Sidey Angus - February 1998 diary

February 1st - Acquisitions

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to acquire some fantastic embryo matings from the Van Dyke Angus herd in Montana. I'll be implanting several matings of (Rito 054 x VDAR Beauty 806); (VDAR Lucys Boy x VDAR Polly 4027); (VDAR Vision 243 x VDAR Lucy 5156); and (Rito 2100 GDAR x VDAR Beauty 4039). We were able to acquire matings of (VDAR Lucys Boy x VDAR Hazel 4168) and (Paramount Ambush x VDAR Lucy 5156) earlier this year.

Beauty 806 is a maternal sister to Beauty 930 while Beauty 4039 is a full sister, making her embryos full siblings to Beauty 228, now at Vantage Angus in California. Polly 4027 is a full sister to VDAR Vision 243 while Lucy 5156 is out of a maternal sister to Lucys Boy by New Trend 315 and sired by VDAR High Profile, a son of VDAR Polly 215

Whether I get bulls or females, I'm sure that they will impact my herd in an extremely positive manner.

February 4th - Windy & cold

It is almost 28° F (-2.2° C) outside but there is a tremendous wind giving us a chill factor of -5° F (-21° C) . We are not getting any snow here but my sister said that Cincinnati, and parts South are really getting dumped on. Dave Smith at Stewart Seeds Angus just called and said that the snow is really starting to pick up at Greensburg in Southern Indiana.

We had a very nice 315 bull calf sometime during the night. He is long necked and even longer bodied with tremendous energy. Although I would have preferred another 315 heifer, I was needing some more good bull calves and he fits the bill.

Heard from my friend Kym Hildich from South Australia this morning. Kym reports that it is being a very good year for their Wiltshire Ram sales. They also run quite a few different breeds of cattle and numerous other ag enterprises near Adelaide. I also got a note from Edith Luli. Her daughter Jennifer is doing well in Texas. I never did mention that Jen had the Grand Champion Angus heifer at the National Western Stock Show Jr Angus show in Denver. That same heifer won the same honor in November at the North American.

February 11th - MVAA

We had a very good turnout at the Miami Valley Angus Association Annual Meeting and Banquet last evening. I was told that there were 108 there and it looked it.

Got to talk with Dr. Bob Long at the head table during dinner. I was honored, but felt so stupid listening to him. I would like to know just ten percent of his cattle knowledge. He gave an excellent talk and presents ideas in such a way that you feel like an idiot for not figuring them out on your own. I was sure glad that I got to meet him.

Jo Broshear was selected to receive the Presidents Outstanding Member Award this year and it was very well deserved. Jo and her husband, Clarence, run Stony Run Angus near Hamilton, OH. They are real Angus ambassadors. I'll be updating the Miami Valley web page early next week.

February 14th - Nice Day, Good Week

Beautiful day today, about 45° F ( 7° C). It would have been nice if it were colder for some work we have been doing here at the farm this week, but I can take it now. This has been a very good week as I have been able to chat quite a bit with some very good friends and start to get caught up on some web page work that I was running behind on. That always puts me in a better mood and makes the days shorter.

We had our Boxer pup spayed a couple of days ago and she has bounced back (literally bounced) very well. I am very pleased with the growth on the Fall and Winter calves. They are really blooming right now. My September Finks 5522-6148 looks to be the best female and the new VDAR New Trend 315 bull is one our better ones in quite a while. We bred my Queenmar 3 year old to GDAR Dutch 5226 this morning. She is just an excellent 315 cow and Dutch is really generating interest with his EPDs and first calves on test. We'll probably be using the Queenmar as one of the cows that I will show at the Ohio Preview this summer.

February 20th - Banquet

Our Auglaize County Cattlemen's Association Banquet was last evening and we had a very nice turnout. I counted about 110. I got to make history when I presented the Cattleman of the Year to the first female recipient in the association's history. We could not have had a better choice. Bonnie Bradford of St. Marys has been a super worker for the group and the industry as a whole. Our Meritorious Service to the Beef Industry award went to Hugh Seibert of near Spencerville. As I was growing up I always enjoyed a visit to his feedlots as his family was one of the largest feeders in the area. He also served for over a decade representing Auglaize County on the Ohio Cattlemen's Association.

Went to COBA/Select Sires at Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday to to prepare for presentations that I will give next week. COBA sponsors meetings throughout Ohio to provide breeders with new information on genetics, feeding, marketing and other timely subjects as well a having a nice meal and info on bulls in their stud. I was asked to discuss the Internet and utilizing it in beef cattle marketing at several of these meetings. I hope that I can do the topic justice.

February 21st - Mud & WCOAA

Yesterday was a very good day or at least I was in a super mood even with the cloudy day. It has been a very dreary week. Rain, Rain and Rain has yielded mud and more mud. It is overcast when not raining. Temperatures have been near 40° F ( 4° C) during the days. There is no frost in the ground now that is for sure.

We are hosting a West Central Ohio Angus Association meeting again on Sunday afternoon at 1:00. The association is making plans for our upcoming district Angus show this summer. We took the break in rain this morning to try to clean out the calving pens and inside calf run. Having people over always gives you more incentive.

February 25th - Recovering

I received word Monday that a long time Ohio Angus breeder and staunch Angus supporter, Fritz Penick of Way-View Farms, suffered a stroke on Sunday. After talking with his son Fred yesterday, I was very relieved to find that he has been upgraded to serious condition and appears to have no complications. Fred is the current President of the Ohio Angus Association.

It is finally starting to dry out a bit here. We have not had any precipitation in several days and the temperatures have been more like late March than February. It is to get well over 50° F ( 10° C) the next several days but rain is again on the forecast for later this week.

We are hoping to get the bulls weighed and ultrasounded next week. This will be our first year of gathering carcass data on them instead of just from their calves. The goal is to have measurements on every animal on the farm this year.

Sidey Angus Farm Diary - February 1998