Report of Daughter Inspection Tour at Aberekin,
by Gary Fasset (from World Wide Sires, Ltd.)

We saw some beautiful landscape and traveled some narrow, curvy roads around the Basque, Asturias and Cantabria regions of Spain. It was well worth our time and effort!

Below is a summary of my opinion on each daughter group.

We have a high interest in this bull in Germany. Eslava is a son of Comestar Outside out of a daughter of Besne Buck. This unique pedigree will make Eslava a very popular bull. Eslava is a very tall and stylish bull.

We were able to view only two daughters of Eslava on this trip. Both cows were very tall and angular. The body traits on the two daughters were very impressive. The legs had a correct set to the hock with above average foot angle. The udders were also very correct with a strong cleft and correct teat placement. Both cows were classified Good Plus and looked like they could add points as they mature and deepen their bodies.

We are very interested in seeing how this bull does in July (the next Spanish sire summary). His daughters are spread out across Spain. On another trip we would like to see more daughters of this bull.

We saw more than 20 daughters of this bull. Many were first lactation second crop daughters. We did see many first crop daughters in their third lactations. The older daughters of Empire have matured very well. They have extreme width and depth. They remind me of the daughters of Empire´s full brother Derry but have more dairy character and flat bone. The first lactation daughters of Empire do not disappoint. They exhibit super body depth and sweep to their rib. The udders are very acceptable and should wear well as they mature.

The legs are somewhat straight in their set and have a dry hock, which is flat boned. They track very well from the rear view with very little toe out.

The second crop daughters of this bull are calving out in many countries. It is my opinion that the first crop daughters were a very good indicator of what this bull could do. I believe that the owners of Empire daughters will be very pleased.

Dandy is a Durham son from Wilsondale Leadman Tracy who is Excellent 91. Dandy is TV and a very nice individual. The maternal grand dam is a 92-point Blackstar and the next dam is a 94-point Valiant daughter. Nice pedigree!

Dandy may have a sire summary in July but is probably a January 2006 release bull. There are two sire summaries a year in Spain.

We saw two Dandy daughters on this trip. Both were early in milk but show signs of developing into really nice cows. One was already classified at Good Plus-84. She is very Durham like in her body and udder traits. She was very tall and angular. Her udder was super. Her teat placement was very close. Her udder score would be high VG in my estimation. The other daughter was only one month fresh but looked very nice. She will need some time to mature and deepen her rib.

This is definitely a bull to be on the lookout for. The pedigree is fantastic and full of potential!

We saw three daughters of Startit. They were very impressive. I had seen a daughter group of this bull in earlier trips and really liked them. They have matured nicely. The cow, Brenda, is GP 83 but would easily score VG today. She has a beautiful udder and has great angularity. The Startit daughters are tall, dairy with very nice udders. It´s too bad that this bull is CV positive. Nice cows!

I have saved the best for last! This is one fantastic bull. John Schouten and I had seen 7 milking daughters of this bull earlier so I was aware of their quality first hand. On this tour we saw 27 milking daughters of Duplex. That´s a nice number of daughters to inspect.

The Duplex daughters are very impressive. They are long bodied young cows that will develop into super 4 and 5 year olds. They are more Durham like than Emory. I have seen the Mr. Sam and Zenith daughters, it is my believe that for the body and frame that Duplex is in the middle between Mr. Sam and Zenith. They have plenty of width through the thurls, stature and strength. Most of the Duplex daughters that we inspected had adequate width of front end although some were a tad narrow. I believe that this will change to become greater width as the young cows mature.

From a style point of view, the Duplex daughters excel in this area. They are flat boned with good rib and hard toplines. The Duplex daughter named Coro calved out last September and was the Young Cow Champion at the Spanish National Show. She recently won again at a regional show even though she was 6 months in milk at the time. She is a very special cow that was classified Very Good-86 and could go higher today. Her dam was a 79-point cow. She´s not the only good one, there are many that will score or have scored Very Good.

The udders are very impressive. They are especially good in the fore udder. The fore udders are long and well attached. The udders are quite shallow with a strong ligament. The rear udders are very acceptable although some could have been a little higher in their attachment. The teat placement was very good; I did not code any of the 27 daughters below average in this trait. Teat length is also very correct. This is an exceptional udder bull!

The feet and legs are also very good. Probably the best foot angle son of Durham that I´ve seen daughters of. Their foot angle is very steep and they walk on their toes, tracking straight. The legs are a little straight but very acceptable. A few of the daughters have the Durham pastern and can be a little weak in this area.

The one area that is significantly different from the linear is rump angle. The early type information indicates that the Duplex daughters have high pins. This is not the case; they have a slight slope to their rumps. In speaking with the people at Aberekin they say that additional daughters that have been scored do show a slope to the rump. I believe that this trait will be corrected with the July sire summary.

Duplex himself is a very tall, dairy looking bull with a hard topline and correct legs. He is classified Excellent at 90 points and is impressive to look at.

There will be nearly 100 daughters in Duplex´s production sire summary in July. He was a super sampler and could end up with 400 daughters when his first crop is complete. For type, Duplex will have 60-70 daughters in July. Additional classified daughters will enter the type index in January 2006.

I wish to thank all of the people at Aberekin for their hospitality. The tour was very well organized and hosted. The farmers were very proud to have us visit their farms and see their cattle. Special thanks to Dr. Jordi S. Farre for his efforts! We appreciate it!

Sincerely,

Gary Fassett

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