Red Angus bull selection

[redcows]

I am curious to see if there are any breeders on this board that use bulls that don't come from ABS, Genex, etc or walk bulls that are not direct sons of a bull listed by a stud?

I would also like people to list in order the criteria they use when selecting bulls to use in their herd.

 

[BRG]

We are a egistered Red Angus ranch in South Dakota and the bulls we used this summer were:
PIE Accelerator 4028 - a Advance 121R son (Reg. # 979303)
BCRR Gemstone 346 - A Buf Crk Barny son (Reg. # 892629 )
OHRR Dakota Rambler 75R - A Dakota Copper 29K son (Reg. # 1025344)
DKK Addiction N10 - A Jr. 107 son (Reg. # 923316 )
LCC Tassel Executive - A Robin Hood 1174B son (Reg. # 662196)
VGW Rattler 908 - A Shoco Sir Robin son (Reg. # 659599)
LMG Gills Rattler 3555 - a Rattler 908 son (Reg. # 912584 )
LMG Gills Monument 1504 - A Monu 4X son (Reg. # 783311 )
WR Mr. Red Dawg 5335 - A Buf Crk Valentino N031 son (Reg. # 1046249)
SRN Heavens Door 2095 - A Heavn Sake son (Reg. # 830626 )
PIE Maximizer - a Pie Atlantic son (Reg. # 1029127)
LMG Powersurge - A DKK Powersurge son (Reg. # 996815)
LMG Gills Monument 4562 - A LMG Gills Monument 1504 son (Reg. # 968505)
Mlk Crk Combination - A Combination son (Reg. # 987155)

None of the bulls I used are listed in a major bull stud, and only 5 are sons of a bull that is in a major bull stud.

My criterias for buying a herdsire are:
1. Must see dam and grand dam if they are alive and they must be what I want my cows to look like
2. Must have good feet and legs.
3. Must have good natural muscle, deep bodied, long made and good bone.
4. Must have performance
5. Dam must have good udder
6. Hopefully the EPDs are respectable.
7. Strong cow families.
8. Hopefully they are scanned and they are above average scans, and I like an above average backfat score, so hopefully his daughters are easier keeping.
9. Must have a deep flank, nut cut up.

I am sure I forgot something but that pretty much covers it. I put on lots of miles and see LOTS of bulls and their dams before we decide to buy one.

Popularity in a bull doesn't mean much to me. Just because he is in a ad getting promoted and being used hard in the industry does not mean he is really good. My commercial customers would just as soon have good cattle instead of popular cattle.

 

[BA]

We have used some "popular" Red Angus bulls Like Romeo, Make My Day, Hi Ho 574, but have been dissapointed except with 574.

We used Forster Gold 3109 (Herdsire) (No popular sire)
Axtell Bando Chf 26L (Heifer Bull) (Out of old herd bull)
BJR Gambler 027 (Herd Sire) (by Rambler 5162)
RRF Robin 3M (A.I.) (By Grand Canyon)
CSU Ram Nation 5111 (Angus by CSU Ram Time) on heifers

I bought into the hype when I was first starting out, but quickly realized to breed for function, not hype.

We look at the following in order when buying a herd bull.
1.)Feet and Legs
2.) Udder Quality of as many descendents as possible
3.) Muscle / Type
4.) prefer 5.5-6 frame
5.) Need good disposition
6.) Extreme performance is not required

 

[SEC]

ha ha, on our big red herd ( 1 cow)
Actually she is my wife's cow, so she is easy to spot amongst the black cattle

Red Geis Zama Pine 190'97

Zama Pine 37S X Patriot 16

Excellent calves, great cow family, he is still breeding cows at 9 years of age.

 

[redcows]

Thanks to those that replied to my post. I was just hinting at the fact that people are paying to much attention to particular bloodlines. These bloodlines are generally popular due to numbers rather than your absolute most basic selection criteria. As a result the genetic base of the breed is being reduced and your raising cattle you can not stand to look at!! Well at these they have good numbers.