Sansom Angus

Hybid Vigor, the only free lunch available to Cattlemen.  20 years of selection and breeding for Angus that fit the KY environment, I have even been linebreeding the Fabron 454 cattle for past 10 years using half brothers on half sisters and even tighter breeding.  Having built a very moderate registered Angus herd, I have not been able to find new Angus blood that would improve my cows.  So the decision to fill the need of producers who have followed my breeding program and now have a good group of moderate cows, regardless of breed.

Now for the changes I am offering:
RomAngus terminal bulls - developed by breeding registered Romagnola bulls to my Registered Angus cows is resulting in some of the best Terminal bulls I have seen.  Totally unrelated genetics to give YOU the hybrid vigor, yet keeping the tenderness and low input of my Black Angus and the muscling of the Romagnola into a black hided bulls that will be the perfect cross on your Angus or any other breed of cows.  I have seen 3/4 Angus - 1/4 Romagnnola and they are just as impressive as the F1 cross these bulls represent.  The bull I am using to make this cross was selected on phenotype to fit the deep heart girth, moderate size, yet massive muscle needed in feeder calf production.  Remember, Romagnola were developed in Italy - about the same latitude as KY - not the far northern area of Angus in Scotland, so these cattle work in our environment.

For the Maternal line - I purchased a Registered Barzona bull from Oklahoma -out of the original foundation herd that developed this breed.  My bull is out of a 17 year old cow, she got old for a reason, always bringing in a good calf and that alone is reason enough to use one of her sons!  Barzona is a hardy breed that were developed in southwestern USA, but have flourished in herds I have visited in KY, AL, FL plus those in OK and other western states.  This line will be primarily selected for fulls to use to develop extremely functional cows in your herd.

Come look, I think you will like the changes and opportunities now available from our breeding programs.

Linebreeding update. Angus Number 16818022 is a bull that I am using to take the linebreeding of Fabron 454 to the next step. Maternal linbreeding is a step that this bull represents. If you look at his extended pedigree, you will see that Gilead 24X dam, and his Fabron 454 son sires dam are going back to the same cows - the 703, 503, 310, 305, cows that are found in Fabron 454's dam. Stacking these top donor cows from Sam Wylie on top and bottom of the pedigree makes this bull a very unique animal. Years of selection and planned breeding systems are represented in this bull.

Using Gilead 24X on Fabron 454 daughters and the many half brother X half sister cows from the previous linebreeding will line up these great cows in a top package. I firmly believe that much of the goodness of Fabron 454 comes from his maternal line, and this next step will continue the great things found in this line of cattle.

Using linebred bulls on non-related cows will be almost like a hybrid vigor jump on majority of Angus herds. Consider this in your next bull purchase.

Over several years, I have found that my poor photo skills plus trying to judge a bull by 1 or 2 pictures is useless. A visit will allow you to see and compare how the bulls walk and stand from unlimited angles, see their dams and often great dams, and how they have all been managed. This is all impossible to see even with several pictures. Even a 1 day visit tells little about the bull, his pluses and minuses and unique characteriscics. My experience with many generations of the cows & bulls in his pedigree have been learned over time and not stuff taught by livestock judging coaches. Bulls that are not halter broke, running in large pastures without a big crew to assist in posing is nearly impossible to take a picture that presents the animal in a realistic picture. Therefore, I do not post poor pictures of good bulls. Come see the bulls for sale - I will tell you all the info I can about them and pedigree of several generations.

We lost Octoraro Fabron 454 - but he lives in the semen tank. Just pulled a large stash of top quality semen on him. Future sons and daughters will still be coming - as well as those on the ground now and those due to be born in 2009. If you have a need for semen, just call or e-mail - when it is gone - it is gone!

Many of you know I sold all mature Cows a few years ago to a good grass-fed producer in LA. I have kept only the daughters of Fabron 454 as the new herd. Had some funds, so thought I would sample some of the highly advertised breeders programs. Not to slam any breeder - no names are given here, but they came in from MT and SD from highly promoted grass only programs. MISTAKE! I bought top end heifers sired by their best bulls, bred to their best bulls and they had all winter and spring to get acclimated to KY and fescue. It does not take a set of scales to see the massive dissappointment I brought in here. No milk, no growth, hard keeping cows that are struggling to make it with calves that look horrible. Select the cows and bulls for your program from like minded and like managed breeders in your "general environment". Shipping cattle across the nation is expensive and has proven to be a major waste of investment. I am just hoping their future calves that are sired by Fabron 454 will be an average producer in my herd - their moms will probably always be at the bottom. Selection for KY heat, humidity, and production on Fescue and clover is a feature I had never really appreciated until going thru this production problem with shipped in heifers. Hope it saves you some trouble in the future.

