Prairie Hills Gelbvieh - Breeding Program

2009 Natural Sires

Our senior herd sire is PHG FIGHTING IRISH N07. He has been used on heifers with no problem. He is giving length and depth in his calves with plenty of muscle. The Irish daughters are proving themselves as mothers with their first calves coming this year. The 2008 Irish calves averaged 81.8 pounds at birth, and 713 at weaning. Irish is a Beretta son out of a NiteVision daughter. We lost Irish this past winter, so these will be the last natural calves from this prolific bull. Semen is available through PHG.

We purchased DVE Davidson Pld Redneck 6T from Davidson Gelbvieh in Saskatchewan this spring. Redneck is a complete outcross to any US genetics. We really like the depth and thickness that this bull shows. He has a 76 lb birthweight and a 732 weaning. We used Redneck exclusively on heifers this year, so his first calves will be arriving in the spring of 2009.

2010 Sires

Due to the excessive drought that we experienced this year, we made the decision to forego any AI during the spring of 2008 and concentrated instead on natural breeding.

Our heifers were pen exposed to PHG Top Shelf T50, the high selling bull at the 2008 ND Golden Rule sale. We were only able to pen breed for a few weeks before Top Shelf had to go to his new home. The rest of the heifers were exposed to DVE Davidson Pld Redneck.

The remainder of the cows were again split between Fighting Irish and ELK Ck Formula. After PG testing the cows it appears that we successfully moved our calving dates up by one month, so the first calves should begin coming on February 1, 2009.

Our second herd sire is ELK CK Formula 957S. Formula was the high selling bull at the 2007 Black Hills Stock Show. He's a son of ELK CK Maverick who's a maternal brother to the Ring of Gold champion female Jewel. Formula is a moderate framed bull who packs a ton of thickness into a very smooth made package. His first calves arrived in the spring of 2008 and averaged 86 pounds at birth and 746 at weaning. The Formula calves have been proving to excel in their carcass traits as well, consistently ranking as the top sire group in Rib Eye Area, Marbling, and Backfat. We also lost Formula this past winter, so this will also be his last calves available.