Modern Methods
A Clinton Township cattle farm is involved in a highly scientific form of animal husbandry that produces superior offspring, but from a petri dish.
John Allen of Armstrong Farms on Ekastown Road explained that his facility's pair of prize bulls provide semen that is mixed with eggs from a champion cow found at another farm in the United States to create a superior calf, which goes on to perpetuate the whole practice.
Semen from the champion bulls also is sold to the farm's partners throughout the country.
Allen explained that the farm's two superior bulls are Little Feeder Worldwide and Armstrong Easy Rider.
“Worldwide” is a purebred Shorthorn bull, which is a beef breed.
Worldwide was named Reserve National Grand Champion bull in Oklahoma City at the 2020 Cattlemen's Congress.He is co-owned by three partners in Quebec, Michigan and Colorado, Allen said.Worldwide was also named Reserve National Grand Champion bull at the National Western Stock Show in Denver in 2020.“He's a back-to-back Reserve National Grand Champion,” Allen said. “We've had several bulls do that.”“Easy Rider” also won multiple shows, including those at state fairs in West Virginia, Minnesota and Ohio.
The goal in transporting the bulls from fair to fair and from show to show, Allen said, is to market their semen worldwide.The calves from these champion specimens can also be successfully marketed for their semen, he said.Allen explained that because it is difficult to join champion bulls and cows that live all over the United States and beyond to create a superior calf, their semen and eggs are shipped to one of several laboratories all over the country and mixed in a petri dish.After seven days, those embryos are implanted into a cow of no particular note. The pregnant female is shipped to the farm, where either the mother or father's owner purchased semen or eggs for the process.
In the case of Armstrong Farms, semen from a bull that won championship titles in 2018 and 2019 was sent to Missouri to be mixed with the eggs of a cow that was a clone of a former champion female.If that weren't high tech enough, Allen said semen can be manipulated to get only male or female embryos.“That was a really big advancement for the (in vitro fertilization, or IVF) process, that you can predetermine the sex of your future calf,” Allen said.He said instead of impregnating a cow and receiving shipment of her until the calf's birth, the embryos can also be sold on the market.“IVF started to kick into gear about 10 years ago, and it has really become perfected in the last two or three years,” Allen said.
Because only the highest-performing, quality males and females are used in the fertilization process, the resulting calves become more superior all the time.“It's because we just keep stacking pedigrees on top of one another,” Allen said. “We just keep trying to make the next great one.”He said at Armstrong Farms, Worldwide is finished showing at just 2 years old because he was so successful.“It's like we've won the Super Bowl, and we don't want him to get beat at the next Super Bowl,” Allen said. “Plus, we want to try the next up-and-comer.”Regarding Easy Rider, Allen said Armstrong Farms sold a half-interest in his semen for $30,000.That means Armstrong Farms' shareholders throughout the United States get one shipment of the bull's semen, which Allen said is either used to impregnate one cow or divided to sell for in vitro fertilization.He said the farm now has about 250 head of cattle. Some are used for IVF and others are sold as beef cattle.Allen and one other employee of the farm hold degrees in animal science, which has been a major benefit as they engage in the bovine IVF business.“Armstrong Farms is trying to define the best genetic qualities we can to enhance the rest of the industry,” he said.
