264 was one of the best cows we ever raised.  Before being flushed, she had produced 9 calves with an average calving interval of 359 days and an average nursing ratio of 119.  The first 3 of these were raised on range land in New Mexico where we ran about one cow per 50 acres.  At 12 years of age, her teats were still small and her last natural calf had no trouble nursing on them at birth.

This cow got ruined from flushing and was salvaged at 14 years of age.  She never had any trouble with her feet and legs, and she never required having her feet trimmed.  She functioned as well in the wet and muddy climate in coastal Washington as she did on the dry range in New Mexico and the irrigated pastures in Colorado.  She was always a trouble free and problem free cow.  She never had any illness or injury, and never had a problem calving.   When people tell you a cow that is a +40 for milk cannot function on gangland, I say hogwash and cite 264 as an example.
 
 

820 was a Silver Benchmark Dam, which says it all in terms of her productivity.  Many times I told people that she represented, as well as any I had at the time, the nearly perfect phenotype of the ideal Hereford cow.  Her only flaw is that her udder is not perfectly level.  Her Optimum daughter that became the first Genetic Focus National Grand Champion Heifer attests to the validity of my observation.
 
 

PR05 is also a Silver Benchmark Dam.  With a Milk EPD of +39 and a Milk & Growth EPD of +57, PR05 is one of the most productive cows in the breed.  She also produces high quality phenotypes.  Her first two bull calves - WNH Optimum 9324 and WNH Everything  - were both Champions at major shows, and both have been listed in the Top 200 active sires in the breed for multiple trait excellence. The last calf PR05 had for us was 9530.  9530 was sold to Grandview Plantation but we flushed her twice before she left, and some of our best 1997-1999 calves our out of 9530.  We never flushed PR05, but she is a donor cow now at the Grandview Plantation in Como, MS.
 
 

Like 264, 529 was a small-teated, good-uddered and productive daughter of MSU Prospector 843.  On the maternal side, her grandam was one of our very best daughters of 5D&S Max 223.  Her grandam is the easy doing cow “Brenda” that is shown on range land in New Mexico in our video.  529's dam was a Gold Benchmark Dam.  Like 264, 529 was very deep-bodied and fleshed easily on range land.

Although 529 has been dead for many years, her EPDs rank her in the top 40% of all currently active cows in the breed for every trait!  There are only a very small number of active cows today in the 21st century that rank in the top 40% of the breed for every trait.  529 goes back to one of our very best daughters of 5D&S Max 223 who was a Gold Benchmark Dam.