Using AI from top bulls

We have decided to start a long term project of introducing extreme twist to our mini longhorn herd. This is a very fine balancing act. We must balance size as well as horn genetics. We have several cows that exhibit nice twist on them however they lack the growth potential early on that we see in many standards. One of our goals is to put a triple twist on a cow under 45 inches, but have her horns match her height by 4 yrs old. We currently have several cows that have done that but lack the extreme twist.

Horn shapes are vastly different and someday I would love to have the opportunity to travel and get pictures and the names I remember reading and hearing from old timers of the breed. Lyre vs swoop horn as well as Texas bathtub and bike handles, rolling twist, texas twist, twist, extreme twist and corkscrew twist are all in their right amazing and lovely to look at.

Given that I love all the shapes and that I have seen most of the shapes in the mini longhorn world except the twist I am starting a long term program to bring it in. This year I plan to breed two of my smallest cows with decent twist to bulls outside of my program with the use of AI. We have just completed one and just passed her first heat after the fact so one more week and we can test for pregnancy. The second cow we plan to AI has not calved yet but is due this fall/winter. We are not sure what we want from this cross a bull to use on the herd or a heifer to keep. We tried to find a moderate framed bull with good twist genetics, now time will tell if we have made a good decision or a great one, or hamburger.

We also purchased semen from a top grulla bull but are weighing whether he is to large to use. We may have to use him for flushing embryo's but have found another route for the grulla color within the mini longhorn world.

Here is looking up to the future of twist in Miniature Texas Longhorns.