March Update
As we patiently wait for spring to arrive, here are some of the things happening here at Dora Lee. Calving is completed for 2013 with a 102% calf crop. Rebreeding our cow herd is nearing completion and our private treaty bull sales are well under way.

As in the past, there is “excitement” in the air about our 2013 calf crop. Late December, our Lorena 9W cow gave us twin heifers by Arni 8M. We believe they are identical, something that is very rare and has never happened to us here since we started breeding Simmental back in 1973. Arni 8M was bred and developed by Park Letts, Westlock, Alberta. Arnie 8M, is a son of King Arthur and was born in 1980. King Arthur was imported into Canada in 1972. We are of the opinion that King Arthur is perhaps one of the best Fleckvieh sires to ever set foot on North American soil. Semen on these 2 bulls is extremely difficult to locate. We decided last spring to roll the dice and split the vials on polled cows, and shall we say ‘the rest is history’.

Our Equinox bull added to this fall’s heifer pen with nine heifer calves.
Our Sophie 5W cow gave us a polled heifer by the legendary King Arthur bull. Our Hanna 91W cow gave us a polled King Arthur son. On the bull calf side, the King Arthur bull calf is impressive along with a San Mar Pharo son out of an Eclipse x Farah cow, cherry red and already showing some swagger. Other highlights are an Equinox, cherry red bull calf from Darby 8N. Bonnie 52W provided us with twin bull calves from our new and up and coming sire, DLD Platinum 91X. It will be a very interesting to watch these and other promising young calves develop over the summer.

Spring is just around the corner, so they tell us. However, as Easter weekend approaches, it is time for family and an opportunity to realize just how truly blessed we really are.

Ross & Betty take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a Happy Easter.

Here’s a look at Dora Lee’s 2013 Herd Sire prospects, all are polled Full Fleckiehs and we are sold out for this year.

Dora Lee’s Jaydan FF75Z (7638060) born January 12′ 2012

Jaydan arrived unassisted with an impressive 88lb birth weight. His sire (Myers Canadian Siegfried) is a time proven outcross sire born and bred in the U.S. and was used very successfully in Western Canada back in the early 90’s. Jaydan’s genomic score is very impressive ranking him in the top 5% for feed efficiency.
Jaydan has out cross genetics in his makeup by way of old time, proven US sires from the 1970’s including Siedfried, Soro, Hackenberg and King Arthur to name a few. So if you are looking for a bull to lower your feed costs, add eye appeal and thickness, that will work on both heifers and cows and as a bonus remove the horns, we believe Jaydan will no doubt, answer the bell. “Fullblood Fleckvieh genetics at their best”.
SOLD to Brad Cober, Wellesley, ON.

Huck

Dora Lee’s Huck FF25Z (CSA 763793) born January 5’12

Huck was orphaned in early March. He begged, borrowed and stole all summer and still weaned a hefty 735 lb. Since arriving in our bull development facility, August 15th, Huck has just never missed a beat. Sired by a time proven bull from the 90’s “Myers Canadian Siegfried”, Huck has developed into a very complete herd sire prospect. Outcross polled Fleckvieh genetics at its finest. Hucks genomic score is also impressive ranking him in the top 5 percent for feed efficiency. If by chance you are looking for bull to add some polled genetic, low cost gain, eye appeal and thickness, Huck may just be worth that second look.
SOLD to Brian & Lynn Vail – Vailview Farms

Wyatt

Dora Lee’s Wyatt FF 91Y [763815] December 15, 2011

Wyatt is out of a heifer we purchased from the Blair Brothers in Tennesse USA and sired by our tried, tested and true senior herd sire Eclipse.
These Eclipse calves continue to impress us as time marches on, he simply puts his stamp on them, being it solid colour, butt end, thickness, wide top awesome temperament and adds the polled genetics as a bonus.
His Dam, Wynn was brought here to Dora Lee, adding those elusive out cross genetic from our neighbours to the south. Old time proven genetics by Hackenburg, Hafke, and Seigfried are prominate in her pedigree. Wyatt is a blend of old time, long proven, hard to find genetics and our ever popular Eclipse bull.
“Fullblood Fleckvieh genetics at their best”
SOLD to Gordon and Lynne MacDonald, Midland, ON.

