Showbox Sires Take You On The Road To Madison

Are you looking at your show string and wondering which sires will make the best matings to put the next generation in the spotlight? Tim Abbott, co-owner of Showbox Sires, shares what he looks for in a great mating and how he builds on proven cow families. Host Ethan Haywood joins Tim to dive into the elite cows and heifers that have shaped the Showbox Sires program, spotlighting the powerhouse pedigrees behind these influential matriarchs. Stick around to hear about the newest additions to the Showbox Sires lineup.

Transcript

Welcome to The Select Sires Podcast, talking Your Success, Our Passion. Starting in three, two, one.

Ethan Haywood

Hello and welcome back to the Select Sires podcast. I'm Ethan Haywood and today with me is Tim Abbott, partner in Showbox Sires, one of the exciting lineups that Select Sires is offering. Coming off of Expo, a ton of excitement, some really cool achievements in the ring. Tim, it's great to have you here with us today. 

Tim Abbott

Thanks, Ethan. I've looked forward to being back with you since our podcast almost a year ago about World Dairy Expo. Thanks for having me. 

Ethan Haywood

Yeah it was almost a year ago and a lot has changed and grown within Showbox Sires so we're very excited to get into that today the most important question to lead off, are you recovered from Expo yet?

Tim Abbott

Great way to start the conversation as you can tell by the rasp in my voice, I don't think I was a super shedder this year Ethan but I did come home with a nice bug from Expo but really feeling better today, getting caught up. We had a great couple days after Expo. We went to Duckett Holsteins with Mike and Julie and hosted international tours for two days at the farm. And that was great icing on the cake to finish up the week. So we got home on Monday and frankly are glad to be back in Vermont. 

Ethan Haywood

That sounds like a lot of fun and Duckett Holsteins sure is a fun place to hang out for a day. We were able to do that this summer with some of the communications team and just to soak in some of the cows that are up there and didn't make the trip with the ones that were in the string. What a cool place to be and a fun place to look at cows. 

Tim Abbott

Yeah, it was great to go back and first of all, get our cows settled back in. Some of them left Friday night, some of them left Saturday morning, but knock on wood, they all arrived safely. They're home, happy, healthy, and getting geared up to go to the IVF lab next week. 

Ethan Haywood

Good. That's what we like to hear. As we walked down the string there, you had an awesome setup in the barns this year at Expo and a lot of really high profile cows that were able to achieve some really good things in the ring. Who was the highlight for you out of that string and what she did in the ring this year? 

Tim Abbott

Well, yeah, we were very fortunate to host lots of guests from all over the world, international folks from the World Wide Sires team, and then Select Sires reps and customers from across North America. We had so much fun showing them our cows, Ethan. And I think one of the things Mike and I had dreamed about was having a row of cows that were all going to be bull mothers someday. And you referenced back to the start, how it's been a year since we’ve talked and really Ethan we were on training wheels a year ago just kind of kicking this thing off and we went from training wheels to we're on a I think a motocross trail right now because we are flying. Things have really changed as you saw this year, we upped our game a little with our display with the help of the Select Sires communication team. We rented more space and hosted more people, but also had a lot more cows. So our string included about fifteen cows total and seven or eight heifers, multiple breeds. But to get to your question, the highlight of the string, I think anybody would say was Peace&Plenty Doc Jubie16-ET (EX-95-2E-EX-MS). I think she kind of – it was her coming out party. She kind of shocked the world. Everybody had always loved her the two years we had her there before. Of course, she had last year off because she was not bred back. And she is the mother of 744HO17423 JINX, the Lambda son that is having calves hit the ground today. Actually, we're genomic testing her first sons, the first sons of JINX right now. But back to Jubie16, the cow just... kind of came into it this year. She's going to be seven years old, has had four calves, and one unique thing about her, she skipped the aged cow class and went right to the 150,000 pound production class. Really with just starting her fourth lactation. That's how much milk this cow has made. 

Ethan Haywood

She was a lot of fun to watch in the ring when that pair swap happened in the production class. I was with a group of Select Sires team members and there was a lot of cheering and yelling. So she certainly had a coming out party in a dramatic fashion, which is pretty cool to do as well. 

