Victor Domino Heritage

Though none acted alone, uninfluenced by predecessors and contemporaries, to them go the plaudits of time.

So it is with the Victor Domino family of Polled Herefords. The fact that the Victor Dominos of today enjoy unprecedented popularity and demand results from the efforts of many knowledgeable dedicated cattlemen.  Yet the fact that Victor domino himself became a great sire and the head of an influential family, which almost 50 years after his birth can still claim identity and a high degree of genetic "purity" rather than assimilation into the vast gene pool of our rapidly expanding breed, is due largely to the handful of breeders who will be mentioned in the following paragraphs.   

Back in April, 1930, H.T. Miller of Danville, California purchased a set of bull from John M. Lewis and Son's Alfalfa Lawn Farms, Larned, Kansas, and returned six months later for more to resell as range bulls on the west coast. Since there weren't enough bull calves left at Alfalfa Lawn in the fall to make up a carload, John M took Mr. Miller to several neighboring herds to buy enough to finish filling the order.

According to Walter M. Lewis then a student in high school, the bulls were bunched at Alfalfa Lawn prior to shipment by rail west.  "After coming home from school one evening.  I was looking over the calves Mr. Miller had purchased.  I told my father there was a calf in the group I wished we had, and he said he was sure Mr. Miller wouldn't mind if we took and replaced with another calf.  This we did on Oct 10, 1930."

That is how close Victor Domino came to being just another range bull.  For the calf that caught young Walter Lewis' eye that October evening was the MP Domino 1, whose name was subsequently changed to Victor Domino.

He came from Leslie Brannan's herd at Timken, Kansas and was of the MP (Mossy Plato) Domino sire line from which descended such notable families as the King Dominos, the DK Dominos, the Plato Dominos, the Numodes and Trumodes as well as the Victor Dominos.  He was the first son of Mossy Plato 26, the great sire Les Brannan acquired in 1929 from Frank Brannan, Rozel, Kansas, and whose son's from daughters of the horned bull Prince Domino 148 ( a son of Prince Domino) put Brannan on the map in short order.  His dam was Lady Domino, a daughter of the 148th out of a Donald Red 44 Dam.  She was, according to Walter Lewis "an outstanding cow and a heavy milker. "

Calved March 5, 1930, Victor Domino was seven months old when acquired by the Lewises.  "In my opinion." says Walter Lewis, "Victor Domino was a much better bull than the Mossy Plato family of cattle he took after his mother's side of the pedigree.  That's why his name was changed to Victor Domino.

He weighed 2,100 pounds in the pasture condition and carried no waste fat.  He was a very successful sire in our herd. We did have a white problem with him. It came from his mother's side as her sire had white over the loin.  He was a thick muscled bull with much heavier bone than most Polled Herefords of his time.  His daughters were good milkers.

"We used him most of his lifetime."recalls Lewis.  "We recorded 160 bulls and 210 females by him , and that was before A.I. came into use.  We sold him Nov. 17, 1941 to T.W. Cloney of Route 5 Sedalia, Missouri. 

To describe Victor Domino as "a very successful sire" is rather understating the record.  Had he done no more than sire Victor Domino 4, his fame would have been assured, for the 4th counted among his sons the family head Buster Domino as well as the great 1941 National Champion CMR Rollo Domino whose descendants took the industry by storm in the 1940's and "50's and brought unparalleled success to M.P. "Hot" Moore of CMR, Senatobia, Mississippi. CMR Rollo Domino 6, the famed "Sire of Sires" CMR Rollo Domino 12, 1945 National Champion and former world record priced bull CMR Rollo Domino 28, CMR Rollo Domino 40, CMR Rollo Domino 47 and CMR Rollo Domino Jr.

Yet another of Victor Domino's prominent breeding sons was Victor Domino 128 who, like Victor Domino 4, served in Sen. Cameron Morrison's herd at Charlotte, N.C.  Through him came the Crail Victor Dominos, a well-known performing line developed by the late Frank O. Sherrill and Mack Patton at Crail Farms, Hendersonville, N.C.  Descendants of this pair of half brothers established many good Victor Domino-bred herds on the eastern seaboard during the 1940's and '50s, some of them still in operation. 

But perhaps his best known son, the one most responsible for perpetuating the Victor Domino family as we know it today, Victor Domino 126.  Bred at Alfalfa Lawn, the 126th was sold as a calf to Maj, J.F. Crutcher of Hennin, Tenn., and was purchased early in 1944 along with the entire Crutcher herd by E.E. "Ed" Moore of Double E Ranch Senatobia, MS. 

