Wanted to share a bit of a project with quite a bit of history stacked up behind it.

I've wanted to pair two bulls I consider to be two of the greatest cow makers available for quite some time, but had yet to get anyone to sell me an amp of semen on one of the bulls I needed to make the pairing happen. After nearly giving up, the pairing I had been working toward appeared in a national sale as an embryo package from a cow line that happens to rank up near the top of my all time list as well. How the mating happened is another story of a great cow man placing the amps of semen in the hands of a young guy, at the time, with the instructions to wait at least twenty years before using it on his best cow. Fast forward through all the waiting game and this guy hit the ground at 87lbs out of a western origin big "angus" recip several days after her due date. Won't say how many hours I stared at the tv watching the barn cam showing a big fat grunting cow doing absolutely nothing through a week of overdue nights before waking up, after nodding off, to see him running around on the screen at 4am. Cord is still wet in the pics and the color will turn some off, but I see some pieces that are beyond my expectations and will have the rest of the eggs locked away for another day as he gets his chance to develop into whatever he may become.

I consider his sire to be the best "cow maker" in the breed from the 2000's era and is currently the centerpiece of a line breeding project in part of my herd. Top 1% for stayability. 
 



His maternal grand sire is easily in the top 3 of my pick from the best cow makers from the 70s. Top 1% stayability.
 



His mother, now dead, is not only from one of my favorite cow families but also raised the 2014 reserve national champion bull in Denver. A true breeding bull, by my standards, only rises to the top tier in the ring once or twice a decade, so it's no small feat in itself. I believe he now has calves in at least half a dozen countries around the world and would be a 3/4 sibling to my bull calf. She's top 10% stayability.


 


As you walk on back the cow line another real world cow making bull that became popular in the 90s appears.
 


Only to be followed by a bull who is known for being promoted with one of the ugliest pictures ever, yet in his day he was passed around some of the biggest names in the breed with one purpose.  To put as many daughters on the ground in as many herds as fast as possible. One of those breeders still tells a story about having him at his place for 2 months and ending up with 19 bulls and only 1 heifer out of the deal.




Behind him lays a bull who dominated the 80s and put more daughters in more herds than just about any bull the breed has ever known. He is still in high demand in some circles and is regarded as one of the best cow makers of the 80's that had a huge influence in pushing the breed ahead. Top 2% stayability.
 

Behind him is a bull many consider to be the holy grail of imports. Finding an amp of him that someone will put a price on is nearly impossible. Top 2% stayability.



It's not often that I find a cow line I can walk down through 7 sires and only see one that I might swap with another from his era. The breeders behind the pedigree stacked one dominant force after the other over several decades to get to this point and after all the years of them sourcing genetics from all over the county, this calf was born a mere hour away from the original cow who started the line.