Toro

Dora Lee’s Toro FF 99Z (CSA 763810) born January 31, 2011

Toro is out of a first calf heifer, arriving with an impressive low birth weight of 88 lbs unassisted . He is sired by Sanmar Pharao, an Arnold Image son we have been using with much success. Toro has an excellent genomic score rating, placing him with the very elite ( top one percent) for feed efficiency.
Toro’s grand dam “Tonica” was imported here from Buzzard Hollow in the spring of 2008 to again add some additional outcross genetics and is quickly becoming one of our elite cows.
So if you are looking for a heifer bull, want to reduce your feed costs, take horns off and increase your bottom line, Toro could very well be the answer.
“Fullblood polled Fleckvieh genetics at their best”
Sold: to Leonard Nuhn, Charlton ON

Perhaps the highlight of our year 2012 was attending the World Fleckvieh Simmental Congress in Germany. The pre tour began in Dresden which included a walking tour of the city, previous to the suckling tour of the beef strain of Fleckvieh cattle.

Our welcoming dinner had a beautiful view of Dresden

The tremendous damage from the World War 2 although behind barriers still there some 70 years later was a real eye opener for me.

Some of the restoration still being done

We were welcomed with open arms by the German beef Simmental Breeders – “hospitality plus”. However, the one thing I found confusing initially, the breeders with suckling herds, were referring their cattle as “Beef Simmental”! I must admit it took a while before it finally came to me. The German beef breeders are using the term” beef Simmental” to separate their cattle from the dual purpose strain of Fleckvieh in Germany. The very same reason we here in North America refer to our cattle as full blood Fleckvieh to separate our cattle from the Angus cross purebred side of our Simmental breed.
Another interesting point was that they displayed their cattle in a show ring facility in groups – different cow families or progeny of different sires etc. There was no judging or placing! This has got me to thinking. Could this be a throw back to the early days of Simmental here in Canada when Simmentals would only be displayed?

In general, the beef herds were smaller than on the dairy side, nursing calves at side and out on pasture similar to here in Canada. Another interesting point was they all have been using only polled genetics for the past 20 year.

Just one of the performances that entertained us between classes at one of the shows

After a busy 3 days touring several beef herd, our hosts, simple put, wined and dinned us with a farewell evening, including live bands, lots of German folk music, all the complimentary food and beer a person could possible consume, and in many ways perhaps the most enjoyable time while in Germany.

Landshut – home base for the main Congress – a view of Main Street

As we joined the main congress tour we went from 1 bus to 5 buses to handle the larger number of delegates. The dual purpose cattle were larger herds in total confinement with free stall barns and the modern milking parlors, and in many cases from 100 to 200 milking cows. Many of the dairy strain cows would be 2000 lb or more.

A modern dairy facility

One would have to see these cows in their high tech, well managed milking facilities to believe it. There were several reasons given for using Fleckvieh Simmentals instead of Holstein as dairy cows. On average the Fleckvieh cow stayed in the milking herd nearly twice as long as the Holstein, the Fleckvieh cows were approaching the Holstein in the amount of milk produced and the bull calves brought a much higher price as calves and when they were finished in the feed lots. The salvage value of the Fleckvieh cow was also much greater than for the Holstein cow.

One of the Fleckvieh dairy shows we attended

Our final day was attending a major agriculture show in Munich with all breeds of cattle being shown, large machinery display and a mid way, I believe by far the largest outdoor show we have ever attended.
Our tour wound up with a visit to Oktoberfest “Germany style” – 10,000 people, music everywhere great food and lots of beer.

