Ethan Haywood
Hello and welcome back to part two of our Living in the Golden Age World Dairy Expo recap episode of The Select Sires Podcast. For section two, we are very excited to be joined by Tim Abbott, co-owner of Showbox Sires, to talk about some of the family members that we got to see there at Expo and some of the new and exciting bulls that are coming out of this program that you can acquire through your Select Sires sales representative. Tim, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us today.
Tim Abbott
Well, Ethan, it's good to be with you. Glad to be on this podcast and share some of our excitement from the great World Dairy Expo of last week.
Ethan Haywood
We talked a little bit in our earlier segment. We had record number of cattle there, record number of entries, and I just thought the quality was as deep as it has ever been, including a few cows that came out of the Showbox string. What was your experience exhibiting there this year? Anything new or unusual or some of the same great revisits that you normally have?
Tim Abbott
Well probably for me it was the best Expo we've ever had. The volume of people that came by our booth, you know, Ethan, we took some risk and decided to make a Showbox Abbott/Duckett show string and put our booth in the barn by the cows. And that's kind of unique and a little risky for sure. But we were thrilled with the huge volume of Select Sires, World Wide Sires, people from around the world that came, both customers and sales reps that came and visited us. They picked up a piece that we are thrilled to have. We've built a brand new sire directory just for the Select Sires bulls, and we think it's a bit of a masterpiece. You know, Ethan, we're a year into this. And we put out a book with nearly a dozen really, really fun bulls. So for me, it was a thrill to hand those out to people from all over the world.
Ethan Haywood
And it was pretty fun to sit there in the string and get to go through that book with you. And I was excited to get one of the first ones that you put out. A wonderful piece that your team has done an excellent job on. Love the theme of the whole string and booth, and to sit there on the show box and visit with you and your team was pretty fun. As we were sitting across from the aisle, you guys had a few really good brand name, household name cows, and it feels like those famous cows continue to get even more famous. And it's just so cool to see them in the flesh, lined up with the directory, and to see those genetics start to go to work on different farms. So it's got to be very rewarding for you to see that 744 stud code show up in some different places. For our listeners who don't necessarily know, will you explain just a little bit about how this distribution and acquisition process works from your end?
Tim Abbott
Yeah, appreciate that. Just to help clarify some things. So Showbox Sires is a partnership between my wife, Sharyn, and I, who basically spent our careers in the A.I. business and breeding cattle, and then Mike and Julie Duckett, who are great, great dairymen and caretakers of cattle and promoters of cattle. It started with a vision Mike and I had 18 months ago. And basically we have two distributors for our product. Semex will distribute a particular line of bulls and Select Sires will distribute a particular line of bulls. The bulls for each company will be completely separate. All the directories and promotional pieces are separate. Right now, any bull that you see within the Select Sires family, Ethan, is exclusive to Select Sires, and available, you know, most of them globally, there's some health issues, you know, for international shipment on some bulls as always. But those bulls will be available just to the Select Sires team. We work with Jeff Ziegler and Kevin Jorgensen (KeJo), you know, to put together the right lineup and find the right mix of bulls and, pretty excited about the combination. Back to the show string, Ethan, you referenced sitting across from iconic cows. You know, one thing Mike and I had a dream of was being able to show the customer the bull mother at the show, not just a picture of her, not just a pedigree of her, see the cow standing there and maybe a daughter of the cow and maybe a sister of the cow. And, this year I think there were five cows in a row that will have sons at Showbox Sires. And that's pretty exciting for us.
Ethan Haywood
And the approach that those maternal lines really matter and that cow to be a bull mother has got to be somebody that you're proud enough to be on display at the greatest display of dairy cattle in the world is pretty cool. As we go through and look at your string and all the other strings that you saw in the barn, what are you seeing within the market of high-Type or crossover bulls? What are you shooting for? What are you looking for? What's important in this selection process for somebody to make this elite small group of Showbox Sires?