Tim Abbott

Yeah, you know, I don't show a lot of cows. I do enjoy it. I don't live for it. But goodness, when that happened, it was quite a thrill. You know, it brought me back to last year when Oakfield Solom Footloose (EX-97-2E-EX-MS) was pulled second in the same class and came out and the crowd roared. One of the great feelings happened that you could have showing a cow and owning a cow and certainly just like we did last year you know, we felt bad for Erbacers Snapple Shakira (EX-97) because she's such a great cow this year you know the Schmocker from Wisconsin that cow was actually supreme of the junior show and so you know I gave the little girl a hug when we got in line and said I felt bad that it was her that we had to beat. I wish it would have been an enemy, not a friend. But she kind of got her just desserts in a couple hours because the cow was named supreme of the whole junior show. But what a thrill it was. 

Ethan Haywood

Yeah great thrill and you know there's a lot of hype before Expo about this five-year-old class but I think this production class still reigns as my favorite one to watch you have cows out there like Jubie16 who well deserve being first udder in the class as well as the winner and just the way that she carried herself, the way that so many of those mature cows carry themselves really resonate with the longevity that we're looking for in these cows.

Tim Abbott

Yeah, I think sometimes, Ethan, show cows get a bad rap that they don't live and they can't survive. And my word, I know there was a cow that was sixteen years old in the class. I think it was third or fourth. And Ms Beautys Black Velvet-ET (EX-96)  from our string was in the class and she was in the top five or six. And what a great group of cows. You know, millions of pounds of milk, hundreds and hundreds of daughters of these cows and the impact these cows are going to have around the world. But I don't think any cow in that ring will have more of an impact on the Holstein breeding business than Doc Jubi. It was kind of neat that a 250HO12961 DOC wins a class the same year that he was named a millionaire sire for you guys. So it was kind of the year of DOC, isn't it? And how cool Jubie16 could be a part of it.

Ethan Haywood

Yeah, the year of DOC and really the candles on top of a great cake that has been his career. And to top that off, it's fantastic to see his genetics make an impact through her and through JINX. And those will be really exciting genomic results to receive back. The next place you guys really made some waves was there in the four-year-old class with three there in the top five. Let's talk a little bit about those three cows. 

Tim Abbott

You know, I think we always have said the four-year-old class is the toughest class to land in because each class when Mike and I buy a cow, you kind of go back and look at the show winnings from the year before. If you're buying a three-year-old and look who won the two-year-olds or vice versa. and the four-year-olds are always a wild card because you have the two junior the two three-year-old classes coming together cows that didn't calve the year before and might have kind of disappeared it is a wide open class but one of the toughest classes to compete in and three of our best cows were in that class. So Jacobs Lambda Baz-ET (EX-92), who is a daughter of Jacobs High Octane Babe (EX-96-2E-EX-MS), who is a 96 point Canadian champion, and then Jacobs Goldwyn Britany (EX-96-2E-EX-MS) the 96 point foundation of the Jacobs’ herd, very few cows in the business with two 96 point champion dams in the pedigree, and Baz was one of our, was lead horses in the race. Secondly was Kingsway Delta Lambda Julep-ET (EX-92). She is a Lambda from the great Knonaudale Jasmine (EX-96) cow at Knonaudale in Ontario that's made so many All Americans and All Canadians. Jasmine was a member of what I call the coolest best three females ever, a dam, a daughter and a grandam, all best three females at the Royal one year. So Julep was in that class as well. And then one of our favorites, Jubie16’s sister by Sidekick, Peace&Plenty Sik Jubie36-ET (EX-94) that we own with Peace&Plenty was there in the class. And the cool part, Ethan, as you looked at them, there are three great, great young cows, but very, very different. Would you agree you got to see the cows quite a bit? 

Ethan Haywood

Yeah, you know, all great in their own traits and a diverse group. And I think a cool group for you guys to work from because it'll be fun to see them develop and compete next year. But also you can end up with some quite different bulls that could be used back and forth amongst that group of three as well as probably the overall goal, huh? 

Tim Abbott

Yeah let's just hit that real quickly so that as you alluded probably our best class of the day Baz ended up second, Barclay Phoenix led her into the second spot Mike led Julep and she was third and actually those two switched spots twice during this thing which was kind of nice to be in the position where you weren't crying when your cow got dropped the spot because they were both ours yeah and then Jubie36 who is a bit of an orangutan in the ring we put big young Austin Schwartzbeck a big strapping thirty-year-old guy to hold on to her. She's the nicest cow in the world to work with and she goes in that show ring and she becomes like a grease trout she is a she's a tough cow to show and he just he guided her she was she went backwards she went sideways she went forward she was up and down but He really got her together when it counted, and she ended up fifth. So Ethan, we were two, three, and five in what I call the greatest depth class of the day at Madison, which was a thrill.