As I look back at those busy 10 days while traveling around Germany,we were present at 15 different Fleckvieh- Simmental operations, in many ways being treated like royalty. “WOW” German hospitality at its finest.
Betty and I are truly blessed to be able to travel, and associate with so many folks that breed and develop Fleckvieh seed stock. It was a humbling experience and memories that will no doubt last a life time.

The bull calves are fed, what’s next Papa?

Moving Forward
It is now time to take a look in our rear view mirror at some of the issues we dealt with during the past summer, many say the driest summer in the past 50 years here in Eastern Canada.
It was very apparent early on that having enough moisture for our crops and our pastures was going to be a real challenge. We really only had 2 choices, tell anyone who would listen just how awful things were, or do everything in our power to manage the drought and attempt to find ways to economically feed and care for our Fleckvieh cattle. We chose the latter and as we look back, here it is mid November and all our cattle are still out on pasture except the bulls .
The first action we took was to divide those 10 acre cow pastures into 5 acre paddocks and the 5 acre paddocks for the bred heifer and first calf heifer pastures into 2 1/2 acre paddocks. Although tempted to over graze, we stuck to our principle of no more that 5 days before moving on to the next one. Many of our pastures had up to 60 day rest periods between grazing. This action was, in our mind, the most important thing we did that helped us through this troubling summer.
Our hay ground was fertilized following our first cut and most certainly helped with a reasonable second cut of hay. Come September, we fenced and pastured the hay ground and it supplied some much needed relief for many of our pastures.
Calves were weaned early. The bull calves that did not make our bull development facility were sent to the feed lot. The remaining calves were started on feed and by later on in September when we were finally getting some moisture, heifer calves were back out on pasture.
After speaking with a fellow breeder and customer from Indiana at the Bar 5 sale, Mark Jones was telling us that his corn yielded 18 bushel in one field and another at 3 bushels per acre. We realized just how blessed we are and really have very little to complain about.
We are now in the process moving our cattle into their wintering areas, and as in the past, baled hay is taken out to the pastures to supply needed fertility for next years pastures. Vaccinations and treatment for parasites has been completed.
With Fleckvieh sale catalogues arriving daily, it is time to turn our back on 2012 and look ahead to 2013 and beyond.
We continue our 364 day search for that semen that will add to our program and/or that intriguing outcross polled heifer calf that will down the road assist us in raising the bar. Dora Lee’s Platinum, our junior herd sire, from whom we are expecting several calves this winter, will be going into stud late December. There is excitement in the air here at Dora Lee as our 2013 calf crop will soon be starting to arrive.

May your holiday season and the New Year be filled with Joy, Happiness and much success. “It’s the most wonderful time of year” To each and every one of you…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Herd Sire Prospects 2013

Weaned August 15^th, our selections have been made and moved into our bull development facility. Our bull calves are started on feed and our development process starts all over again for 2013.

We are just preparing a preview of what we will have on offer come next January. It may seem early, however, our first 2 bulls were selected last January 4^th, to a long time customer, Robert Younger. Robert arrived early just to get his pick of the pen.

Our group has an age range from December 9^th to February 22 and birth weight are between 72lb and 100 lbs. The weaning weights are between 720 lb and a high of 845 lb.

Some of the highlights are:

 2 sons of a time proven bull from the past, Myers Canadian Siegfred, are polled with birth weights of 88 and 94 lbs. We believe them to be structurally correct and with a genomic test for feed efficiency in the top 5%. Huck, orphaned since early March, begged, borrowed and stole all summer and still came in at 735 weighing weight.

Eclipse also had 2 sons selected for our group with low birth weight of 72 and 90 lbs, both are polled late December born calves. Prime Time is a full brother to our Equinox bull and has tested non-diluter. Wyatt, our other Eclipse son is out of an outcross heifer we imported from the Blair brothers in Tennessee. An opportunity existed to use these youngsters on heifers.