Tim Abbott
Yeah, really good question and something Mike and I are very passionate about. Part of the reason we started this, Ethan, is because 10 years ago when I was in the niche show market with show cows, show cows didn't have it all. They either had a show career and a one-name brand, but maybe not the pedigree and the genomic pedigree to back them up. Today, because of bulls such as 250HO12961 DOC, we are lucky to have cows that are one-name iconic show cows that have enough data that Mike and I laugh and call it the paper test. They pass the paper test. So the first step is we believe in sire stacks. We believe the bulls in a bull's pedigree are the critical pieces to the building blocks to make the bull great. So we want a great sire stack with modern bulls but reliable bulls. We want a one-name show cow somewhere in the pedigree within the first few generations. Then we want the bull to pass the paper test. And for us, Mike and I are really dedicated to finding medium stature cows. We're not looking for four and five point stature bulls and cows. We want those cows that are two, two and a half points of stature and get their capacity through width and strength, and we really are working on that. It's a work in progress. Along with that, we want milk. We really know that the producer wants milk or components. We need total pounds of milk, fat, protein, all those things put together. While they won't be the highest total yield bulls in your lineup, they'll have adequate milk production in most cases. Then a couple of traits that Mike and I are passionate about is DPR. If our cows don't breed and aren't healthy inside, we can't make any money. And somatic cell, you know, we want healthy udders. So Mike and I kind of laugh. We say we want to try to make the pretty cow from the outside look as pretty inside to our customers. So those are the traits we're looking for to get into our directory and be in what we would call our elite lineup. That's kind of what we're trying to accomplish.
Ethan Haywood
I love that, and that's why your bulls are fitting into our lineup for our customers so well is you want bulls that have it all and families that have it all. We can be picky enough at this point in the breed that they've got to have a lot of things going for them to make the lineup, which is pretty cool. I think the conversation as we go through a few of these bulls, you want to talk about animals that have it all. 744HO17043 FLASH is a bull that we've been pretty excited about. I saw you guys posted pictures that the first calves are hitting the ground, but the dam Oakfield Solom Footloose-ET (EX-97-2E-EX-MS), a one-name household cow, I think is a great way to start it off. You know, how did she do this week out at World Dairy Expo?
Tim Abbott
Yeah, I have to go back to the calves posted. The first pictures of FLASH calves that I saw of all places, even were in Montana at Mark Tatarka's Mow Ten Vue Farm. Many of you might have heard the interview I did with his dad who has bred cattle for 70 years and some of the great cattle of the Mountain West region. Pretty exciting to see the first FLASH calves in their hutches. And Mark says they are beautiful calves. So we're starting to see him hit the ground. But it was a huge day for FLASH. You know, Footloose was back again this year. I think it's five years in a row, Ethan, she's been in the middle of the ring competing for grand or reserve. She brought home the big trophy one year, and has been bridesmaids several times. And as the day ended up, she beat her greatest foe, Erbacres Snapple Shakira (EX-97-4E-EX-MS), who we love and admire and love the breeders of. Probably two iconic moments for me was Shakira was pulled out first and Footloose second in her class. And then the judge switched them and the arena went crazy. That was quite a thrill for the owners of a cow like Footloose, but then maybe even more important, when we got done the class the camaraderie that we have with Jacobs who owns Shakira is second to none. And there's pictures all over the internet of Tyler Dorian, who was leading Shakira, hugging Mike in the class and then coming right to ringside and hugging Sharyn and I. That's how, I've been saying, Ethan, I think these are the two greatest cows to ever compete against each other for a long period of time. Basically for five years, these two cows have battled in that ring and I'm not saying they're the two greatest cows of all time, but there's never been a battle like this. To see that happen and to have Footloose win this year, this will be Shakira and Footloose have gone back and forth, but this for us, kind of leveled the playing field of the two greatest cows of their generation, both 97 point cows. And, this will make it Footloose should be two-year-old, three-year-old, four-year-old, five-year-old, six-year-old, now seven-year-old. This will be her sixth consecutive year in milking form back to back that she’ll be nominated All-American.
Ethan Haywood
Amazing. You know, it's tough to get a cow in that kind of shape to get her to calve back like that and be ready to roll. And I think she just she looked the best that she has ever looked. She looks like she hasn't missed a beat. And like you say, it felt like the Super Bowl in that production cow class. You know, I don't know if I've ever seen the whole ring that attentive in one cow class. It was so cool to be able to witness that.
Tim Abbott
Yeah, it took extra heart medicine to get through that class, I’m not going to lie. We talk about Shakira, but I think of those six cows, they were all 96 or 97 point cows. And then I think four of the six had been named grand, reserve or honorable mention of that show at one point. So, you know, what an incredible class.
Ethan Haywood
Incredible moment to witness and the photos going around Facebook I think just tell us a lot about the camaraderie about the people that are competing at the very highest level on the very biggest stage that our industry has and there was also another family member that did quite well out of Footloose, a full sibling to 744HO17043 FLASH. Can you tell us a little bit about Miss Tatoo Fern-ET (VG-89)?