Ethan Haywood

Yeah. Deep water there. And you've got a couple of cows that would rather have their head in the feed bunk because they're hardworking moms and they know what to do and they know what they like, but they sure are fun to see in the ring. 

Tim Abbott

Yeah. So now these three cows all go home immediately and start the IVF process to make sons for Showbox. They've all got enough numbers that they can put us out a son that can, can get us across the line. So Baz, I believe the first thing we're going to do with her is use 744HO17702 IMAGE. We think throwing Sidekick and S-S-I Doc Have Not 8784-ET (EX-96-EX-MS-DOM) on this beautiful cow that many feel can be a center of the ring cow next year. She's gonna go home and we'll try to make a son at  least by IMAGE and probably others as well. The really exciting news and Ethan, keep your genomic fingers crossed. We did Julep, the third place cow, we did her really early last year to 7HO17700 HINGE and we actually have HINGE calves hitting the ground this week so there'll be some of the first HINGE calves in captivity and then followed up two weeks later with IMAGE so Julep actually has IMAGE and HINGE sons we're testing in the next month to see if they can work for our program. And then lastly Jubie36, we already have a successful flush in the tank or embryos in, I believe, by 250HO17817 DANN. So, you know, exciting Select Sires bull that we've tried to make a son from her and we'll go back to trying to make more from her. So, yeah, all three are going to be very prominent bull mothers. And I think all three could be, you know, hunting again next year to win the crown. 

Ethan Haywood

It's going to be so interesting to watch those cows develop over the next year and to see who comes out on top amongst the three next year and very exciting group to continue to observe and to offer some very diverse bloodlines from so we're excited for that, we're excited for those HINGE calves, people are very pumped to have them hit the ground. Something a little closer to now, we had one bull come out just before Expo from your crew. Would you like to talk about 744HO17932 DAX-RED a little bit? 

Tim Abbott

Yeah, he seems to be the talk of the town in the Red world right now. We say taking the Red world by storm. DAX-RED is from what we think is Doc 8784’s best daughter. She's Duckett Ranger 1133-ET (VG-89-EX-MS) and she is at Duckett's and I anticipate she'll be in the show string next year. Bred back and due in the spring and I think anybody that was there from international tours just felt like she really stuck out. You saw her this summer, Ethan, and she stands in the end stall of Duckett Holsteins, which is like playing first base for the Dodgers right now, isn't it? 

Ethan Haywood

Right. She stands there for a reason, and you can tell as soon as you walk in that barn, she's a pretty neat critter. 

Tim Abbott

So this bull he's sired by Heatwave so he is actually Red we've had the dream of making a Red Doc 8784 descendant to change the Red breed it's so perfect to use on all the Apple blood, all the Altitude blood, all the 7HO14477 WARRIOR-RED blood. He makes them a little more medium size with a little more width, enough milk to kind of help that breed really amazing somatic cell at 2.70 ish somatic cell but still enough Type, 2.25 Type to get you over the hump. If you sort red bulls by GTPI, Milk, Type, Somatic Cell those sort of things, fertility, this bull will top every list that you can sort so pretty, pretty excited about DAX-RED.

Ethan Haywood

Yeah, you hit everything cool on him there and combining all those traits with his break-even fertility. Like you said, it's hard to find a bull like that, not to mention a Red one. And a Red one that you can use on a lot of the popular Red and Red Carrier sires out there. Going to be a lot of fun to see those daughters nine months from now. In addition to DAX-RED, 744HO17933 DONATELO is probably the next big exciting news that we're about to see come out of Showbox here. Let's talk a little bit about him and where he comes from. 

Tim Abbott

Yeah, you'll see in your communication from Bruce Smith in product management that he is now released. And DONATELO is the son of Kings-Ransom Casp Daze-ET (EX-95-2E-EX-MS) the cow that's the dam of the very popular bull Dropbox. And Mike and I went to try to get something cool out of Daze. We actually bought an IVF session and we used Alligator and 250HO16498 HULU-RC both on her. And the HULU-RC swam fast enough to make females and the Alligators swam and made males. So it seems to make sense. But we have a really cool Alligator right out of this 95 point cow. That's about ten generations of high production cows at King's Ransom, Pen-Col, all the great production herds of the East. 

