Genetics | Bestyet A.I Sires | Grazing Genetics from Dutch Belted and Milking Shorthorns

Bestyet Boston – returning A2/A2 sire

by Winifred Hoffman | Feb 7, 2024 | Genetics, History

Early in our Dutch Belted breeding career, as recounted here, we bought breeding stock from Dorothy O’Neill Hornback’s excellent and longstanding herd. Later we were able to reciprocate by providing her our first homebred bull, Bestyet James (read about him here) to...

How does the red factor work in the Dutch Belted breed?

by Winifred Hoffman | Apr 13, 2023 | Genetics

Revised from the April 2017 Dutch Belted Bulletin Some of you have asked how the red factor works. How can a black cow have a red calf, sometimes even sired by a black bull? How can a red cow have a black calf? While Dutch Belted cattle are generally black with a...

Announcing Felipe: New Native, Polled, A2/A2 Milking Shorthorn Bull

by Winifred Hoffman | Jan 31, 2023 | Genetics, History

We are excited to offer semen from this new linebred sire from the mountains of Utah. He is A2/A2 and heterozygous polled. He should add “a bit of color” to his offspring because of his beautiful roan markings. We are impressed with the strength and correctness of his...

A2/A2, Native, Polled Milking Shorthorn sire: Cantagree Duca Daosta N P

by Winifred Hoffman | Jan 7, 2023 | Genetics

From the leading Native Milking Shorthorn dairy herd, we are pleased to offer this son of Finocchio N P from the highly respected Duchess cow family. Daosta’s dam maintained a 12-month average calving interval over 7 lactations, with a top record at 6-11 of 14,380...

Maid – Cow Family Feature

by Winifred Hoffman | Apr 9, 2021 | Genetics, History

In the late 1950’s, two idealistic and ambitious young men were building up a herd of Milking Shorthorns to fill their newly constructed milking set-up for 100 cows, a sizable operation for their day. These men were my late husband, Kenneth Hoffman, and his brother...

Dream – Cow Family Feature

by Winifred Hoffman | Aug 28, 2020 | Genetics, History

From Sweet Dreams to Happy Dream and everyone in between We thought it would be interesting to take the different cow families represented in our herd today, and trace them back to the original animals we purchased. This takes some extensive research through the...