DENVER, Colo. — It has been a golden year for an Angus bull named Thunderstruck.
The National Western Stock Show grand champion, PM Thunderstruck 22’13, has connections across three provinces as well as Nebraska.
Tanya Belsham, owner of Poplar Meadows Angus near Houston, B.C., bred the bull and has partnered with Ryan and Holly Currie of Black Lane Angus in Quebec, Andy and Barbara Vos of Vos Vegas Farms in Plainfield, Ont., and Hoffman Ranch of Thedford, Neb.
The Jan. 13 Denver show was a grand finale for Thunderstruck, who will remain at the Hoffman farm in Nebraska.
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“It’s been like a dream here, honestly it has been one good thing after another,” Belsham said .
She is already planning a performance that could be hard to repeat after the last couple years.
“It just makes you try harder and push more and set your goals higher,” she said.
The bull is nearly three years old and has been on a winning streak. It was supreme bull for all breeds at the 2015 Toronto Royal Winter Fair, and Jason Hoffman showed him and won at the North American Livestock Show in Louisville, Kentucky in November.
It also won the championship at Expo Bouef in Victoriaville, Que., and the Canadian Angus Association named it 2015 show bull of the year.
Ryan Currie said a lot of effort is needed to develop a bull like this, and it only works with the right partners.
“Semen is for sale, but there is no amount of money that could buy him,” he said.
Short, stubby animals were once fashionable, but by the 1980s cattle had grown as tall as basketball players. This group of partners believes they have developed the ideal bull.
“I think this is how they should look,” Belsham said.
“They are much more moderate.”
