i've been following total package for more than a year now.
probably the heaviest user of him other than DCC was scott rademacher. his catalog had some pretty impressive numbers by him that centered around what i'm looking for.
tenderness genes, he's at least hetero for all 3,maybe homo for one, he has some QG markers and he throws decent rib eyes. i may be wrong on this, but i think he can throw some white.
i bred my two cows to him. one is due march 10. she's a legacy plus out of a full sis to back draft, she's homo black and hetero polled and hasn't had any white yet. she's homo for T1, hetero for T3 and hetero for QG4 i think. she's already had a heifer that was 5/6 for tenderness and homo for QG4. no info on feed efficiency.
i used total package for tykia 77, not his sire. i also picked him because of his supposed soundness. i think he's 3/4 maine. he can also throw some decent marbling scores with minimal backfat. i'm praying for stacking the carcass related genes without sacrificing maternal, which probably won't happen. one can dream.
he's probably not going to add lower quarter or be even remotely a show steer bull. his performance numbers at rademachers seem good, with a couple really outstanding.
i think the maine's are underutilized in the commercial market.
derouchey said the reason he showed TP for a second year was that he was able to stay so sound. hopefully that is the case and i get two heifers, which means i won't.
there really isn't that much tykia 77 genetics. there is someone with around 25 or more heifers from him. they don't quite look as good as 322H, but hopefully the guy is agressive and will not succumb to the show steer thing with them and line breed them hitting doubles and more instead of going for home runs.
