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.
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.
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.
2008 AI Sires
In addition to calves
by Irish and Formula, we also AI'd to OZZ Ideal Direction and
MCFG MCF Bruce Almighty. Ideal Direction gave us all heifers,
and every one of them is in the replacement pen. This group of
females averaged 88 lbs at birth and 698 at weaning.
Bruce Almighty is proving to be a great cross on the Fighting Irish
daughters. We bred a majority of our first calf heifers to Bruce
and didn't have any calving trouble. This is the second year we have
used him and have had wonderful results. Check the Show Results page
to see PHG The Rookie who is Bruce son. The Bruce calves averaged
82 lbs at birth and 721 at weaning, all from 1st calf heifers. .
2009 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 beging coming on February 1, 2009.