Back about 1987 Betty and I along with our son Dennis had a discussion on the pros and cons of introducing polled genetics into our Fleckvieh herd. The next question was just where do we start?

The general opinion in the industry at the time was that polled cattle had no butts in them and they also gave up average daily gain. But our customers were looking for polled bulls.

We have a position that when folks say you can not do something, we say, ” just watch us”. Now just where do we start? An imported polled bull Eisenhertz, would take the horns off if we could retain the butt and the gain of the cow in his offspring. So we started out by breeding one of our best cows, Frauline, to Eisenhertz and got a really nice polled heifer – Dora Lee Elexis . The next step was to breed her to Smithbilt Molson 21M to put more of the horned quality in the mix. We had seen Molson and were impressed with his quiet disposition and overall soundness.

Luck was on our side. Elexis presented us with a polled bull we called Eclipse. We were on our way towards our goal. Were we excited? Yes, big time! After we had collected semen on Eclipse, we sold him to our friend and neighbour David Lyons. Eclipse is now 13 years old and still going strong. We have sold his semen into several different countries.

In the fall of 2017, our son Dennis sold 2 heifers bred Eclipse, as high sellers in The Fleckvieh Equation sale in Alberta. We can proudly say Eclipse has made his mark big time in our breed – a proven calving ease bull.

His best known son, Equinox, is also out there making his mark and is homozygous polled.

After 40 plus years of breeding cattle, we have never stopped learning. Breeding quality cattle is our Passion, our way of life here at Dora Lee.

THANK YOU for listening