That's a Bunch of Bull!

That time of the year has rolled around again. The time when we put out herd bulls. Personally, I think looking at cows is much more fun when you have a big impressive herd bull roaming the pastures with them and I get real excited when the bulls are loaded up from the bull pastures and then dropped off at their designated breeding grounds. I don't think that I need to say this, but I think the bulls are a little more "excited" to see their ladies than I am, but you know what I mean.

What really adds to the excitement is when we have a bull that went from being a show bull to a herd bull. They normally make a stop at the bull stud to get some semen collected, so we can breed or flush cows to them, before they get turned out with cows. While they are getting collected we don't get to see them everyday and when a trailer leaves to go pick them up, we all sit by our phones waiting for the call to say that the bulls are getting close. We, normally everyone around the ranch, go to the pasture where the first bull is getting turned out and anxiously await for the door to the trailer to open, and a big herd bull come stepping out.

This particular bull, pictured above, is one that is very special to us. His name is Mr. V8 463/6 and he is the 2009 National Champion Bull. I have a very strong bond with 463 because I was the lucky one that got to show him for most of his life.


Here we are at the Kick-Off Classic in Brenham. He was just a little guy this day, but he did big things. He went home with the Reserve Grand Champion banner. What a stud!

We also like to give our bulls nicknames, because calling one 463 over and over again get a little boring. But we also have some that don't get names. So it is kinda a crap shoot if they get a name or not.

Anyway, 463 did get a nickname. We call him Roany. A roan colored calf is one that has different colors of hair mixed together. Roany has a red tint to him and also black, as well as his grey body. He has parts that it all mixes together and therefore was dubbed Roany. He also has some snowflakes on his backside. Look below, those are pretty cool, huh?



This was the big man when he was National Champion. What an exciting day!

So back to turning out herd bulls. When 463 was turned out, Catherine's dad called us and said "Come look at 463, he looks like a million bucks!" So we grabbed our camera and headed down the road to the backside of the Donaldson to check him out. Sure enough, 463 looked like he had just came out of the showbarn.

We took a few more pictures and one will be selected as his official photo that will go in our semen brochure, on the web site and used in our print advertising. But we have not selected which one that will be yet. Once we do, I will share it with y'all.