Dora Lee’s 2011 in Review

2011 saw us continuing to enjoy our passion for our Fleckvieh cattle. Calving started early, or should I say, late December starting out with twin bulls by Equinox X our Caroline cow, followed by the 3 cows we had bred Broadway presenting us with twin bulls, twin heifers and an impressive heifer calf, all polled. Our Farah, not to be out done, gave us twin heifers in late March. Eclipse and Equinox calves continued to be impressive as well. All in all, calving went very well with a 108% calf crop and a great group of exceptional heifer calves and several promising herd sire bulls.

Bull sales highlights started off with a full brother to our Equinox bull 45X, going to Mark Jones – M&J Farms, Indiana,USA. Heathe Widicker – James Creek Simmentals – purchased a Farah X Eclipse son 44X and took him home to Heaton, North Dakota. Bull sales went well and we were sold out by mid April.

Betty’s nephew, was married in Regina in early August, so we headed west and took the opportunity to spend some time with long time friends in Prince Albert and on our way to Regina,  to visit 4 established Fleckvieh breeders. The Kulyks – Kulyk Simmental, the Bloders – Blushrose Simmental, the Dimmlers and Brian Valentine at Double Bar D, and Barry Labatte – Labatte Simmental. “WOW!” They have very impressive breeding ranches – all uniquely different and all making a huge positive impact on our Simmental industry. There were many other breeding operations we would have liked to visit but there just wasn’t enough time or hours in the day.

Come October, it was sale time for Fleckvieh Forum at Bar 5.  The high selling Fleckvieh Forum heifer, our Cassandra 11X, went to Les Entreprises Hemi Inc.,Quebec and Evelyn, – Lot 66, was selected by Black Gold in Saskatchewan. The others stayed in Ontario and will prove themselves in herds here. We have been very blessed by the continued support for our breeding program at our sale over the years.

In early December, a package of 10 heifers went to Richard Kulyk, Kulyk Simmentals, North Battleford, Saskachewan. This group of heifers were by 5 different sires including Equinox and Eclipse. We really appreciate Richard’s support of our program.

It has been a tremendous year here at Dora Lee – great calves, good crops, excellent sales and wonderful opportunities to talk cattle, with veterans of the breed or newcomers, whether on their farms or ours, at sales or on the phone. We always enjoy exchanging ideas. We have a wonderful family, our health, and our passion for our Fleckviehs and the people in the industry. What more could we ask for? 2012 promises to be another exciting year at Dora Lee.

We wish to extend a heartfelt thanks to all who have supported our program by purchasing Dora Lee genetics this past year.
AJ Farms ON
Kulyk Simmentals SK
Black Gold Simmentals SK
Leonard Nuhn ON
Don Ceasar ON
Les Entreprises Hemi Inc. PQ
Double Bar D SK
Lyons Simmentals ON
Forever Young Farms ON
M&J Farms IN
Gravendale Simmentals
Muellers Nossa Terra PQ
James Creek Simmentals ND
Philip Armitage ON
JB Farms PQ
Ranch LeBlancPQ
Vail View Simmentals ON