Red Deer County 2022: Our Deepest and Most Diverse Bull String Ever
We are pleased to present nine herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2022 Red Deer County Bull Sale on Saturday, March 12th at 1:00pm at the Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alberta. This is our twelfth year at this event, and we are proud to be included in the strong offering that is always presented by this progressive group of breeders.
Our 2022 offering will be our deepest and most diverse bull string yet – clearly showcasing our breeding philosophy. We firmly believe that the future will bring an increased herd size, on the same amount of available labour. This means, that with less labour available on a per cow basis, birth weights will come down to improve calving ease, and that gradually more and more horns will be bred off the cattle. We continue to slowly incorporate the polled gene into our herd, as our goal is to add this genetic trait while maintaining the strong performance and mothering ability the Simmental breed is known for. In a sector that continues to operate with compressed margins, we think our bulls offer low maintenance, highly maternal characteristics that will produce both tremendous replacement females and heavy steers.
Maybe the most intriguing bull we have on offer this year is ‘Coach’. A homo-polled, dilutor free Double Bar D Confidence son, this mid-February calf is a real head turner. His dam manages to combine two of our founding cow families, that we have enjoyed the privilege of working with since the early 1990’s. The proven maternal of Antonius and King Arthur combine with the outcross of Rangemore Carrousel to create a truly unique individual that is loaded with potential. With endless ways he can be utilized, Coach is definitely worthy of consideration as a program changing breeder bull.
Rare for us, is also a pair of Anchor T Impact embryo herd sire prospects. One of the early lessons my father taught me, was that while ET could be a valuable tool, it should only be used incredibly selectively – it was his opinion that it was utilized too often to simply multiply genetics, when instead we should focus our efforts on breed improvement. We have tried to take this lesson to heart, but simply couldn’t resist a long-term goal of incorporating Anchor T Impact into our polled program. The dam, Applecross Diana is one of the young ‘stars’ of our herd, and we are confident you will hear a lot more from this moderate framed female in the future. These two Impact sons offer stacked maternal pedigrees backed by multiple generations of calving ease, all with a unique genetic twist!
The largest sire group is that of our home raised, homo-polled head turner, APLX Wedge 6F. With his first daughters now in production here, we have been very happy with his progeny to date. These five sons all showcase their sires incredible volume and shape, but are also very much defined by their dams. ‘Warner’ and “Wildcard’ were both born a little heavier, and pack a little more punch; while ‘Whiskey’ and ‘Wrigley’ both stack highly maternal Spruceburn Starfire dams to provide a little more balanced profile. Finally there is ‘Wheeler’, a true curve bender. His moderate birthweight, combines with a strong top and massive hip, this beauty of a buckskin is projected to be our ‘heavyweight’ on sale day. Together, we expect these five ‘W’s’ to create a really neat feature pen in Innisfail.
The five Wedge sons on offer are joined by Wedge’s maternal brother in ‘Duke’. We are incredibly high on Applecross Piper, but with so many relatives around it is incredibly difficult to figure out which way to breed her. For this years’ model we reached deep into our AI inventory to an old school Fleckvieh in JB Doctor Duke, to create our own ‘Duke’, and offer a little different polled twist with this classic line.
Individual pages have been created for all nine of our bulls on offer. Short-cut links are located in the right-hand column; alternatively, mobile users can also simply put the bull’s name in the search bar. On the individual pages, we have also pictured the sires, dams and often multiple generations of the genetics behind the bulls. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family – and we have been working with some of these cow families since the early 1990’s! Links to the CSA database and current EPD’s have also been profiled, and we would be more than happy to provide any additional supplemental information.
We want to ensure our bulls will work for many years, so feet, legs and temperament are very important traits for us. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, and have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage-based pellet by Country Junction. All nine bulls are quiet and used to being around people. We like working and walking through docile cattle, and feel the herd bull should be no exception.
The 2022 Red Deer County Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 12th at the Innisfail Auction Mart.
Applecross Cattle 