheek, just like a movie star, which most
knew they were. Alas, it all ended. Ildeno lived to a ripe old age back
at Ohlde's place after serving for years at stud. Rank to the last, you
couldn't go in his pen, but he would curl up side the fence and beg you to
scratch the fly scabs.
I thought it was a strange time in the 80's for
cattle. There was a big debate about portion size, and how too big a
ribeye was bad because people couldn't eat it anymore. Chi's to me had a
moderate top line, in spite of showing definition, they were not that big.
Cal Poly had a steer futurity every year where they fed out groups of five
of many breeds. Chi's were somewhere middle of the road. I took pictures
for 3 years when the steers came in to the feedlot, 3-5 days before
slaughter and a picture of every ribeye. They had decent marbling and
seemed to average in the 13-14" range, which didn't translate based on
their weight by formula which indicated something higher in the range of
15 or so.
All in all, Ildeno was the Tiger of his day, and in my book,
has never been equaled for impact on the show industry, his ability to get
kids to raise their standards giving reasons, fitting, feeding etc. Many
a competitor who didn't have an Iledno steer could be heard cussing under
their breath. A true legend.
Picture is of an ildeno steer pic of two city girls amazed you could pet a
steer.
My Vote this week for bull hall of fame is, and to quote, too many
livestock auctioneer's, but not in this case, the immorrrrtal, ILDENO.
Other's hopefully will ad to the following. Chianina's were one of the
later imorted european breeds due to quarantine space limitations when the
craze for leaner and growthier beef hit the 70's.
Ildeno was one of these
imported bulls by Tim Ohlde (don't know if that's true). His Semen
was $30.00 a straw (accuracy?) When crossed on angus, maine anjou and
amerifax cattle, they sold like hotcakes in the show steer arena for
$2-5000 on up in the 80's. Calves were sold all over including a sale
every year at Cal Poly where college students with no experience learned
to gentle cattle and gain show experience. Most of the students who
supervised these projects were excellent show jocks, were on the judging
team that won a lot.
Ildeno stood out as a sire of show steers. During
this time, black hair coats finally gained traction as a standard for
carcass quality, so breeders went looking for that next Ildeno, as long as
he was black. There was an endless play on words indicating black,
as well as %chi to take out some of the growth. I thought Ildeno was
a somewhat moderate growth bull compared to some of the other chi's
available. Steer divisions had to be changed to allow for larger animals.
Carload after carload of steers won at Denver.
Of course there was a few
problems. Chi's could jump higher than hunter jumpers, some were spooky,
especially the curly haired ones, birth weights were an issue, I pulled a
few over 150 pounds, resulting in a lot of labor expense. I feel the
attitude issue was a little overblown, i've known a few angus i wouldn't
get near, and i'm sure everyone has their own special noted exceptions.
one time I was feeding a curly haired steer tied to a donkey and he jumped
on me. All I saw was his belly. Knocked me out cold, tore my favourite
shirt and bruised my ego. Many a chi steer jumped over the wash rack.
Ildeno created a buzz in the steer jock game, the likes haven't been seen
since.
A few bulls have come along since with similar success such as
sugar Ray, but none with their original coat of paint. If you couldn't
pick out an Ildeno butt or head, you didn't have any cred. A lot of his
steers had a mole on their right cheek, just like a movie star, which most
knew they were. Alas, it all ended. Ildeno lived to a ripe old age back
at Ohlde's place after serving for years at stud. Rank to the last, you
couldn't go in his pen, but he would curl up side the fence and beg you to
scratch the fly scabs.
I thought it was a strange time in the 80's for
cattle. There was a big debate about portion size, and how too big a
ribeye was bad because people couldn't eat it anymore. Chi's to me had a
moderate top line, in spite of showing definition, they were not that big.
Cal Poly had a steer futurity every year where they fed out groups of five
of many breeds. Chi's were somewhere middle of the road. I took pictures
for 3 years when the steers came in to the feedlot, 3-5 days before
slaughter and a picture of every ribeye. They had decent marbling and
seemed to average in the 13-14" range, which didn't translate based on
their weight by formula which indicated something higher in the range of
15 or so.
All in all, Ildeno was the Tiger of his day, and in my book,
has never been equaled for impact on the show industry, his ability to get
kids to raise their standards giving reasons, fitting, feeding etc. Many
a competitor who didn't have an Iledno steer could be heard cussing under
their breath. A true legend.
Picture is of an ildeno steer pic of two city girls amazed you could pet a
steer.