Ethan Haywood

Yeah, that's an impressive pedigree to look at in that D family. You see a lot of big time production records and a lot of E's listed next to names. So it's a really neat family. We're excited for that bull. And again, a bull where you can have really good udders with moderating that stature a little bit and bringing the strength and the width that I hear you talk about producers around the world wanting, you know, is that strength, width and moderate size. What other conversations did you have this week and or this past week with producers? What are they looking for through your lineup? 

Tim Abbott

Well, and it's interesting you ask. Certainly those things that Mike and I have been preaching since we started Showbox, and Ethan, I know you as a sire analyst work on every day. Those are the traits people want. We call it beautiful cows outside, but beautiful cows inside. Everybody still wants that. They want those good reproductive cows. They want the cows with good, udder health. They want cows and sires that are highly fertile. But on the outside, you know, we continue to hear from everybody. They don't want small cows. They want less tall cows. And that's where a bull, you know, just like DONATELO comes in. The other thing that we continue to hear is what do we breed our Delta-Lambdas to? And Mike and I have really worked hard at Showbox trying to make a Type line to breed these great Delta-Lambdas too and we think DONATELO with no Delta-Lambda in his pedigree, we talked about how DAX-RED could be used on all the Apples, DONATELO can be used on all the Delta-Lambdas and he actually lines up beautifully on them so one thing we heard is what do we breed all our Delta-Lambda blood to and certainly we think throwing Sidekick, DOC and a bull like IMAGE and some of Doc 8784's sons. You know, I think those are things people are looking at every day. So we're pretty excited. I think the two bulls we released the week of Expo, the only qualification to use them on a cow that's in heat because they're outcrossed the most everything that people are breeding. 

Ethan Haywood

They're outcrossed. They can be used on a lot of the cows and heifers that were in those barns and tents. So it's pretty cool to see. And you've got some cool top-notch bulls in the pipeline, I know, working with Bruce and Jeff to make sure that they make semen soon. So we're excited to see your pipeline expand, go through kind of a massive wave this winter of calving in from animals sired by the start of the Showbox lineup. And so that's going to be really exciting. Is there anyone you've seen calved in, any daughters that are making you excited yet? 

Tim Abbott

Well, you know, it's still so early, Ethan. We can't wait. But we you know, our earliest daughters obviously are 744HO17076 ACETYLENE-RED and shoot they've done great in the show ring and I lead with that not because the bull has you know a prominent place anymore because he's gone, but we do have a couple of ACETYLENE sons to watch for in the spring. We’ll be the only business that has those so they're kind of cool. But the JINX calves are hitting the ground. And I know Mike has a couple that we saw at Duckett Holsteins. I got a really cool picture from the UK last week. And then our partners in New Zealand at Lawwal Holsteins, our heifer that we own with them. The really high 7HO16104 EYE CANDY down there already has a JINX bull on the ground that we're testing. So all over the world, I think our friends at Gorbro Holsteins that we're partnering with in Australia, said he had about 150 matings to JINX. So we can't wait there. I think I told Bruce Smith to get ready because everybody after seeing Jubie16 is going to want some JINX. So we're excited to see those calves. And then IMAGE calves, I just can't wait I really believe he could be you know the first one to really stir the the show bucket for us and so next spring Ethan let's not wait a year let's do this in six months and we can recap what we what we see on the ground in six months.

Ethan Haywood

That sounds great. We're always happy to hear what you and Sharyn and Mike and Julie are hearing out on the road and across the world. We're excited to see this new genetics in the pipeline and excited to continue to work with you and your team. Props to the Duckett team for having everything dialed in there at the show and all of the wonderful help that you have surrounding you and Showbox and your partnerships. And we appreciate continuing to work and grow with you. 

Tim Abbott

We surely thank you Ethan and your team and the teams from Select and World Wide all over the globe and again you've led me into another area that I want to mention. You know the Duckett team that we put together to take care of those cows was second to none. We had young people from all over the world, we had people from Switzerland and France and Australia and Ireland looking after our cattle and as well as the United States and Canada. What a team, they just did spectacular.

Ethan Haywood

A great team there and a great team at Showbox. We know that dairy cattle genetics is certainly a team sport, and we appreciate having our Select Sires, World Wide Sires, and Showbox teams all working together well. So thank you for the time today, Tim, and we look forward to next time. 

Tim Abbott

Thank you, Ethan. We do as well.