The Thorbardin Ranch Bull Test
Thorbardin begins its 3rd Annual Performance Testing program for the Highland breeders and other cattlemen. In-spite of the severe drought in the western states, which has taken a toll on the entries of the commercial cattlemen (major herd reductions and liquidations), the total entries have slightly increased over last year. Thorbardin believes this is due primarily to the fact that the Highland breeders themselves are starting to recognize the value of performance testing both as a management tool and as a place to market their genetics.
There are a total of 32 bulls entered into this year's testing program. The bulls are sorted by weight into groups. There is a warm-up period, which allows the bulls to acclimate and to get over the shrinkage from the trip to Laramie. The bulls are fed free-choice Moormans mineral plus a high protein growing ration consisting of alfalfa and brewer's pellets. This year we have changed the feeding program a touch by grinding the alfalfa and mixing it with the pellets to provide a total mixed ration that is placed in the bunk. We believe that this method will reduce waste and improve animal performance.
Thorbardin is pleased with the wide range of genetics participating in the test. Animals are entered from Vermont and Michigan plus all the way to the West Coast of Washington and including British Columbia. There is a tremendous amount of variations in pedigrees in this test compared to previous years.
Of the bulls entered, there are a total of 25 registerable Highland bulls. There is one black commercial highland bull as well this year. There are 4 Highland composite bulls. These Highland composites are truly remarkable in showing the hybrid vigor that a commercial cattleman can achieve using a Highland animal while maintaining calving ease and other very important Highland traits.
This year we have a unique opportunity with the Highland composite bulls to educate commercial cattlemen the benefits of using Highland genetics. These bulls represent the four dominant breeds of today, Hereford, Angus, Red Angus and Simmental. The Hereford bull was placed in the test by a combined effort of two long time breeders Tom Larsen of Alzada, MT and Ira Felz of Buffalo Gap, SD. Ira is recovering from a winning battle with cancer and we wish him and his wife the best of luck.
The other 3 Highland composite bulls are from some of the top AI bulls in their respective breed. The Angus bull is CA Future Direction 5321 one of the top carcass bulls and calving ease bulls used by the Angus breeder. The Red Angus bull is BJR Make My Day again the most commonly used red angus bull in the breed for the past 2-years and also a top carcass bull. The Simmental bull is Lucky Strike, which is black and polled with moderate birth weight.
In the Any Other Breed category, there are 2 black Angus/Gelbvieh bulls from Lander's Livestock that last year won the overall gain.
Weights will be taken every 28-days throughout the test. All the bulls will be ultrasound measured for marbling, ribeye area along with backfat. And most importantly the bulls will be fertility tested by the veterinarian to insure that all bulls sold are fertile and usable from the start.
The testing begins on December 14, 2002 and finishes with the final weigh on April 5, 2003. Auction weekend will start on April 11 with a Highland beef banquet for the bull test consignors followed by the Auction on April 12 where we will be selling the top Highland bulls plus 20 very fancy Highland heifers from around the country.
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December 14 The Thorbardin Ranch 3rd Annual Bull Test officially started on December 14, 2002 with the initial weighing of all the bulls entered into the test. All of the bulls went through the warm-up period with no problems. The weather during the warm-up period has been mostly dry, cold and windy. During the course of the test, the bulls will be weighed every 28-days from now until April 5, 2003 when the test is finished. It is important to realize during these periods that bulls typically do not grow in a consistent fashion. A bull doing good or poor for a given period is not indicative of the overall quality of the animal. It is also very important to realize that these animals will drink between 4-8 gallons per day of water and that each gallon of water weighs 8.3 lbs. Some bulls are more fortunate than others in their timing when they drink and eat. But during the course of the test, these items tend to balance out and where an animal may be high gainer for one time frame, it may come back down quite a bit for the next. The Highland breed is starting to produce some outstanding bulls that are slowly competing with the non-highland breeds and with the composites. The Highland breed has a long way to go to develop consistency in these genetics, but we believe we are making headway in this task.
