Touchstone 37Q 2HY2C

37Q is the best bull we’ve produced from an individual performance standpoint and one that deserves your consideration for use. To begin with, on our 138-day simulated forage test, he tied as the high-gaining bull at 3.44 lbs. per day with a ratio 131. The pen average for 70 bulls was 2.6 lbs. per day on primarily hay. This test is designed to identify bulls possessing the genetic ability to excel in grass-finishing programs and for producing efficient low-input females.

37Q is out of an EXT/Lovana/Dynamo bred cow that traces 185 times to a bull born in 1929 named simply "Emulous" and is the progenator sire for our program. See our Breeding Philosophy page for more information on the history of Emulous cattle. The dam of 37Q will be 10 years old this year, with a deep, long body in a 4.5 frame. She also produced our high-selling bull 7 years ago and some outstanding females as well.

Although 37Q is not close-bred in his three-generation pedigree he certainly is linebred tracing to "Emulous" 264 times (185 times for dam and 79 times for sire) including Ankonian Dynamo 22 times in his extended pedigree.

Probably the most exciting aspect of this bull is his DNA tenderness profile combined with his BIA ultrasound tenderness score. 37Q is homozygous for all three known tenderness markers. These DNA markers all relate to the role of enzymatic activity post-harvest to tenderize the meat but have no relationship to the components of structural tenderness such as connective tissue, fiber densities and relative fiber direction. That is why the BIA ultrasound is important. The presence of the DNA tenderness markers in a homozygous state can improve the tenderness of beef given any starting point of an animal's tenderness with aging. The BIA ultrasound tenderness score is important to determine the tenderness/toughness starting point for a given animal by measuring the major structural components of tenderness.

The sire of 37Q, B/R Destination 727-928 had a tenderness EPD of -.36 based on 39 steer progeny through the Angus Sire Alliance. Among the Angus bulls evaluated for shear force, the sire of 37Q had third highest tenderness score among the Angus bulls tested. Therefore, by identifying animals homozygous for the known DNA tenderness markers who also have a low BIA ultrasound tenderness score and are sired by a bull proven for tenderness is accomplishing all that can be done to improve tenderness with the existing technology for young, unproven sires.

We know of no other young sire who excels in all of these areas and given his linebred pedigree has the genetic prepotency to pass it on consistently.

Touchstone 11U

We are excited about this young sire for his balance of strengths. His was among the first sire group we ever tested entirely on pasture with only meadow hay supplemented in the winter when snow became deep. 11U performed well out of a first calf heifer by Touchstone 37Q and had an excellent Pfizer 50K profile. He also was tested under the BIA protocol for tenderness by Tall Grass Beef Company and recorded an exceptional tenderness score of 24. His sire Touchtone 6S also scored a 24 and is jointly owned with Green Garden Angus.

Touchstone 23R

23R is a bull you can use to build fleshing ability, marbling and early rapid growth. The dam of 23R is out of one of the easiest fleshing cows we have in our herd yet produces plenty of milk in a perfect udder. His growth as indicated by his weaning and yearling ratios were 113 and 118 respectively among 54 contemporaries on a simulated forage test.

Green Garden Angus used Touchstone 23R in their AI program in 2008. In the 2009 Green Garden Angus bull sale his progeny averaged among the top sire groups. Two of the sons in that sale were syndicated to groups of other registered breeders.

A son from that same calf crop was retained for internal use by Green Garden Angus. In the Green Garden 2011 bull sale this son's progeny averaged $4,590 and produced the high selling yearling bull at $7,750.

Green Garden Angus commented on 23R as follows in their catalog: “Touchstone 23R is one of the few bulls we have found that fits into our program of calving ease and carcass traits. His calves have performed well here with the bulls average weaning ratio of 101 and yearling ratio of 102. He is the only bull we have used in the past 5 years that ratioed over 100 on his scan scores.”

Green Garden tested the 1B6 sons in a GrowSafe system and they seemed to excel there as well.

Touchstone O 148

Touchstone O 148 is probably the top bull we produced in 2008 and was among 24 Touchstone bulls we tested in the GrowSafe system at the University of Wyoming's animal science research center. We used a high roughage ration to simulate a forage test attempting to identify bulls able to convert roughage more efficiently to pounds of gain. A residual feed intake (RFI) score was calculated as well. Each bull was given a full DNA profile by Igentity. We also did a GeneStar DNA test using the 56 marker MVP for tenderness, marbling and feed efficiency. Ultrasound was also done at the completion of the test.

Touchstone O 148 had the best combination of adjusted weaning weight (711/ET) and on-test 140 day ADG (3.32 lbs./ratio 107) of the 24 Touchstone bulls tested. He was the leader in Feed Efficiency and RFI up until the final test weights were taken but still finished with a respectable 102 FE Ratio and a -0.779 RFI. His Genestar score for Feed Efficiency is in the top 30% of the angus breed with an MVP score of -1.07 lbs. per day.

His ultrasound scores were impressive as well with an IMF ratio of 114 and RE ratio of 127. His Igentity score for tenderness was 10 and marbling, 8. The GeneStar 50K score for tenderness is -.78 top 6.

O 148 is not close-bred in his three generation pedigree but he certainly is linebred Emulous tracing to the founder sire “Emulous (Reg. No. 408620)” 225 times in his extended pedigree.