Our DCC favorite cow Silent Iron was flushed to Time Line, a son of Rio out of Dragon Pearl early spring of 2018. Silent Iron was so correct and was leading her age group at DCC on T2T horn growth. This was a good flush resulting in 4 embryo pregnancies.
Time Line has the distinction of being one of only a half dozen TL bulls with over 90" T2T and weighing over a ton.
At DCC a strong effort is placed on correct structure, easy fleshing, good gain and pretty color. Many are totally targeting one direction with only wide horn, which we feel is a mistake. As we venture toward an ever increasing horn spread the gain is an equal factor for all the right commercial reasons. As a result of many targets, not just one, it takes us longer at DCC to get where we want to go.
As the due date for the Silent Iron flush was near, it was very different. Normally on these high expectation bandings calves were conceived to be born after April 1 to avoid the chance of extreme cold weather and possible loss of calves at birth by freezing. This one was scheduled early--there was a high risk.
About a week before the expected birth dates the recips were moved to an enclosure, not heated, but out of the wind and snow--a hoop barn. It was still getting down to ten below zero during the nights. This in itself was a precaution but not a perfect protection. So our men took turns checking the recips every two hours during the cold nights. This was not a popular job, nor was I appreciated for the idea. Night after night, no calves. More disgruntled men. More cold nights. The expected date was past several days.
On January 28, 2019 at lunch (DCC has a lunch for employees) just afterward, the men check the expectant mothers and a beautiful, long legged pinto heifer was standing and nursing. She had been born during our lunch time when the temperature was up to about 10 degrees. She was happy, hungry and the start of a long-planned genetic adventure.
Silent Time at the time of this writing is age 4, weighs 1420 lbs and conformation as good or even better than expected. She is raising a Point Mark calf and being mated to Point Markagain. Some stories turn out very nice---this one sure did.