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On April 5th, the final weighing and breeding soundness exam was conducted on the bulls in the bull test. In the three years that we have conducted this test, this group of bulls is the most uniform in conformation and performance. Each year the quality of entries improves and the competition increases. In this last weigh period the bulls had to fight a severe blizzard for about 4 days. In-spite of that weather and snow, a number of bulls continued to excel. Cody Talbott and his crew deserve special recognition for keeping the bulls fed and healthy during this time. The top gaining Highland bull for the last weigh period was Bottleneck Spud owned by Forrest and George Marshall of Bottleneck Ranch in Washington with a very good gain of 4.1 lbs/day. A number of bulls had gains over 3.0 lbs/day as well. The top gaining composite bull was TBR 2235 (ET) with a gain of 4.8 lbs/day. The overall top gaining bull this year goes to X5 Lizzie's Gideon owned by Rocking X5 Ranch in Bennett, Colorado. His sire is Gilchrist Jock. This bull steadily month after month performed and at the end of the period he was top gaining bull. The second place bull was Hannegan Bob owned by Bob and Terrie Crabtree of Bellingham, Washington and third place was TBR Mobley owned by Thorbardin Ranch. Other notable Highland bulls were LEA Warlock owned by Pat White and Larry Alber of LEA White Farms with the largest scrotum measurement of 37.5 cm. This bull also had good growth and showed exceptional early sexual maturity. TCL Clancy owned by Tom and Cheryl Larsen of Alzada, MT had the largest ribeye measured in the Highland bulls. The overall top gaining composite bull goes to TBR 2235 (ET) owned by Thorbardin Ranch, Laramie, Wyoming. This Red Angus crossbred sired by BJR Make My Day on one of the company's outstanding Highland females in our composite embryo program shows the power of hybrid vigor in using Highland genetics. The second place composite bull was Durwood owned by Tom Larsen and Ira Feltz which was a Hereford and Highland composite and the third place bull was the Gelbvieh Angus bull owned by Landers Cattle Company. This test in particular showed the power of Highland composite breeding to produce outstanding cattle. The breeding soundness exam (BSE) was conducted and unfortunately eliminated a couple of good performing bulls from the weekend sale. Many of the bulls who failed their BSE are believed to be immature and given a few months probably would pass if tested again. However, it should be pointed out that early sexual maturity in the bulls will also be displayed in the female traits as well. This is extremely important to increase fertility in the breed. The BSE is conducted by our local vet. The vet measures the scrotal circumference and feels the scrotum to make sure there are two testicles and that they are firm to the touch. Soft, mushy testicles or rock hard ones are not desirable and usually indicate a fertility problem. When the semen is collected using electro stimulation, the vet also makes sure that the bull can fully extend his penis. The semen is observed under a microscope set up next to the squeeze chute. The vet observes the motility of the semen ie. how good does it swim. Bulls need to produce active semen. The vet also observes the morphology of the semen. That is the shape of the semen. If the semen has broken tails or has bent tails this again is not good. Any value above 70% is passing. That is 70% of the semen is normal. Actually, all the Highland bulls in the test showed exceptional morphology readings. Thorbardin is reporting ADG for the last weigh period, plus CUM ADG which is the average daily gain for the entire test. The ultrasound data is also posted which shows a number of bulls for a variety of beef breeders. There are a couple of bulls with lean marbling scores which should help breeders to produce lean beef for the health conscious consumer and there are bulls with higher marbling scores for those breeders producing higher quality beef. The auction is being held on April 12 starting at 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be served starting at 11:30 a.m. There will be 16 bulls plus 17 very special heifers. Lary Kobold again will be the auctioneer. We will also have our special guests of the Wyoming Drums and Pipe from Gillette, Wyoming. They will play some good pipes and drum songs throughout the day. Some of these heifers have been Grand Champion animals in various shows around the country and others are full and half-sisters to many champions. All of the heifers entered into the sale are outstanding and should benefit everyone's breeding program. There will be phone lines available for breeders to bid via phone in the event they cannot make it. Cody's cell number is 307.760-5914, the ranch number is 307.745.4955 and Joe's cell number is 307.760.1820. We would advise buyers to call in advance to arrange to phone bid.
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Lary Kobold again will be the auctioneer this spring. Lary did a fabulous job last year, we are fortunate to have him again. We will also have the very special Wyoming Drum and Pipes Corp from Gillette, Wyoming down for the day to make the auction extremely entertaining. As usual, there will be plenty of food throughout the day.
Any questions or if you want to visit the bulls during the testing program (always welcome to do so), please call Cody Talbott at (307) 745.4955 or Joseph Vaillancourt (307) 684.5633.
Thorbardin's Bull Test Auction Summary
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