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Heifers will be at the Rapid City Stock Show

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river rat

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Just wanted to let anyone that will be at the stock show in Rapid City know we will be displaying a pen of 5 heifer calves in there commercial pen show and sale on Sunday Jan. 29th. They are the three heifers that won the Mellette County heifer show in August along with their 2 sisters. They are sired by a Linskov/Thiel bull we purchased in 2008 called LT Rancher's Choice 7265. We calved his first daughter's last spring and they were really impressive in terms of udders, disposition, and structure. Not sure if I'm too excited about selling them, but have over 250 head of cows bred to him for spring calving, so figured it might be good advertisement to let the public see some of them. They will be the Risse UV Ranch consignment, and my brother Jim will probably be the family member with them there so say hello if you get the chance. Hope the weather is pleasant.
 
Back in my Genex rep days the Lindskov-Thiel buls we leased both Angus and Charolais brought us the most satisfaction and the least customer complaints. I have never been there but they look to me like they run pretty practical cattle. My one head sample of SAV cattle-I had a Pioneer son that I ran through our all forage bull test was an eye opener-he gained less than two/lbs a day on the grass gain part of the test and phenotypically looked like a black Holstein. I think those cattle would work in a winter calving-creep fed type of operation quite well but in a straight forage deal not so well. I shudder to think about how his daughters would do.I'm sure your heifers will bring a good price-nice to see you've got alot of cows bred to him-I like to see cowherds with big groups of half sisters -my goal is to have a large number of F1 Lad daughters at our place-we tend to underuse good bulls and overuse some of the bad ones. I assume you drew your bull or else he's a dynamic breeder. That is a good practice that we follow also- it doesn't cost anymore than insurance and you preserve the genetics. Were using a bull that would of been 21 this spring-I admit there have been a few where I just tossed the semen but that has been the fate of some Genex and ABS bulls over the years too.
 
Yes,Nortern Rancher, we do use Rancher's Choice 7265 AI as well as natural service. The Lindskov/Theil bulls we have used have been quite consistent and very good in the female department. It's been our policy for quite a few years to collect young bulls we think are promising for insurance and then to insure the ability to use them heavily in the future when their daughters come into production if they are the type that meets our strict requirements. Yes I've dumped alot of semen on the ground but I've also bred hundreds of cows to a few of the really good ones. Ideal 0147, Ideal 5201, Ideal 7407, Ideal 5570, Ideal 332 and his son Ideal 6051, and now Rancher's Choice 7265 are the bulls we have used very heavily. There have been twice that many that have been left in the dust, but I'd rather dump some semen on a poor one than need semen on a herdbuilder and not have any. If you spend alot of money on a young bull it is pretty economical to get him collected if you have the ability to AI to him later. We tried a few of the promoted bulls as well, their son's usually perform pretty well, but the bull's we buy after looking at, and digging deep into their mother's side usually turn out to be the bulls that give us daughters that work best on our ranch. Well if you get a chance to be in Rapid, stop by and take a look, it will be a chance to look at a representation of our program.
 
You really get an idea of a bulls inherent fertility by collecting them-do you use the stud at Piedmont? A bull that collects 8-900 straws a jump doesn't run up too big a hotel bill at the stud-they just love the fatties they have to bring them down a bit then back up so semen will freeze. Alot of times the companies will tell you a bull is in short supply because of demand while in reality they are unable to produce any quantity of saleable semen due to over condition. I have a good bank on my Lad Horned Hereford bull-the next one hitting the stud will be our 60B son we bought from Fraser's-we'll probably put up some U's qualified semen so we have some to market when he's done proving out.
 
After culling my coming 5 year old bulls last week, every bull on the place is a half brother, all sons of Ideal 332. Never really thought about it until I was looking at the bull battery for next year. Should make for a consistent group of calves. On river rat's recommendation the whole bull battery will be replaced with LT Ranchers Choice 7265 sons within a couple of years. He hasn't led astray yet so I think I will trust his advice. :wink:
 
It can be hard to find groups of half brothers sometimes alot of bull pens feature a dog from every town. I'll never forget Wayne Stevenson showing me a pasture with 150 Rainmaker 340 daughters in it-I was star struck lol. Jorgenson's have run a successful program for years but they have a crappy website-I was there once but never got a chance to really tour the herd Lindskov/Thiel is definately a place I would like to go someday.
 
Good Morning-- we are in our third year of developing heifers & on the 28th of Jan. we will have 90 black baldy heifers for sale at Ft. Pierre Lvst. WE hope to go to the Stock Show and we will definitely look up your heifers. One of the challenges to an elite heifer program is to find elite commercial heifers to develop, breed and sell to cattlemen that want them. We have been fortunate to select heifers from quality herds in South and North Dakota and I am inquiring if you sell commercial open heifers. ? If you producers would like to see an elite set of cows, please take a drive up to Lindskov-Thiel in the summertime and Brent will treat you to a trip of a lifetime. No kidding! We took the opportunity last summer and came away with so many 'ideals' and Brent is truly a genetic 'frontrunner' and remarkable herdsman. Thank You for your time and I will be looking up your heifers! gene, & hope to see you on down the road.
 
Playgun, haven't been selling many open heifers for quite a few years, as the tax brackets have been more favorable to selling cattle that qualify as capital gains so been breeding almost all the heifer calves. I will agree with you on Brent's herd of cows. I don't know if I am more impressed with the angus or the charolais cows but they are both outstanding in terms of udders, feet, conformation, and type. The angus bulls have worked really well on our Jorgensen linebred cowherd. We ship Jorgensens 200+ bulls each year that they sell or lease in their commercial bull program, so if you are ever near Winner stop and say hi to Cody and take a tour of 1500 yearling angus bulls. The LT Rancher's Choice bull's mother was one of those cows that made snap your neck around when you saw her and so far most of his daughter's carry alot of the same look. If they make changes to the tax code the way the Democrats are threatning to do we may have alot of breedable heifers for sale in the future, and if that's the case I will definitly let you know when they are for sale. Yes Northern Rancher we do get our bulls collected at High Plains in Piedmont and have always had really good luck there. I know what you mean by fat bulls being hard to collect. I was visiting with one of the hired hands there last year, and he had some bulls from a very prominent North Dakota breeder that they either could'nt get to jump the dummy steer, and if they would do that, the semen wouldn't freeze. We have always had good luck collecting our Jorgensen and Theil bulls, even as yearlings. Your sure right that if they get after it quickly it sure reduces the amount per straw you get invested.
 
I went out to High Plains with Dr. John Ismay from sturgis when I was down there selling bulls I'd hang out around the vet clinic. John is quite the character everytime I got introduced me he made up a new proffession for me-I was Canada's biggest Norwegian Fjord breeder, a horse chiropracter and head of an elite Canadian squd sent to the states to A'I grizzley bears lol. High Plains was having some financial woes back then and he convinced them I was an investor looking at buying the stud-never a dull moment.
 
Had great weather for the show and sale. Our heifers were in the medium weight catagory and placed 2nd. They brought $1500 a head so should have maybe taken more pens!!!! We were waiting for the CA test to come back clean on their sire before we started feeding them, so they were just hayfed until 3 weeks before the show. They were some of the largest framed heifers we had, and they could have used another 50 pounds on them to make them as pretty, and covered as they need to be for a show like that. They weighed 740 lbs. which is plenty enough in our neck of the woods, but you know how it is at an event like that :wink: . If the Good Lords willing we might try it again next year, and feed a little more of the high priced feedstuff :( . At least I know the heifers the fellow bought this year won't go to pieces when he gets them home. All in all it was a good experience.
 

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