Applecross and the Six: Our 2025 ‘Shades of Fall’ Heifers
We are delighted to present six bred heifers at the 2nd annual Shades of Fall Simmental Female Sale on October 11th at 1pm a the Beechinor Land & Livestock Sale Facility, located near Bentley Alberta. Last years’ first event was a smashing success and we look forward to once again joining together with some of our favourite people in the industry to create an awesome sale line up!
This year we are excited to showcase two new sire groups. As smaller breeders it is rare that we purchase two new walking bulls in the same year, but that is just what happened back in 2023. That spring, we were successful in acquiring both BLL Tombstone 223K and Virginia Journey 509K only a week apart. Both are from highly regarded breeding programs that we know very well, and are backed by pedigrees that we have followed for many years. Multi-generations of strong cow families lead to bulls that produce consistent progeny, and both ‘Unbelievable’ and ‘Willows Jade’ are maternal lines that we have long admired.
As shared in the footnotes, Tombstone is a bull we first saw during a summer pasture tour. Even as a six month old calf, he caught our eye. Early maturity, and a very strong ‘presence’, allowed us to track him from across the pasture. I have always thought that the best purebred cattle have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ (I don’t know what) about them, that is hard to describe. Stage presence. An “it’ factor. Eye Appeal. However you want to describe it, Tombstone certainly caught our attention, and became a target to acquire from the Beechinor bull sale. Through two calf crops, his calves are easy to pick out and his heifers, showcased by ‘Diva’ and ‘Dior’ also exhibit that incredible eye appeal.
Journey was another easy decision – but one we weren’t sure we’d get done. A year previous we had circled another Synergy x Radison son, ‘Full-Tilt’, in our catalogue, only to finish a few bids shy to the astute duo of MAVV Farms & Brian Miller. So in 2023, it was super cool to find ‘Journey’ who exhibited that same balance of moderate calving with thickness and muscling. The cherry on top was the cow family deeper in the pedigree, which showcased generations of predictable quality. The Synergy-Radison combination has also proven to be incredibly popular as a female maker, and we think you’ll find those same traits in ‘Tessa’, ‘Cindy’ and ‘Lexi’.
Not to be overlooked, is our youngest heifer ‘Flora’ who was also sired by one of our walking bulls in Black Gold Battleborn 44H. Battleborn is now deceased, but was a proven curve-bender for us. We were comfortable using him on heifers (before he got too big), while his calves consistently pushed the scale down at weaning, and have been readily accepted at auction. Our ask of our herd bulls is simple. Move our herd forward. And with Battleborn’s first daughters now weaning off their 2nd set of calves, we are confident that he has done that. Nice tidy udders and some punch would define our Battleborn cows.
Our breeding philosophy continues to focus on strong maternal lines across the group, with deep extended pedigrees to ensure quality and consistency. While we try to acquire at least one outcross female each fall, all six of our heifers this year are backed by dams carrying the APLX tattoo, often multi-generations deep. The heifers have been double vaccinated, and have been pregnancy tested to the dates listed. Individual pages (short-cut links are on the right – or simply enter their names in the search bar to find them), have been created for each of ‘Diva’, ‘Dior’, ‘Flora’, ‘Tessa’, ‘Cindy’ and ‘Lexi’. On the individual pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings – hopefully, sharing pictures will provide a better glimpse into the extended pedigree.
Please join us for some unique ‘Shades Hospitality’ on Saturday, both before and after the sale, when it will be great to visit and view cattle at the newly renovated BLL Sales Facility near Bentley. Please check out our social media on Facebook and Instagram (@aplxcattle) for more details on each of our sale animals. If you have any questions about our heifers or our program, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to visiting with you on Canadian Thanksgiving week-end!
Applecross Cattle 