Our Equinox bull also has 2 sons in the group with birth weights of 98 and 100 lbs. Devin is out of an Arnold’s Image cow, is cherry red, born February 15 with a respectable weaning weight of 720 lbs. The Miramax calf is out of Maria, an embryo heifer all the way from South Africa. He is a DNA verified non-diluter and is homozygous polled.

Another 2 prospects are sired by Sanmar Pharo, a polled Arnold’s image son we have used on heifers with great success, with birth weights of 83 and 88 lbs respectively.  We believe these 2 up and coming herd sire prospects can be used very successfully on heifers. Aaron and Toro are cherry red in colour, lots of eye pigmentation and ranked right in the top 5 % for feed efficiency.

                                                     Establishing Our Cow Herd   

The success of our breeding program starts with our cow herd. Our primary  goal right from day one, June 1^st 1973, was to establish the best possible working cow herd of 40 females. Our policy was and still is to search out as many outcross quality genetics we could locate here in North America whether AI semen or open heifers, and then find a way to bring them to Dora Lee.

By purchasing heifer calves rather than bred heifers, the calves have a year to adjust to our feed and management and get in calf. This policy has worked well for us over the years.

We have used bulls available in Canada like King Arthur, Sim-Roc C& B Western, Wellhouse Kestrel, Arni 8M, Antonius, Solway Adonis, Hasalz, Horn, L.J.B. Jade and there are many more. Several of the above bulls go back to Neff – a bull born in Germany 1966 and who perhaps, has had the most influence of any bull in the history of our Fleckvieh Simmental breed. The Neff blood line has played a big roll in our herd development.

Being unable to access the U.S. AI semen market because of border restrictions and in order to gain access to the U.S. Fleckvieh genetic pool, we have been able to import several heifer calves over the years with the elusive outcross genetics we were searching for.  Animals have been sourced from Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Texas, obtaining time proven bloodlines such as Igloff, Hackenburg, Haber, Saro, Marne, Siegfried, Star Palm and Zeutello and others. These sires have had a big impact in our herd development process.

In recent years as we continue with our 364 days a year search and with the new genomic selection tools available to us for feed efficiency, we have been  searching out quality heifer calves with the polled genetic source  from many different blood line and of course feed efficiency which is very high in our selection criteria.

Our cow herd is something we are very proud of as we attempt to raise the bar at every opportunity. The never ending search goes on here at Dora Lee.

Come September, Betty and I will be traveling to Germany to attend the 19^th World Fleckvieh Simmental Congress. Fleckviehs have been our lively hood for many years and Germany is where we believe the Fleckvieh strain all began sometime in the late 1800’s or early in the 1900’s. We are really looking forward to this opportunity to learn more, first hand, about the history and on going development of our Fleckvieh breed.

DORA LEE’S COUNTESS FF11Y – POLLED – BRED HEIFER – June 24 photo

DLD 11Y  REG # P743682 DOB: 13 February 2011  BW: 87

When folks tour our pastures, they point out Countess, noting her femininity and cherry red colour. Her mother, Claudia, is of one of our premier cows here at Dora Lee. Countess’s full sister, Cassandra, was the high selling Fleckvieh Forum heifer at last years sale going to Les Enterprises Hemi Inc in Quebec. Like her sale mate, Countess also has time proven, elite sires from the past in her make up – sires like King Arthur, Sim-Rock C&B Western, Hercules & Monet on the dam side and of course our outcross Equinox on the top side. DLD Celine, a maternal sister to Countess is certainly making her mark at Double Bar D in Saskatchewan with an awesome return on investment.

We feel Countess has it all – femininity, performance, style, colour and a stacked pedigree, backed by 39 years of breeding Fleckvieh Simmental here at Dora Lee. Fullblood Fleckvieh genetics at it’s best.

Bred AI April 20 to IPU Revelation – no exposure
Sold to Lee McBride, Port Hope ON – Thank you Lee!

