People often ask us how Rose and her descendants got their interesting rusty red color. It’s in their genes! Jim Williams explains: “In the 1970s, I was looking for an outcross line of cattle. Bubba Sartwelle and his family of Sartwelle Brahman Ranch had concentrated and linebred the Imperator bull in their herd for years. He gave us the pick of the cows on his ranch. We picked three dark pigmented cows. One of the cows was SBR Imperator Joy 349/4, Rose’s maternal great granddam. She was the most intensely linebred cow on the ranch to Imperator, known for his dark (sometimes, even black) pigmentation. Rose’s paternal grandsire, (+)JDH Dakota Manso 599, was also known to sometimes sire red-pigmented cattle.  When we mixed the Imperator bloodline on Rose’s dam side with that of (+)JDH Dakota Manso 599, who Jim also thought was the sire of some of the best females at J.D. Hudgins, the result was the unique red tinge we now call ‘V8 Rose Red’.”