Though he died suddenly in the fall of 1945, the 126th's short service at Double E under manager Earl Purdy established him as one of the all-time greats, for his sons included the famed "Popeye" bull EER Victor Domino 12 (Sire of two National Champion females, the winning get groups at three National shows, a $14,000 former world record priced female, plus numerous show winners and sale toppers.  The 126th also sired EER Victor Domino 22, Victor Domino return (from which came the Gatesford Victor Dominos) and 1943 National Champion Heifer D Victoria Domino 8.

L.J. "Dinty" Moore journeyed to Double E in 1945 and selected the 126th calf EER Victor Domino 2 to use in his new Holly Springs Farm herd at Covington, GA., where he subsequently established Holly Springs as a fountainhead for Victor  Domino blood in the southeast.   Among his sons were HSF Beau Victor 10, top sale bull in Denver purchased by W.M. Spidel and Son, Roundup, MT., and great-grandsire of Gold Trophy JS Spidel 260; HSF Beau Victor 9, whose blood is still strong in the Holly Springs herd; and HSF Beau Victor 15.

It was through his son HSF Beau Victor 14 that EER Victor Domino 2 made his most potent contribution to the family.  Not only did the 14th sire one of the first U.S. Polled Hereford bulls exported to South America (Uruguay), he counted among his offspring the redoubtable Gary Hills Victor , who made a fine record at Gay Hills Ranch, Horn Lake, MS; HSF Prince Victor 14 foundation sire of W.L. Teeter's Will-Via Hereford Farm herd at Mooresville, N.C.; and HSF Prince Victor 11, one of the rocks upon which was built the greatest Victor Domino breeding program in history.

HSF Prince Victor 11, out of a straight Victor Domino-bred Dam, was purchased from Holly Springs on May 10, 1952, by R.W. (Walter) and Jean Sage Jones of RWJ Practical Polled Hereford Farm, Leslie, GA.  Mr. and Mrs. Jones - who in 1944 had started their herd at Millstone River Farm in Somerset County, N.J., and had moved to Georgia in 1951. Used him on daughters of their first herd sire, HCF Real Domino 82, a bull purchased from Hop Creek Farm in 1946.  (The 82nd, by the Alfalfa Lawn bred real Domino 5, traced to Victor Domino through his son Victor Domino 99.  He was a large bull for his time, weighing 1,850 pounds when sold for beef at the end of his service life.)  From these matings came a tremendous set of producing females as well as the Jones foundation sires MRF Vic Domino A14 and RWJ Pr Victor F97.

Fortunately, MRF Vic Domino A14 served in the right herd at the right time, for he was described as a genetic freak by Dr. W.C. McCormick of the Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Tifton, FA., weighing 2,305 pounds in pasture flesh compared to his sire's 1,600 pounds.  And without fail he transmitted size and growthiness to his offspring, earning recognition by Performance Registry International as one of the few 5-Star Performance Sires among all breeds.  Had the Joneses not believed so strongly in profitable performance for their commercial customers, A14 might not have achieved his potential, for he and his descendants were years ahead of their time in the purebred industry. 

Firm believers in performance records, Mr. and Mrs. Jones enrolled their herd on the Georgia Beef Cattle Improvement Association program when it was initiated in 1956.  They were among the first to performance test bulls (starting in 1958) at the Tifton Beef Bull Evaluation Center, always bringing home their top performer to use in the herd.  They also were early participants in Performance Registry International.  When the American Polled Hereford Association launched its Guide Lines Program in 1965, they integrated their extensive records into this central system. 

Following their last major outside purchase, a group of heifers from Adams Hereford Center in 1955, the Joneses closed their herd to outside blood in 1962 and set their sights on developing a linebred Victor Domino herd that, based on official performance records, would produce animals profitable for commercial cattlemen.  As Mrs. Jones said a few years following her husband's death in 1967. :We were not seeking extremes, but rather more better ones."  

And those they got, as the following summary of Georgia BCIA weaning weights shows: 

• 1962-94 calves averaged 515-3 over 600
• 1963-156 averaged 541-26 over 600 
• 1964 -154 averaged 566-43 over 600
• 1965-162 averaged 531-17 over 600
• 1966-86 averaged 583-29 over 600
• 1967-128 averaged 583-55 over 600
• 1968-71 averaged 570-27 over 600
• 1969-93 averaged 555-24 over 600
• 1970-99 averaged 558-19 over 600
• 1971-112 averaged 564-32 over 600
• 1972-78 averaged 573-25 over 600