“I just wanted to report on the Niagara calves I sent to the Indiana Beef Evaluation Program. The test finished last week and the get was the highest at the whole test with a performance index of 115. They gained an average of 4.71 pounds per day. The dams of the three at the bull test were a Redirect x Decatur, Bando 9074 x In Focus, and In Focus son x Retail Product son. Greg [Beavers]has seen the bulls and can attest that they are very uniform in shape and structure. All are sound footed, wide based, with lots of guts. They have a little longer front end than some of the other bulls at the test as well as ones I have at home.
As far as Niagara’s calves this year, all have come unassisted besides a set of twins that were breech. Average weights have been lower than my Upsides but higher than my Comrades. I think he will fall in the middle of those two sires as far as birth weight goes. Some of his calves have come 7 to 10 days early and some have been right on the due date. We will see how the summer progress but the calves look good at this point and the few replacements of his born in March don’t seem to be far behind their January counterparts.
Niagara did well with his ultrasound data this year. 13 progeny averaged 104 for IMF and 103 for REA.” – Andrew Stewart
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