Alap is really good at cleaning up udders and making extremely feminine daughters that are slick hided...his son's are usually middle of the road or worse, depending on where you think the middle of the road lies. If you are breeding strictly for building your herd, he might be a good choice. Interestingly, one time when i was visiting his owner, David Freeman, i got to sleep with Alap, who was stuffed from the neck up in the basement. 
Oliver family angus has used Alap successfully to create some drop dead gorgeous, southern adapted true black angus cattle. Ed was one of the only true breeders i've ever had the pleasure of meeting, line-breeding past the point most would dare to go. His cattle have tremendous prepotency, and are best suited to moderate and feminize inefficient herds of terminal and oversized, ill-adapted cattle. I've had the fortune of buying bulls and heifers from Ed before he passed, and have also become good friends with his son Spencer, who is there now carrying forth the breeding legacy Ed began almost 40 years ago. Ed was one of the great students of the Graham Angus program in Albany,GA, before they took a turn for the mainstream in the 80's breeding for numbers. Then he became a student of the Wye Herd in Maryland, and built his legacy around those closed breeding programs. I miss Ed's wit and honesty, but I see his mark on the world every time i check on my cows, and I know how pleased he is to see the continued progress made in his life's work on his pastures.
One's selection for a bull for replacement heifers has a lot to do with one's environment and forage/feed program. A lot of the popular bulls i've seen mentioned here, raised in cooler, hard grass environments, just don't flourish in my low input, hot humid Ga neck of the woods. They certainly might on other farms.
Oliver family angus has used Alap successfully to create some drop dead gorgeous, southern adapted true black angus cattle. Ed was one of the only true breeders i've ever had the pleasure of meeting, line-breeding past the point most would dare to go. His cattle have tremendous prepotency, and are best suited to moderate and feminize inefficient herds of terminal and oversized, ill-adapted cattle. I've had the fortune of buying bulls and heifers from Ed before he passed, and have also become good friends with his son Spencer, who is there now carrying forth the breeding legacy Ed began almost 40 years ago. Ed was one of the great students of the Graham Angus program in Albany,GA, before they took a turn for the mainstream in the 80's breeding for numbers. Then he became a student of the Wye Herd in Maryland, and built his legacy around those closed breeding programs. I miss Ed's wit and honesty, but I see his mark on the world every time i check on my cows, and I know how pleased he is to see the continued progress made in his life's work on his pastures.
One's selection for a bull for replacement heifers has a lot to do with one's environment and forage/feed program. A lot of the popular bulls i've seen mentioned here, raised in cooler, hard grass environments, just don't flourish in my low input, hot humid Ga neck of the woods. They certainly might on other farms.
