| Average EPDs of our four primary herdsires used in 2007 to produce our 2008 calves. BW = 2.5, WW = 16, YW = 27, MILK = 8, M+G = 16 Average EPDs of 2006 born Braford calves BW = 1.3, WW = 8, YW = 11, MILK = 3 M+G = 7 |
| Sires of our 2008 Calf Crop |
| TR TRI GOOSENECK 413 |
| "Gooseneck" is not a pretty bull but that's OK with us. This 2004 son of the Australian bull CD TRIUMPH was bred to a full set of cows in 2007 primarily because of the performance he injects into our program. It doesn't hurt that he is exceptionally clean sheathed and long and clean fronted. He's pretty different so we didn't breed him in 2006 because we wanted to see how his calves born in 2006 developed. They did quite well with his growth EPDs climbing and one of his sons topping our 2007 sale. Gooseneck is a dehorned bull that we initially kept to use on heifers. He was out of a first generation ET heifer that was sired by the renowned maternal Hereford bull CL 1 DOMINO 386. Gooseneck's first calves were a little bigger at birth than preferred for a heifer bull, but they were very good looking and fast growing. They were top sellers in our bull sale and the females retained in our cowherd are absolutely beautiful and have pretty udders and plenty milk. |
| 2008 EPDs: BW = 3.5, WW = 24, YW = 38, Milk = 6, M+G = 18 |
| TR MV HULK 153P |
| Gooseneck photo taken when he was a yearling in the spring of 2005. He's not pretty enough to offer a current photo. |
| We felt very fortunate to have been able to get "Hulk" back from the South Louisiana commercial operation that had made him one of the top sellers in our 2002 production sale. He was a very good yearling when he left East Texas and he proved to be highly productive and well adapted to the production environment into which many of our bulls sell. A Maverick son out of the 5023E cow we've featured on the index page of our website, this bull was bred to be a top purebred herdsire. His 2008 EPDs are as balanced and complete as any Braford bull you will find: BW=4.2, WW=15, YW=27, Milk=9, M+G=17. These EPDs put Hulk near the the top of practically every category in the breed. The Hulk calves are truly exciting. They are thick and slick and get better every day. Hulk is big without being big framed (pasture weight 2250 to 2300 pounds) and has lots of rib and volume. He is bold, polled, fully pigmented and freckle-faced. His disposition simply could not be any better. Hulk's first calf crop included a San Antonio champion junior heifer as well as the calf champion bull in the National Braford Show (Houston). Although his offspring are making some outstanding purebred and commercial herd bulls as well as very competitive show heifers, we most look forward to having a large number of his daughters producing in our cowherd. |
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| TR LR GENERAL LEE |
| RMR RANGER'S LEGACY 6180 |
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| "General Lee" is the thickest butted, best looking Braford bull we have ever produced. His sire is the EPD leader and 2004 Braford Show Bull of the Year BO 801 MR 2043 (Leroy). As a calf exhibited in only three shows, General Lee was a close runner up for 2005 Show Bull of the Year honors himself. He was also calf champion and Reserve Grand Champion at the 2006 National Braford Show. His dam, THUNDERSTORM MISS MAGGIE, was a 1996 "AGGIE" daughter that has been a good producer her whole life. His 2008 EPDs were very good: BW=1.2, WW=9, YW=16, Milk=3, M+G=8. As a yearling he had a 12 inch ribeye and almost 4% intramuscular fat. General Lee was used on a limited number of cows as a yearling and his calves were absolutely unique yet very consistent. He produced six bull calves in his first calf crop and all were sold as yearlings for an average price of $2533. Two of his heifer calves were sold at the top prices we've ever gotten for show prospects. General Lee calves are all butts and guts and the bulls have big testicles, too. Their birth weights are smaller than we expected getting his birth weight EPD down where we like it (1.2). We have a larger group of General Lee calves in 2008 than the 11 he produced as a yearling. |
| RMR RANGER'S LEGACY 6180 was a great addition to our herd bull battery. We bred him to our heifers in 2007 and have given him both heifers and cows in 2008. Payne Midyette had Legacy selected to go back into their performance driven breeding program but we were able to negotiate the purchase of possession and 75% interest in Legacy from Running M Ranch in Florida. Running M retained a 25% semen interest and already has high quality semen available from this exciting yearling. He is a high performance bull that meets our needs of a low birth weight, high milk herdsire. We had a strong demand for low birth weight bulls in our 2007 and 2008 sales and Legacy, who had a birth weight of 68 pounds, should produce good bulls with low birth weights. He is out of an outstanding 1996 model Ranger daughter that has a breed leading MILK EPD of +21. Recognizing the impact the Texas Ranger daughters have had on our program through the years, we are excited to extend the legacy of Ranger through a son from one of his greatest daughters. With 2008 EPDs of BW = 1.0, WW = 14, YW = 27, MILK = 13, M+G = 20, we look forward to adding his daughters to our herd and his sons to yours. |
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| Hulk as a yearling |
| TR 438 629P |
| We got two really good cavles from this bull as we ran 629 with our '06 heifers for a couple weeks before Legacy arrived from Florida. He was our pick of heifer bulls in our 2007 sale offering. He had big testicles and a good semen test plus his EPDs of BW = .4, WW = 4, YW = 12, MILK = 4 and M+G = 6 were a good fit for our program too. His ultrasound numbers, for both intramuscular fat (ratio 126) and ribeye area (ratio 107) may have been the best in the sale. He was sired by the 438 bull and out of a good Texas Ranger daughter. We hope that the buyer of this young herdsire, Bubbie Dupont, likes his calves as well as we do.He should work on heifers as well as top cows. |
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| This is simply the most exciting set of performance oriented herdsires we have been able to put together in our more than 20 years of breeding Brafords. We finally have a full set of herdsires worthy of the outstanding cowherd we have worked so dilgently to assemble through the years. The EPDs on these high-performance herdsires tell the story. |
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