On the road again!

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justintime

Well-known member
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
4,346
Location
Saskatchewan Canada
We're heading out tomorrow delivering bulls in the US and will be heading to North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and possibly Missouri. My wife Chris, tells me that there is really something wrong with me, when I consider.... travelling about 2700 miles in about 4 days with a stock trailer full of bulls.... a holiday!  Well, it seems to be about as close to a holiday as I get! I hope to look at some cattle in Minnesota for an Australian breeder, and also hope to stop and see the Duis cattle again.
 

uluru

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
541
Location
Oakville, ON. Canada
Have safe trip
I did 5600 kms in four days and it took me a while to recover.
Too old for this type of travel with bulls and heifers.
 

justintime

Well-known member
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
4,346
Location
Saskatchewan Canada
Thursday night... dropped our last bulls off in Illinois today. 1500 miles done and we are on our way home.Another 1200 miles to go yet so we have some long days ahead yet.We have to and check out a small herd in Minnesota on the way home and hopefully we will have time to make some quick stops at a couple other places.

We dropped 3 bulls off at Hawkeye Breeders in Iowa yesterday  and I took a quick look at about 80-100 bulls in two of the bull barns. I'm sorry folks, but I was again distressed by most of the clubby bulls I saw there.Many were simply plain bad in every respect,and I was scratching my head as to what they had to offer the clubby business or the beef business in general. I could not help but think ( again) how much better this business would be if we could show breeding stock instead of breeding show stock. If I had to chose a single clubby bull that I had to use by analysing them in the flesh, I think my cows would stay open. Just my honest opinion!
 

justintime

Well-known member
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
4,346
Location
Saskatchewan Canada
We arrived home yesterday afternoon after 2820 miles on the road in 4.5 days and my wife Chris and I were still talking which has to be a good sign I think. Actually I'm not even tired which seems a little weird!! I wish we could have spent a few more days and visited some more herds along the way. I really bugs me when I have to drive close by some good cattle establishments and haven't got time to stop for a visit. We did manage to stop at Cagwin's where we dropped two bulls for a breeder in Missouri. The two Canadian herd sires there have really done a great job there. Alta Cedar Top Dog has produced a great set of breeding females, and the Visa bull is most impressive out on pasture and we saw some excellent calves from him. IMO, the Byland Misson daughters in their herd, are the greatest set of breeding females I have ever seen at Cagwin's. Don and Darryl were at Duis Farms the day we were at Cagwin's so we did not get to see them, but we had a good visit with Carey and Cindy. I really wanted to get to see the Duis cattle again, but after checking out the map and planning a route home, it would have meant another 6 hours of driving and close to another day on the road. If I had not been though the Duis herd last fall, I probably would have taken the extra time.
We stopped at a herd in Minnesota to look at a set of cattle for an Australian breeder and found a very uniquely bred herd. This herd is intensely linebred, with most of the cattle linebred to the Deerpark Kildysart cow line and the Deerpark Leader lineage of sires. Some of the females in this herd are the last straight Deerpark Kildysart's on earth, so they are very unique. None are left in Ireland after the Deerpark herd was dispersed, and no others are in North America, as they have been crossed with other bloodlines. I am working on getting some of these cattle and flushing them and sending the embryos to the Australian breeder.
When we were importing Irish cattle from Ireland, I was told several times by the Irish breeders, that the Kildysart cow family was the greatest producers of herd sires. When I think of some of the good breeding sires from the Irish lines, such as Deerpark Dividend, IDS Duke of Dublin,Deerpark leader 4th, Deerpark Leader 20th, Deerpark Improver 2nd, I think they may have been right.
 
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