REILAND U-RECHARGE U23

Team Dulverton made the decision to use Dunoon ReCharge R102 during our Spring joining of 2022, we hadn’t used The L519 Bull and we trust the Dunoon program, with its strong “Commercial” focus. We have known Brett Guest since he was knee high to a grasshopper and have followed his progression from the days when he worked at ICM Feedlot, Brett worked for a company we had shares in Total Beef Systems. He knows The Industry from “The Paddock to The Plate”, Brett has a share in R102.

Dick Whale had been following R102 and was happy to recommend his Structural Soundness, R102 it would be then. We were impressed with the R102 progeny at Dulverton and by weaning at the end of March 2024 were convinced we could use an R102 son from a “Powerful” maternal background that was totally removed from our Dulverton maternal pedigrees.

Let the search begin.

After much deliberation we did come across Reiland U-Recharge U23 in Mark Lucas’s Reiland catalogue. Mark has been an acquaintance since The Sydney Show era of the late 1970’s to the mid 1980’s. I guess it is a very “Small World” if you have been in Angus Bull Breeding for a half a century.

Closer scrutiny of U23’s Maternal Pedigree does indicate the presence of “The Mittagong family”. Another of our Show Comrades from The ‘70’s Knoxie and Helen did Purchase the Ebony Hills Mittagong G5, herself a descendant of Te Mania Mittagong D73. One of our foundation cows at Dulverton was in fact Te Mania Mittagong C65 and she like D73 was by VPI Lord Patriot.

Note the Maternal Great Grand dam of U23 is R. Braebell C37, she was six (6) when she produced R. Braebell J563 (Ayrvale Bartel E7), herself an eight (8) year old when she produced S921 (Strathewen Regent E23 H70), U23’s dam.


The outside blood that U23 brings to the Dulverton program per favour of his maternal pedigree that we consider of value includes-:

  • BR New Design 036
  • Lawsons Dinki Di
  • Tehama Regent D145
  • Ayrvale Bartel E7

U23 ticks many Boxes-:

  • He is by a Sire in R102 who has runs on the board both here at Dulverton and across a wide cross section of herds
  • His Maternal Pedigree introduces Blood from a range of Sires who’s performance we have come to respect
  • He has Maternal Longevity
  • He was born Early, Unassisted and out of a heifer

Association and likemindedness are major considerations of ours when attempting to identify prospective sires for use in The Dulverton herd. Mark uses Dick Whale to sort through his Structural Soundness and Mark has his “Toe in the water” with The Igenity Beef Profile genetic evaluation program, that we at Dulverton are committed to.

Prior to us making our final decision re the purchase of R. U-Recharge U23 we did evaluate his EBV’s and although Mark hadn’t received his Breedplan Genomic information we were happy with the genetic trends for Calving Ease, adequate Growth, Days to Calving/Scrotal, IMF%, EMA with slightly negative Fatness.

In the week leading up to his Sale Mark’s Igenity Beef Profile for R. U23 data turned up, consider the following

Dulverton Value Determining Trait Index: Generated by Igenity Beef Profile

TRAIT.%Weighting U23 IBP Raw ScoreU23 VDT Score
CEM.1077
STAY.25615
RFI.1583
TDR.101010
MARB.20816
EMA.573.5
CW.15812
10066.5


To put U23’s Value Determing  Index into perspective consider the Scores of the Sires we have used at Dulverton in The 2024 Breeding Season-:

Dulverton Smart Missile S05874.5Tehama Patriarch67
Dulverton Think Big T200.  72Reiland U-Recharge U2366.5
Dulverton Unstop-a-bull U02571.5Dulverton Quaffa Q10862
Dulverton Unit U15669.5Clunie Range R76262
Mandayan T22169.5Booroomooka S75759.5
Dulverton Unstop-a-bull U01767.5Alpine Next Gen R27259
Dunoon T67057

It is our ultimate goal to use Sires with VDI Scores of 70+, at the moment this is too tall an ask so while we continue the search, particularly for Bulls with better Stayability and RFI, we are happy to use Sires of 65+ particularly where they have recorded 8’s for Marbling.

We did have Dick Whale inspect R. U23 and he was very satisfied with his Structure, his Skin and Hair, his Mobility and Temperament.

We purchased R.U23 from The Reiland Spring Sale, being happy he was an Autumn calf, this meant he had that additional maturity over a Spring yearling to enable him to cover forty “T”s. Normally we would want a Bull we wished to use in the Spring here at Shannon Vale three months prior to the first week in October our intended joining date. Having only three and a half weeks acclimatisation was certainly going to test him.

The Bull arrived and was all we could have asked for, Structurally Sound, ideal depth of heel, long bodied with a wonderful shoulder set and neck extension. His muscle to bone ratio could not be any better. His skin and hair certainly supports that slick coat (no surplus hair on the head), soft pliable skin we have been selecting for for generations. His Mobility is amazing, the bull glides across the ground, his stride is “extended” and fluent, a real pleasure to watch as he moved from cow to cow during his fifty five day joining. His testicular development is ideal, plenty of volume there to produce and store sufficient semen to settle forty (40) “T”s in calf in fifty five days.

The proof is in the pudding, we have been pregnancy checking this past week (23/24th January 2025), at Shannon Vale, the results have been very satisfactory. None more so than those of R. U23, as a “Long Yearling” he has settled thirty nine of his forty “T”s in calf in a fifty day interval, Tremendous work R.U23.

What an achievement particularly given the fact that he only had a twenty four day settling in period.

The other sensational piece of news re R.U23 is the fact that his EBV’s actually improved once his genomically enhanced Breedplan data was published, amazing!! we never have luck like that. Check them out, note he is in the top 2% for the Angus Breeding Index and the top 1% for the Angus Breeding Low Feed Cost Index.

R U23  So far so good!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS MARK & THE REILAND TEAM         HEZA  STUNNER

Posted in : Chap's Chatter