Grand Champion Highland Bull

[LifeSpring]

Hi There,
I'm new to this site and saw the Highland posts ... we have a small herd of about 30 Highlands which include our Grand Champion bull (he even won Grand Champion at the Royal winter fair two years ago!) which I will try to include a photo of if I can figure out how to do it... actually can't see how, can anyone tell me? sorry!
He has pretty much sired our entire herd and so now we must sell him
and find a new bull that is as awesome as he is... will be hard to find!

[KSALguy]

if you cull hard and ONLY keep the best there is no reason you cant keep him and keep breeding untill you find something else, its done all the time to improve herds, if he really is that good why get rid of him? you can even keep a couple of his best sons out of unrelated foundation cows and set up differint breeding groups and rotate to keep a level of diversity but still breed forward for perfection,

inbreeding is NOT the Devil, it is a tool to be used wisely and with heavy culling.

[ozark_jewels]

Originally Posted by LifeSpring

which I will try to include a photo of if I can figure out how to do it... actually can't see how, can anyone tell me?

Hi there,
You need to go to photobucket.com and upload your pictures. After uploading, there will be four windows below each picture. Copy the lowest window and then paste it in your thread here. Then hit submit. When your post is submitted, the photo will be there.
Its much simpler than it sounds.

[Allen W]

Definatly sounds like time for a good line breeding program, especially if you have a broad enough base in your cow herd.

Would there be a strong demand for Highland semen? Have the bull collected and have semen for later and sell some to offset the cost.

[pyrobear]

whats the bulls name ???

[LifeSpring]

The Bulls name is Snortin Norton ( haha) because when he was a baby he used to snort apparently) but his papered name is Strathbrae's Kegan Norton.
He won Grand champion bull at the Royal winter fair two years ago.
He has sired our entire herd and so is related to all but four cows.
We love them all and handle them daily. They are all very quiet and friendly and curious. Even the baby's come running when they see the brush.
All of Norton's bulls are extremely quiet guys that we can do anything to without tying or such. At this time we are looking for an exceptional black bull.

[KSALguy]

i would keep at least one bull from one of the original four cows, and use him over a few of the heiffers from farther down the line that have more of Snortin Norton, as long as you have culled hard and ONLY kept the best there is no reason you should have a problem, bringing in new blood will deffinatly freshin the gene pool but thats not always a good thing depending what your breeding for, if you have line bred intensively which it sounds like you have, and if you have culled hard for the best of the best, if you bring in a new unrelated bull you will basically have to start all over because that new bull will bring in a whole new set of wild cards into your breeding program, and depending on what your goals are that could very possibly set you back several breeding seasons,

if you REALLY want to bring in new blood, i would get some semen from a bull that best matches your program with the genetics you most want/need, and then AI a select few of your BEST of the BETTER BEST heiffers and at least one or two of your older foundation cows, while keeping your bull, you could even traid some straws from your bull for straws from the other bull and both your herd and theirs can benifit,

now that you have a select few of your cows bred to this new bull you can then back cross any heiffers back to your prize bull and if and only if one of the bull calfs is EXTREAMLY and i do mean EXTREAMLY exceptional, keep him and breed that bull calf into another select few of your heard to test him out and see how the two lines combine,

is that all clear as mudd?