In 2018 this superb young bull was being professionally shown and doing extremely well in the show ring. He had been a standout almost from the moment he was born; out of a phenomenal sire, Sunset Rebel Yell and one of my two favorite home bred cows, LEA Jordyn. Niadh was awarded Reserve Grand Champion at the UP State Fair and followed that with Grand Champion at the World Beef Expo that year, as well as Grand Champion at the North Central Highland Highland Cattle Show. A whirlwind show year was topped off with the Reserve Grand Champion Highland bull at Denver in January of 2019 all wins as a Senior Bull Calf. Then….. we had him semen collected in spring of 2019. His semen was abysmal. Absolutely abysmal. Poor semen motility, lots of defects, incredibly low concentration. Not good enough to even attempt to freeze (the semen has to freeze in liquid nitrogen and then survive thawing to ensure that the semen is potent enough to be successful at fertilization. ) Hoping that putting him out with females would gradually improve semen quality he was put out with a limited number of females in Wisconsin. He again won Reserve Grand Champion at the UP State Fair and I took him home to Michigan for the Michigan State Fair. He won Grand Champion there. However, all was still not right. An exam early in September at Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine revealed a persistent problem with semen quality. Less than 30% normal sperm with very low concentration. He might be able to breed a couple of cows, but his semen literally looked like dirty dish water. Fortunately we had the ability to put him out to pasture for a 9 month rest. He lost some weight, produced a single calf from the two cows I desperately threw him in with, and produced high quality semen in March of 2020.  He got his own cow herd the summer of 2020, successfully impregnated them naturally, and is now being quarantined for semen export to a limited number of countries.  Presently we have straws available for shipment in the USA only.