Tim Abbott
Yeah, it started the day just great for us, Ethan. You know, when we are watching the milking yearling class and Footloose's 7HO13839 TATOO daughter, so a full sister to FLASH, you know, that everybody had been talking about. She actually got sold by Vierra Dairy the night before the show to a group in Canada. And they made a great purchase because the cow won the milking yearling class. So to have FLASH’s full sister win the first class of the day and his mother win the last class of the day. I think it's going to wake everybody up to how powerful this bull is. I've talked a lot about FLASH and people have used him. I think he's going to get even more exciting now. But the mating of TATOO on Footloose, think about it, Ethan. You mate cows all the time and you know matings. Think about the good things of TATOO who had a great World Dairy Expo. And the good things of Footloose and what we could have there.
Ethan Haywood
Absolutely. It just seems like we're stacking the right families and TATOO, I think, was the bull in our lineup that had the most top 10 class finishes. So love the consistency that we're seeing in those animals. And he just continues to be relevant and continues to do a lot of good things for our producers. And the conversation that we had with Kevin earlier in this episode was that he continues to make cows that can go out and milk in barns as well. And that's an important part of what we're trying to do here. On the topic of TATOO, you have another bull that I think is one of our best sellers out of the lineup at the moment. 744HO16956 HENDRIX, who's a TATOO out of the S-S-I Doc Have Not 8784-ET (EX-96-EX-MS-DOM). Tell us a little bit about your involvement with the Doc and why she is helping provide so much genetic opportunity within this lineup.
Tim Abbott
HENDRIX certainly is. The calves are hitting the ground. We actually used him as a mating sire a little bit, the TATOO out of Doc 8784. So our calves are hitting the ground. We hope we'll have a son for our program by HENDRIX. But we invested, Sharyn and I, with a group in Doc 8784 because we thought she was the cow that could change the breed. And Ethan, I've done this sire work for 30 years now, I hate to say, but Doc 8784 would be, as we call her, Doc. She is the most prolific transmitter of production I think I've ever seen. There's no cow that will put milk in a pedigree like that cow. Back in my early days as a sire analyst, there was a cow in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania called Ricecrest Southwind Kaye-ET (VG-87-GMD-DOM) that made a ton of great bulls and daughters, and they all had huge milk, but I think since Southwind Kaye this is the first cow that just every time will nail it on production so and along with that she was reserve All-American, she was 96 points we lost her you know a little too early in her life but I really believe the cow would have stood in the middle of the ring with the greats we're talking about and she's making wonderful daughters. So our Showbox lineup has several sons of the cow. You referenced HENDRIX, who is the TATOO. We have the Polled Red Carrier son of her by Max-PP, 744HO17072 HERITAGE-P*RC. He's a really fun bull. And then a new release bull that we're excited about is 744HO17425 HELLION, who is a Dropbox son of the cow that really crosses all the, you know, crosses the T's and dots the I's with everything. And then one more son for Showbox to follow out of the cow. Mike and I had a dream mating of breeding her to Sidekick, who we think is one of the most interesting bulls in the business, but he doesn't have enough milk. And in true Doc 8784 fashion, she brought the milk. So we got all Sidekick’s type. But instead of -800 pounds of milk, we got +900 pounds of milk. And, you know, it just speaks volumes of what the old girl could do. So he's coming. His name is 744HO17702 IMAGE. We changed the H name a little bit there, too, because I think he is the perfect image of what we want. So he's coming in the fall.
Ethan Haywood
Absolutely. Something that only the Doc can do and that sort of correction and to make productive, long lasting, highly productive cows that can grace the colored shavings as well. The other family that we had talked about a little bit there at Expo was the Jubies and 744HO17423 JINX
is a Delta-Lambda out of that family. Tell us a little bit about that family and how they did out there at Expo.
