5BarX

Has anyone used this bull?
what were the calf's like? long enough? weaned wt enough?

Vance, Greg Golden originally kept the Black Cedar bull to breed yearling heifers with. The bull was used for 2 or 3 years that way and was an excellent calving ease bull. The calves definitely have some growth ability to them. He does sire very good length and performance. Black Cedar's EPD's were listed in the 2005 Cole Creek sale catalog which was when the very first calves were being born. They were as follows Birth +0.1 Wean 27 Milk 15 Yearling 53. The bull's current numbers are +1.2 44 20 85.
Greg does not jump up and down about very many bulls that come along, but he is very convinced that Black Cedar is a super bull to breed to. Give him a call, He will definitely tell you anything you would like to know. R4

vance-- Heres a post Jeff Younkin put on advantage cattle site after he came back from the last sale:




And in my conversations I've had with him since- he's definitely high on Black Cedar...He's another that has seen the bull and his calves and could sure give you an opinion...And if you know Jeff- he usually finds something wrong with everything- but sure was talking up this bull...

Thanks R4, I will give Greg a call

Oldtimer; thanks for the info.
sounds like this bull will be ok.
I will Greg a call.

I heard that ABS was interested in Black Cedar. Sounds like Greg sold an amazing amount of semen to breeders all over the country.

Anyone have some new thoughts on this bull? Do only Goldens' deal semen on this bull? Also, can someone let me know the contact information for Goldens?

Does the breeder of this bull have a website??? Heard from a young man I respect that the bull is indeed pretty good.

As far as I know-- Cole Creek is still handling the semen on the bull- and I've never seen a website listed.. You can call Greg Golden at 406-962-3743
or
the mailing address is
Box 94
Joliet MT 59041

Their bull sale is coming up on March 22nd.....

Thanks for the number . I called Greg tonight and had a nice visit with him. My young friend really talked Greg up and he sure sounded like a pretty straight up kind of guy. Got my name on his sale book list and probably will sample a bit of his bull.

Jim, could you elaborate on the info you gained. I've looked at this bull for quite some time.

Some of this is from Greg and some of it is from a young man I know in Nebraska who reccomended that I talk to Greg.

Greg said that the daughters are good cows that are easy fleshing with good udders and pretty docile. He seems to be pretty tough on high strung cows and is not an Ext fan. The fellow from Nebraska had been to a herd where some of the cows were cole creek bred and some were Ohlde. He said the Cole Creek cows were bigger with quite a bit bigger calves on them . I asked Greg what the holes were in the bull and he could not come up with any which is sometimes a red flag with me but he seemed and I was told that he is pretty frank and honest.

I got a performance pedigree on the bull and the daughters with their first calves ratio around 99 if memory serves and I asked him about that and he said that quite a few of them got bred to a calving ease type bull that turned out to have pretty sub par performance . It sounded like Greg got rid of him. My email is larsonj@evertek.net send me an email and I will forward on a performance pedigree on the bull.

Jim,
What are you hoping to gain from this bull that you don't already have? Or are you just looking to outcross?

I have always been interested in good long term commercialy oriented purebred operations. Examples would be the Eaton Charolais operation, The old N bar under Tom Elliot, The Sitz operation, Cooper and Holden, Buffalo Creek and the Forbes family etc. I enjoy reading their sale books as it is interesting to see how they think . You can learn a whole lot once you admit that you dont know it all and I learn from visiting with folks like Tom Elliot and Greg Golden.

I think my cattle will compete with most and they have been pretty well received by a number of commercial cow men in this area and though my operation and theirs live in what is a very tough winter environment, my cows and theirs dont have to work as hard for a living in Iowa as Greg Goldens cows do or that the old N Bar cows did. I dont think it will hurt me to infuse some of Goldens genetics into my cows as he is a pretty tough operator from all accts in holding his cows to tough standards for performing in a tough environment and to a rigorous standard for the convenience traits like udders and temperment.

I used about 25 straws of Black Cedar last fall after also taking to Greg Golden. The bull interests me because of positive experiences with many of the older genetics in the pedigree... and disappointment in what is currently popular in the breed.

There does seem to be a ''sweet spot'' here for a certain type of cow that are a bit bigger then many of the low input sires [plus having a decent set of nuts] yet not the train wrecks currently popular. To much milk and too much yearling growth eliminates many popular bulls.

We have some Cedar calves this spring. Some were born just fine but did help a few, however all of our calves have been heavier out of all sires this colder winter than we're used to in KS. The calves are about 3 wks old now and are really looking nice. Got a couple bull calves and a few heifers. We will be having some more of them this fall as well but out of some cows. I did flush him to a New Trend cow that is a maternal sister to 24J that we are excited to get a couple of calves by. I'll try to remember to get a pic or two of the calves we have to show what they are looking like if I have time.

Any way I could take a peek at those calves in a few wks? Probably heading to KABSU to collect a bull.

Uncle Jack, what are the other sire groups sired by that Black Cedar will be compared to and how do the calves compare at this stage?

damn, I just find it incredulous that you would be out searching for the next great bull even before your Jipsey Earl calves have hit the ground...that sure isn`t expressing much confidence in the Sinclair/Ward/Elliot program...

I would think Jipsey Earl would fit your program pretty well Mike. Might increase the performance a little bit in your herd but not enough to make your cattle above average. I am sure your local Genex rep can fix you right up with 100 units or so.