The End of The Revolution

The last few months have kind of been a bit disappointing around the farm. This winter we were really excited about our calf crop as we got some great embryo calves, and finally got some bull calves out of our Sr. herdsire Revolution. After not getting any bull calves the first year, this was pretty exciting to us, and they really have been looking great so far.

We own Revolution with our good friends at Beechinor Bros Simmentals. This is the 2nd herd sire that we have bought with them and it has always worked out great. Being able to buy high caliber bulls is expensive so to be able to buy them with other breeders sure makes it easier and we have been able to advance our program much faster then normal.

This spring Beechinor's had Revolution at their farm as it was their year to run him at their farm. We were using semen that we had drawn at a stud to breed cows to so that we could still use his genetics. The boys called us one day saying that he was lame and that they were treating him until he got better. A few weeks went by and he was still not better. They pulled him from the pasture and continued to treat him. They even had the vet out to look at him and see what was wrong, but she could not find out what was wrong.

More weeks went by and the boys, and the vet still could not find out what was wrong. After a bunch of tests, some x-rays, and lots of babying they found out what the problem was. The injured foot was one of his back feet, and somehow a tendon got hurt or poked and started to degenerate. The options were either to try and do surgery to fix it, but that was expensive and no idea if it would actually fix that problem. The other option was to draw as much semen as we needed and then ship him to be killed. He would not be able to breed anymore, and so his purpose had been served and was no longer of use.

After doing some thinking we took him down to stud and drew some more semen and he is getting shipped here soon as well. It will be up to his progeny to carry on his legacy and we have ample amounts of semen to use in our herd. He will always be remembered and we had a lot of good times the last few years with him. Winning National Champion Bull and getting many complements on him and his calves has been the real crowning achievement. We will miss the big guy and hope to be able to find someone to replace him.

IPU Revolution 172U- 2008-2011