Greg, Sally, John & Selena are well and truely over the moon regarding their good fortune in securing the SALE
TOPPER from Alec and Jo Moore’s Weeran Sale. Alec and Jo are well known to the Dulverton and Five Star Teams, they too have been in the business of Breeding Angus Seedstock for in excess of forty years. The direction at Weeran has been and still is about breeding Angus Sires capable of fulfilling a Value Driven, commercial focus from a female herd recognised for its maternal longevity.
PHENOTYPIC MAGNIFICENCE
Varnish V245 by Myers Fair-N-Square from a Musgrave Big Sky daughter N442, who is still active and has reared seven, possess’s what we often refer to as the phenotypic WOW FACTOR. Presence is a difficult concept to describe and measure, very few potential Sires possess it. We believe The WOW comes together in this package from the combination of-:
- His Locomotion. Note how freely he moves, his head is up and commanding his Space. The Freedom of movement is due in no small way to both his ideal shoulder set and correct set to the hock. V245’s depth of heel is a definite structural positive that assists in allowing that characteristic freedom of movement.
- His Head. V245’s Head exhibits Width across the muzzle plus a prominent bottom jaw, the eyes are set wide apart both valuable indicators of power and strength.
- His Skin/Hair. V245’s Skin is simply amazing, it is so soft, loose and pliable it oozes quality it resembles velvet. Note the hair is very fine and silky. Historically this skin/hair pattern has been an indicator of Tenderness, the Beef produced by V245’s progeny is the sort that “melts in the mouth”.
PEDIGREE
Pedigree is an all important consideration when contemplating the purchase of a Potential Sire and it’s our contention that the dam of the sire under consideration needs to be very closely scrutinised. Maternal traits are essential as we shall be wanting to keep replacement females sired by the potential sire in V245.
V245’s dam N442 is by Musgrave Big Sky, we have a high regard for Big Sky we used him in the Dulverton herd and still have plenty of his daughters operational, his “M” daughters are nine years old and still functioning, note N442 has already reared seven calves and all have been progeny recorded. Big Sky is arguably the most prepotent sire we have used to promote structural soundness and in particular depth of heel. Big Sky’s presence in the maternal pedigree has been a major driver re our commitment to purchase V245. N442 is shaping as a maternal powerhouse.
Other renowned breeders from days gone by in V245’s maternal pedigree include JLB Exacto (used with success in the Dulverton Herd), TeMania Kelp (by O’Neill’s Renovator imported by Greg & Sal from Jim & Ardyce O’Neill Iowa), VDAR Lucy’s Boy and Mordallup King.
Varnish V245’s sire, Myers Fair-N-Square, note the concentration of the Conneally Blood, is a total outcross for our herds. We have visited the Conneally herd a couple of times and believe their program to have a much better than average commercial focus. Conneally’s traditionally concentrated on herd fertility, plus light birth weight with well above average growth. Conneally’s were the Go To herd for Select Sires in their quest for Birth Weight to Growth “spread”.
Dulverton and Five Star are both satisfied V245’s pedigree is well founded and will provide a potential base for both herds going forward.
GENETIC MERIT
The Third component of the decision making process regarding our purchase of a potential young sire is his Genetic Merit.
Dulverton and Five Star are ecstatic re the fact that Varnish V245 is a timely replacement for the magnificent Sire in Dulverton Smart Missile S058. Both these bulls have registered Value Determining Indexes (VDI) of an astonishing 74.5.
Dulverton has been using The Igenity Beef Profile (IBP) to assist in describing the Genetic Merit of their Registered Angus for the past five years. Please refer to the Dulverton Website articles regarding the Why and How the IBP is used.
The traits evaluated by the IBP and the scores registered by Weeran Varnish V245 and Dulverton Smart Missile S058 are represented as follows.
| IDENT | BW | CED | CEM | DOC | HP | MILK | STAY | WW | ADG | YW | ScRFI | TDR | MARB | REA | FAT | CW | VDI | |
| S058 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 74.5 |
| V245 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 74.5 |
DOC = Docility HP = Heifer Pregnancy ADG = Average Daily Gain Sc = Scrotal RFI = Residual Feed Intake
The VDI is a quick reference tool to rank individuals according to trait weightings for those traits deemed commercially important and adding to Value. Those traits include-:
Calving Ease Maternal, Stayability, RFI (Feed Efficiency), Tenderness, Marbling, Rib Eye Area, Carcase Weight
The Value Determining Index Calculation
| TRAITS | % WEIGHTING | RAW IBP SCORE S058 | RAW IBP SCORE V245 | WEIGHTED SCORE S058 | WEIGHTED SCORE V245 |
| CEM | 10 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 |
| STAYABILITY | 25 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 17.5 |
| RFI | 15 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7.5 |
| TENDERNESS | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| MARBLING | 20 | 10 | 8 | 20 | 16 |
| REA | 5 | 7 | 6 | 3.5 | 3 |
| CARCASS WT | 15 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 13.5 |
| 74.5 | 74.5 |
Perhaps you can imagine how ecstatic we were the morning of The Weeran Sale when Dick Whale phoned to say that he had just received back from Neogen the IBP Data on Weeran Varnish V245 and that he had done The Dulverton VDI for V245 to find he was a 74.5, the equal of The Benchmark Sire Dulverton Smart Missile S058, we had found a very worthy replacement for our champion.
That’s it WEERAN VARNISH V245 had fulfilled our prerequisites-:
- Phenotypic and Structural Excellence
- Pedigree Expectations and most importantly
- Genetic Merit superiority
We congratulate Alec, Jo and The Weeran Team for bringing forward such a magnificent potential sire prospect. We look forward to proving his worthiness as an Elite Value Adding Angus Sire.