Tim Abbott
Yeah, we were fortunate because we were tied just down the row there in aisle seven of the first barn from Peace & Plenty Farm LLC. And they had, I'm going to say, a half dozen different descendants of the Jubie family. And Jubie comes to us from this great family that started with an Astrojet and then a great Outside and then a Stormatic. And then we moved to a more modern Dundee, and then a 7HO10506 G W ATWOOD, and then the Doc, that's the dam of JINX. And we think the Jubie family probably, they had six All-American nominations last year, more than any other family. And I think it'll be similar leading the way again. Mike and I invested in a really, really fine young cow by Sidekick. A sister to Doc Jubie, and she was second in a really strong junior three-year-old class this year, and we are making sons for our Showbox program from this Sidekick. They'll probably have some DOC influence on the top side once we get rolling, but back to JINX, you know he's probably created more hype than any bull we've released yet because everybody wants the family. No bull in A.I. ever from this family. His mother was not at Expo this year. We made a bunch of babies out of her and didn't get her bred back fast enough. But she's due in January, and I expect her to be the anchor to our string next year. We have a dream of having her and Footloose standing side by side.
Ethan Haywood
That would be awesome. Yeah, she's quite the anchor cow and it'll be really exciting to see her calve back in. And as you mentioned, he just really fits that tight milk and moderate stature profile that we're looking for to be able to make what we've been calling and we hear around Expo the modern cow, right? We're looking for more width, more capacity, good feet and legs underneath them, and we think that JINX has the ability to create those females.
Tim Abbott
Yeah, I think if you sort the breed by two points of stature, +1,400 of milk and three and a quarter points of type, not many bulls come up. And they certainly aren't out of All-American nominated dams.
Ethan Haywood
Absolutely. It's a short list that continues to grow as we make very strategic matings. And to go back when you talked about the Dropbox mating as well, just the ability to look at true crossover matings is a little bit of what you're providing here. And this whole lineup, you can find it on your website, find it in your sire directory, or you can sort it on our website if you sort by partners for Showbox Sires, are all bulls that we believe have the ability to make daughters that could go to World Dairy Expo someday, but also going to make good cows. Both you and Mike know the importance of having cows that can be at home and pay the bills while the other ones are away at the show, right?
Tim Abbott
Well, it really is important, Ethan. I'm glad you brought it up because we talk about the show cows, but if we don't have cows at home to pay the bills, none of us can go to the shows. First and foremost, I've made my living in A.I. and breeding cattle, but that is driven by commercial producers that make milk, and Mike's a dairyman that makes his living milking cows every day. We have done that in our careers as well. We don't want just freaks that are going to the show. We want cows that are, our goal is to walk into your barn in two years and see a row of cattle sired by Showbox bulls that are making you more money.
Ethan Haywood
We'll continue to see more and more bulls come out through our Showbox lineup throughout the end of the year, and we're excited about some of the ones that we have in collection stalls right now. As you go through and grow this program, what are you continuing to look for, or what do you think is the next avenue for Showbox Sires to try and acquire or breed for?
Tim Abbott
Yeah, well, we're really excited. You know, the Select Sires team is amazing at how quickly they get bulls in and get semen produced and get it to your customers, you know, quicker than anything I've experienced yet in this business. So kudos to them. What's coming for Showbox? We actually have two really fun Red & White bulls that Bruce Smith has in production stalls today that will have semen in the fall that are out of iconic Red & White cows that I think people are really going to enjoy. I think the Blondin RD Unstopabull Maple (EX-94-EX-MS) son, that will be a unique bull in that we have a Red son of Maple that will really get people's attention. But, Ethan, maybe more exciting for 2025 is our battery of bulls. One thing Mike and I didn't feel is we had all the best cows in the world. We would love to, but we don't. And so we went out and acquired embryos from Canada and from Ireland and from England and from Italy. And we have brought those embryos into the United States and the bulls are on the ground. We've got about twelve bulls from international pedigrees, international champion cows that we're going to offer to the Select Sires Showbox program in 2025. So we've got everything from an Alligator brother to Dropbox, which is pretty unique. Ultimate crossover. We've got one of my favorite cows is the Mosnang Unix Lipstick (EX-95-EX-MS) cow family from Canada that Mosnang Farms developed. There's a 95 point Solomon and she's got a great Unix daughter. We've got a couple of bulls coming out of her. Got some bulls out of a couple of great families from Italy and the UK. Just can't wait for those kinds of bulls to introduce to your customers because it's easy enough to make a global market. And one other fun thing we've done is we've acquired part ownership in the highest Type Conformation heifer in the breed down in New Zealand. And she's going on a flush program to try to make us a bull for our Showbox program. And she goes back to the Butz-Butler Gold Barbara-ET (EX-96-EX-MS-GMD) cow. So I think the future is really exciting.
