| Clean-up bull - Mr. UT
2425 |
This Angus bull has a performance record that dates back to the early 1950’s even before I was a graduate student at UT. The University of Tennessee has one of the best grass management Angus cow herds I have seen in my life. It is basically dedicated to research but has a great, great set of mother cows with cattle that have dimension, volume, growth and correctness.
Background story on Mr. UT 2425:
Last fall I visited the UT herd and saw the largest framed and most impressive Angus bull I have ever seen, Mr. UT 1593. He sired a son Mr. UT 2425 who was just like him but with more volume, muscle and correctness but not quite as big. Mr. UT 2425 is out of a Pathfinder cow, who is truly one of the great cows I have seen. Then I saw her mother and she was just as impressive! Mr. UT 2425 has 3 generations of Pathfinder dams on his maternal side and all are big, good milkers with great udders and are high growth cattle, as well as being extremely structurally correct.
We were fortunate to purchase Mr. UT 2425, a coming 2 year old, at the Eastern Tennessee Angus sale on Feb. 17, where he competed well and was named Grand Champion Bull. I believe that this bull has the necessary traits to become a big time contributor to the Angus gene pool. He is heavy muscled, very correct in skeletal makeup, has a great foot and moves as well as any bull I have seen for a bull of his dimension and overall size. His spring of rib and capacity is rare for a bull of his size. Also, his length of hip (hooks to pins) and length of quarter are very impressive. At 23 months he measured 59” at the hip. The UT herdsman told me he weighed 2160 back in the early fall and they just kept him on pasture so he wouldn’t get too big. His spread is good with a projected 110 yearling, 56 WW, and +21 on milk. They believe his AHIR BW of 5.1 will come down considerably like his sire, who started out over 6 and is now 3.3. Mr. UT 2425 had an actual birth weight of 88 pounds.
Phenotype on Mr. UT 2425 is truly outstanding and I believe he will be a great breeding bull because of his depth of Pathfinder dams plus he is not related to most of the EXT or Precision bloodlines of today. He is out of a herd with over 60 years of performance records!
This 7 plus frame bull had a 733 adj. 205 (ratio 117) and an average daily gain of 5.36, ratio 110 with a 1591 adj. yearling weight on a silage ration, and no creep! He is a grass management type of bull bred to have tremendous growth and will convert forages into pounds of meat.
I believe this bull could have a great influence on the Angus gene pool, developed from a herd that essentially has been closed for research. Mr. UT 2425 would offer new genetics for Angus breeders seeking more growth, muscle, frame, eye appeal and length of hip and quarter. Anyone seeing Mr. UT 2425 is impressed such that they know that they have seen one of the great Angus bulls.
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