Ultimate U170(P) was retained as a sire last season and was mated to a single sire mob of stud cows. Ultimate was selected as a sire to add muscle to our herd. With an EMA EBV of +6.1cm2 he ranks in the top one per- cent of the breed. His sire (pictured below) was purchased for his power but Ultimate also inherits extra muscle from the other side of his pedigree with Downpour being strong in this trait. As a result of our hard selection on female fertility it seems that muscle volume in the herd has decreased to a de- gree. These traits are antagonistic which means they don’t naturally happen hand in hand. This stands to reason - as females become more maternal they look more like cows and less like bullocks. It is our job to identify cattle that will increase muscle con- tent but we are not prepared to do this at the expense of two vital traits - female fertility and finishing ability. Ultimate’s balance of female fertility, muscle and growth has his $Indexes ranking him up near the top of the breed, even for the two breeding indexes. Mated to our most fer- tile females, it will be interesting to see what the impact of this type of bull is on our herd.