Lionel-P
Born: October 2020
aAa: 345 - A2A2 - AB/AB
Unregistered (but fully pedigreed and 100% Jersey)
Heterozygous Polled
Lionel-P is an elegant dump truck that can fix a lot of metabolic issues when bred to cows that are making too much milk for the desired forage system. He is 100% my go-to bull for this job. He has everything that a grazier needs in a cow:
+ shiny coat in all seasons
+ fly resistance
+ large belly for capacity eating grass
+ smart, wide head and wide muzzle for good respiration and grazing
+ more than adequate chest girth for strength, disease resistance and room for vital organs
+ more than adequate pelvic width to provide room for easy calving
+ ability to maintain condition on lower-quality forage and improved fescue tolerance (no dairy animal thrives on fescue, as the endophyte works against peripheral circulation and milk production and stresses the liver, but there is an improved tolerance here)
If you have a frail, tall, hard-keeper, Lionel is the bull for you. He is a forage specialist without compromising on dairy traits or udder soundness. His mother is 9 years old and still a productive member of the herd. She has incredible depth of body and is able to consume and hold a tremendous amount of forage, which works towards towards metabolic efficiency on a high-forage diet.
His sire was a favorite bull at a grass-dairy in WV for a number of years for his small frame size and easy-going disposition. Lionel's paternal granddam was a deep, easy-keeping cow whose mother was a dairy queen with longevity, persistence and the most humble and kind way of being in the world.
Lionel's maternal granddam came out of a famous Ohio program where the only bulls that were kept as breeders came from mothers who had 10 trouble-free years: no hoof issues, no mastitis, no milk fever, no ketosis. She was a lovely cow who grazed in the hottest part of the day when everyone else was panting under a tree. She was serious about eating and milking and also had a strong, but gentle personality.
In 2015 Suzanne drove her truck and trailer for four straight days to buy four cows from Nebraska. Three of them are in Lionel's pedigree. The fourth maternal component comes from the foundation cow and most prominent cow family of the pastured dairy down the road. This bull has more of Reverence Farms' history in him than any other bull in the lineup, and most closely reflects Suzanne's own breeding choices over many generations.
The only reason he is unregistered is because his paternal great-grandsire was unregistered, but a worthy bull nonetheless, having been line-bred to the greatest grazing bull of all time, Beledene Dukes Landy. Landy is also his great-great grandmother's sire. Linebreeding creates prepotency and when you cross a line-bred animal to an unrelated animal, you get the benefits of an "outcross" but within the same breed, producing hybrid vigor as if you had crossed breeds but while still retaining the best parts of your desired breed. It is how we get predictability of outcome, which is the gold-standard of breeding, and how every single breed in the world of any species was ever created.
Our stock of this bull is the last we have of him, and he is a worthy addition to any program desiring to improve grazing efficiency while still maintaining dairy elegance, longevity and components. Lionel is the epitome of what it means to turn sunshine into butter.
*There is a minimum order of three conventional straws per cow. The shipping cost is significant & having one extra is better than needing another shipment.
*For a $10 discount per straw, order five or more straws of the same bull (discount will automatically be applied in your cart).
*There is no minimum for purchasing sexed straws. We recommend purchasing a minimum of three straws, whether conventional, sexed or a combination. If breeding multiple cows, you can round down somewhat because hopefully the law of averages means at least one of your cows settles on the first service, freeing up other straws for multiple services. You can use any additional straws next year.
**TO AVOID an extra charge of $150 for a complete nitrogen refill, you must return the tank within the 2 week timeframe stated in the return instructions.
***Tanks that are not returned are subject to a $1500 replacement fee.
****If you are local to Graham, North Carolina and would like to pick up on farm instead of having your order shipped, please first email bulls[at]reverencefarms.com to check availability and receive a custom invoice.