DORA LEE’S STARR FF27Y

DORA LEE’S STARR FF27Y  – POLLED – BRED HEIFER – August 8 photo

DLD 27Y REG # P743702  DOB: 21 February 2011  BW 95

We imported Starr’s grand dam from the U.S. back in 1998 and she worked here for 12 years. Unfortunately we lost her to milk fever 2 days after Starr’s dam Stella was born. Despite being orphaned at 2 days, Stella has turned out to be, we believe an impressive individual and proof of this shows in her daughter Starr.

Starr has a star studded pedigree with many time proven bulls from the past in her make up. Outcross sires like Iglhoff, Siegfried, Arnold’s Image are all right there. Starr’s genomic profile is also very impressive placing her in the top 20% of our breed for feed efficiency and top 5% for rib eye. “WOW”! She is bred to the IPU Revelation bull, we believe to be a calving ease bull and being a direct son of our legendary Francesca cow is a real plus for us. Starr, we believe should have a long and productive life as she heads out to make her own mark following in her mother and grandmother’s foot steps. Fullblood Fleckvieh genetics at it’s best.

Bred AI May 10 to IPU Revelation – no exposure
Sold to Brad Cober, Wellesley, ON – Thank you Brad!

Also being offered at the Bar 5 Saturday night Semen and Embryo Auction will be

               30 straws of Equinox semen
Sold to Brian & Janet Rogers, JB Ferme, Shawville, Quebec

                              and

              30 straws of Eclipse semen
Sold to Knox Farms, Australia
 

                                                Private Treaty Verses Auction Sales

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the many folks who have come to Dora Lee over the years to purchase seed stock from us. Private treaty sales have been very rewarding to us and something we very much appreciate and enjoy.

This topic, “private treaty verses auction sales” has been debated for a long time and will be for many more years to come. We believe that there is a time and place for both.  

As time goes on, private treaty sales of livestock and semen has increased here at Dora Lee and is approaching 75%. With internet and web sites now being a valuable tool in assisting private sales, we see this percentage increasing.

As for the auction ring, it is an opportunity to take the genetics you have worked so hard to produce to town and showcase them along side many of your fellow breeders who have also brought their cattle out. The evaluation process by perhaps upwards of 2 or 3 hundred cattle folks is also a plus. When the hammer drops, let’s face it, unlike private sales, there is no saying “no thank you”. Win, lose or draw, your animal is sold to the highest bidder. We believe that both private treaty and auction has works well for us over the years and fully expect to continue with both options.

Now about our private treaty bull sales, we are able to develop them in our own facility on a ration that is roughage based with a limited amount of grain. Come spring these herd sire prospects are in breeding condition and ready to go out into our industry. There is no reason to pick him up sale day as we continue with the development process until pasture time or when ever our customers want delivery. We have never had a problem here agreeing on a price that is fair market value between buyer and seller and very much appreciate the dialogue previous to the sale taking place.

 Let’s face it, we very much appreciate the private option as there is much more time to get to know your customer and his or her individual needs and wants. We feel important traits such as calving ease and birth weights need to be discussed.  Is your customer planning on using his new bull on heifers? What about his genomic score, how important is his feed efficiency score? His or her mother is here. Would you like to have a look at her? Most of our bulls now are polled. Is this an important trait for you? Yes, I could go on. However we feel that a half hour discussion previous to the purchase is time well spent.

 Simply put, these are “our thoughts’ and they work for us. They may or may not work for others. If, by chance, you are reading this article and want to wade in on this topic your feed back would be very much appreciated.

Our 364 Day Pursuit of Excellence

Our relentless, never ending search for outcross genetics continues here at Dora Lee as we travel down this winding road attempting to raise the bar at every twist and turn. Here are some of our recent additions.

 In December 2010, B5 Wynn [739201] arrived here from Maryville, Tennessee. She is sired by Pro Stock Hickory who has dealt with the horns, and is out of a very impressive Load Hafkenberg daughter with legendary bulls like Hackenberg, Hafke & Siegfried in her make up. Wynn, has already gotten her feet wet here as this winter, she gave us an impressive polled bull calf by our Eclipse bull, who will be heading straight to our bull development facility at weaning time.

