In the spring of 2000,
67 year old Max Fawley of northern Indiana delivered a black bull calf out of a
home raised first calf heifer. This stocky little bull calf was sired by Larry
Campbell & Brad Hook’s Heetseeker bull. Max and his family would name the
calf Oscar. Little did they know at that time, Oscar would go on to be one of
the top steer sires of all time. A bull which would later be displayed in Denver in 2001 and named Heat Wave by his new
owners Mike Weidner and Phil Lautner. Starting in 2002 Heat Wave sired cattle
would go on to win most major market cattle shows at least once and sometimes
multiple times.
The Beginning:
Oscar was a little bigger at birth and his mother
was a little short on milk so Max and his family would give him a bottle each
day and as you can see in the pictures little Oscar was always a very nice
looking bull calf.
Later in August as he grew Barry Nowatzke and Joe
Gensini were by Max’s farm to look thru calves and while they liked Oscar
pretty good, they thought he was a little small for what they were looking for
for their steer buyers.
In mid October on a Saturday morning as Max
prepared to meet his vet to work his home raised calves and castrate his bull
calves Max’s phone rang and it was a familiar voice on the other end of the
phone. It was Joe Gensini and Joe asked if Max still had that younger black
bull calf they had looked at in August. Max responded yes but he was getting
ready to cut him. Joe instructed Max to wait a couple days so he could come
back and look at him again.
It turned out that Gensini of Illinois bought the
bull calf called Oscar for $3000. Gensini would later sell Oscar to Mike
Weidner & Phil Lautner for $5000. In December on their way home from an Ohio
Craig Reiter cow sale Weidner & Lautner loaded him up to go to his forever
home in Central Iowa.
In the day’s before internet and social media it
would be several years before Max Fawley even realized his young black bull
calf turned out to be the famous sire Heat Wave. Heat Wave even sired the
Indiana State Fair Grand Champion steer multiple times in Max’s home state of
Indiana.
Max was proud of the success of his bull calf named
Oscar. He even met Phil Lautner once at the Iowa Beef Expo. Phil gave Max and
“LF” ink pen as token of his appreciation.
Max now 85 years old, still raises calves at the
farm just northeast of Warsaw, Indiana. Free free to call him and schedule a
visit to his historic farm. Max phone number is 574.453.6182. We would like to
congratulate Max on his accomplishment of raising little Oscar, the bull that
went on to be named Heat Wave!