Ethan Haywood
It seems very exciting, and it's cool to see you bring in so many different cow families, so many different sire stacks, and so many different specialty traits. We've got some really high-Type and high-production, and then you throw in Reds, and you throw in some Polled. Talk a little bit about maybe your focus on Polled. It's interesting to see Polled animals with this high-Type and high-production. Of the nine actives right now, we've got three of them that are Polled. One that's a homozygous Polled, something that we never thought we'd see in this kind of lineup 10 years ago.
Tim Abbott
Yeah, for 30 years, I remember as a sire analyst going to Eddie Johnson's Hickory May Farm in Pennsylvania and working with the first Polled animals there to try to make a bull, and it has come a long way. But 744HO17073 HAZARD-PP is one of Mike and my favorite bulls because he's out of a great, you know, national competitive level cow, a 93-point Mirand-PP, and he's by your 7HO14160 LUSTER-P bull and you know when we were at Select Sires last year touring I think LUSTER-P was one of my favorite bulls that I saw, so to have that bull homozygous Polled every calf's going to have no horns and you're going to get Type, I thought that was neat, and I referenced HERITAGE-P, the son of Doc 8784 that's Polled. But maybe the bull that's catching the most waves for us is a bull called 744HO17422 KINGME-P, who's a Lustrous-PP son out of BGP Noble Dhrmy 695-ET, (VG-88-VG-MS) with a complete outcross pedigree. He's got milk, he is plus on DPR, and he's high Type and high udders, and you get the Polled gene as well but people are saying what do I use on my DOCs and what do I use on my Delta-Lambdas and this bull when you lay him down on DOC or Delta-Lambda his linears, his production pattern and his pedigree fit perfectly. You know he brings us that outcross pedigree we're pretty darn excited, and I would also say, we've tried to stick with some iconic cows and I'm switching from the Polled, but one of the master breeders around the world is Comestar Holsteins. We just did a podcast on our new bull from Comestar, 744HO17421 LACTEUR, and to sit there and talk to Steve and Marc Comtois about the family behind LACTEUR, just makes the hair on your neck stand up. The power and the dedication these guys have had for the past 40 years breeding cows. That's what Mike and I like. And they make their living milking cows. And that's where we're trying to go with this.
Ethan Haywood
I love the avenue that you're taking with it. I love the approach and the integration of family genomic numbers and the breeders and their theories that are behind it. And one of my favorite things to do right now is listen whenever you come out with an episode talking about the evolution of the great cow. Tell us a little bit about that podcast, you know, for people that have listened this far into this one and just absolutely love talking deep pedigrees and high-powered breeders like you and I do. You know, how do they listen to that?
Tim Abbott
Yeah, so our website has all our information, Ethan, www.showboxsires.com. And I really encourage your listeners to go there and look at what we have because we're making flyers on every bull for your, you know, promotional work, but also doing a podcast that kind of brings the bull into your living room or your tractor cab or your pickup as you do with your podcast and so we make an effort to go get the breeder of the bull and have them just sit here and have a conversation like you and I are doing today Ethan, about where the family comes from and what it means to them and they're magic. Most of the people say, “Oh I can't do this I don't want to talk” and as with any podcast when you're having fun it's tough to get them to quiet down at the end of the day.
Ethan Haywood
Once you get talking cows, then we're rolling downhill from there with some of these awesome folks.
Tim Abbott
Exactly. And we're really excited about that approach. So we urge your listeners to do that. The other thing is our Showbox directory will be online there. But we made a lot of hard copies, Ethan, and you sat there at my booth thumbing through it. And if you're a representative distributor for Select Sires and we can get you copies, we have copies. And if you think you can utilize them, we spent the money to make them. We want to get them in your hands to get them to your customers. So reach out to us. All our contact information is there. And you can do it through Select Sires or through Showbox Sires.
Ethan Haywood
Yes, absolutely. Please reach out as this lineup continues to grow. You've heard a little bit of a teaser, but there's going to be so many different and diverse, interesting bulls that enter this lineup that we think are going to be super relevant to customers and to the breed as a whole. Tim, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us today. I know you've got some unpacking to do to get cleaned up from Expo and make sure that those girls are well taken care of. But we look forward to what you are continuing to develop and acquire and the partnerships that you are growing and forging. Thank you so much for working with us here at Select Sires. And thank you so much to our customers who are willing to get in on the front side of this Showbox thing that is going to continue to grow and have a very large impact on the breed.