 Prostock Giardia [758859] arrived here from the 2011 Kentucky Naile sale last November with some of the best genetics we can find from our neighbours in the USA in her pedigree. Giardia’s sire is Star Palm who was imported back in 1973 and her granddam is the well known and proven Woodrings Gretchen, a cow we attempted to purchase a flush on several years ago while attending a FSFF sale in Huntsville, Alabama. Gretchen is a Siegfried out a Hackenberg sired dam – genetics we think very highly of. Giardia’s genomic profile is very impressive placing her in the top 1% for feed efficiency within our Fleckvieh breed. She has adjusted well to our management here at Dora Lee and our plans are to mate her to the legendary Arnold’s Image bull as she starts off her career. Stay tuned we do have high expectations for this young lady.

Bar 5 Roxana,[745835] was purchased just recently at the prestigious Bar 5 sale, again adding some outcross polled genetics to our herd. When we first saw her, she overwhelmed us with her femininity, style and temperament. Her polled genetics come from a different line for us, well back in her pedigree. It was simply a no brainier to bring her here and give her the opportunity to raise the bar. Our plans are to mate her to our Eclipse bull to start off her working career .

Genomics and Dora Lee

In 2008, we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the 2008 World Simmental Congress in Ireland and Scotland. The talk of the conference was the breaking technology of genomics in beef cattle! Using this technology to analyze hair samples, DNA markers could be located and genetic predictions could be made on traits like feed efficiency, ADG, rib eye, temperament, marbling, and tenderness.  We were extremely excited by this new technology. Just considering the potential that genomics possesses – “WOW!”.

We talked with several of our fellow breeders from Australia at the World Congress who were already using this new technology. They indicated they were using Igenity testing from Merial. When we arrived home, we contacted Igenity and had a lengthy discussion surrounding ‘the big one’ – feed efficiency or RFI (residual feed intake).  In our estimate, 80% of our costs are feed related, and it was virtually impossible to determine how ‘feed efficient’ an animal was in the pasture.  Combining traditional evaluation methods with the ability to potentially identify animals who would be more efficient, could be a game changer.  We had used DNA several years ago while in the swine industry and were very aware of just what this new tool could do to assist in the selection process. We wanted to select animals that are phenotypically correct and were the type we wanted to produce, but also wanted a tool to know what was under the hide as well.  Igenity offered us that tool.

While Merial had completed their research on Feed Efficiency in beef cattle, it was not available in North America until approval by the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium.[NBCEO].  In 2009, we received word that NBCEO had reviewed the RFI work and it was now available here in Canada. Starting in August 2009, we profiled a couple of cow families just to get our head around this new technology. After studying this new and important selection data, we proceeded to profile the remainder of our herd that fall.

To date, we have additional data on 3 crops of calves and upwards of 150 samples to analyze and compare. We have been able to identify a limited number of blood lines that are significantly better than the industry average for feed efficiency. We are mainly using this new tool in our selection of replacement heifers and, of course, future herd sire prospects and AI matings.

Although very preliminary, after three years of selection here at Dora Lee, looking primarily at feed efficiency, this tool would appear to be making a difference. For the first time ever, our cows and bred heifers had pasture until mid-November this year.  We had the same number of cows, and were using the same pastures. Are we excited? “Oh yeah!”

Cost is, and was, a big issue for us and our fellow breeders. We believe that companies like Merial, Pfizer, and others have invested millions of dollars on this private, non government research – they obviously need to make a profit as well. However, as time goes on and more producers start using this new tool, prices are sure to come down further. (The cost of the test itself has already decreased from $60 to $40 per head).

We are very excited about the potential for this great new tool, and look forward to continuing to identify bloodlines and improve the quality of our herd.