Many have asked about frame, weights, measurements on Fabron 454. "Attempted" spring of 2007 - 5 year old mature bull. My platform scales are in the alley on my working pens- works great for calves - but tight on mature bulls. Fabron was rubbing all sides as he was being weighed. Weighed over 1,900 lbs - Exact weight ??? I do not know / nor care - he is NOT for sale by the pound!

54Inches hip = 4 frame
42 cm scrotal

"Gerald Fry measurements"
Top line = 91 inches Rump= 28 inches Neck to Shoulder 30 inches Heart Girth = 92 inches
Therefore his top line equals his heart girth, and balanced with 1/3 rump, 1/3 neck etc.

Width measurements were not done as this meat wagon was rubbing all sides of the chute! Way better than Geralds recommendations of shoulder = 2 inches wider than rump length and shoulders 44% of hip height. This bulls ratios were done at a yearling when he was purchased and fit all of Geralds ratios then and now as a mature bull.

Slick Hair, Calm disposition, good feet, great pedigree, proven daughters, sons and grass finished steers!

Hope you find these different links interesting as you read more on grass fed, no antibiotic, no hormone, low input type cattle.

www.eatwild.com great info on grass fed beef!

www.spiritviewranch.com especially good "articles"

www.stockmangrassfarmer.net great magazine you should get + check out Allan's blog also!

www.tallgrassbeef.com a leader in the industry

www.pharocattle.com good info - also sigh up for his newsletter by e-mail

www.5barx.com a good discussion board

www.octoraroangus.com another good Angus breeder in PA.

http://shoshoneangus.homestead.com/home.html good breeder of Angus in WY

And naturally you can e-mail me at angus@larrysansom.com
or get more info at www.larrysansom.com

Just like the 8-N our cattle are low maintenance, low input, and last a long time.

When I bought Fabron 454, I saw his mother with her next calf, his 16 year old grandmother, and 18 year old greatgrandmother -ALL with a calf at side and heading back to the flush center! And they do it just as as my herd works - ON FORAGES ONLY - NO GRAIN!

With today's skyrocking production cost - using bulls with 3-5 generations of Forage Only production and testing is the only way to make a profit in the cattle business. Stop by and see the bulls available- they will sire super replacements for you and make the best forage only steers you have ever raised. Plus DNA tested for Tenderness!

A yearling son we are using on the Fabron daughters. This will be half brother - half sister mating for intensive breeding of the goodness in the 6 star tenderness bull Fabron 454. Sons like him are for sale. semen is also available on Fabron 454 

This is the nucleus of our new herd. We are breeding heifers sired by Fabron 454 for spring and fall calving. Sorry no heifers are for sale, but their half brothers by Fabron 454 are available. Once you see these heifers - you will want to use their brothers! 

Fabron 454 as a 4 year old. Just after we exposed him to all our mature cows before they were sold and delivered to a grass fed producer in Louisiana. Still in great shape and looking for more! We have a farm full of his daughters that will be the base of our linebred herd. Semen and sons of this 6 star DNA Tenderness Test bull are available. 

This is a 2006 Fabron 454 daughter and her mom - A full brother to this heifer is working as a yearling breeding his half sisters for our linebreeding program of the fabron 454 genetics.

FERTILITY COWS - What is that??
We have checked our cows for many things, but this has been the acid test for fertility - the ability to calve on First Heat for 4 or more consecutive years. That means dry years, hot years, wet years... We expect our cows to calve in their 60 day calving season, but I also wanted to know which cows are more fertile and never miss conception on their 1st heat with the bull. We never sell heifers from these cows, and their access is only through their sons. Fertility - Isn't that why you buy a bull?

Octoraro Fabron 454 - the sire of all bulls we have for sale, plus the service sire of all cows on our farm. GeneStar Tenderness DNA test = All 6 stars out of 6 star potential for Tenderness!! This bull is the perfect sire for grass finished cattle , plus his $EN+30 makes him one of the breeds all time great as a heifer sire. More info on his linebred pedigree, plus pictures of his sire, dam, great dam and great-great dam are at our web site www.larrysansom.com Semen and sons are available - just call. 

Rear View of Octoraro Fabron 454 as he was ready to go to work with the fall calving cows in 2004. He had just finished breeding the summer calving cows and got about a 30 day rest - pretty good condition for a bull that has bred cows every 6 months since he was a yearling!