WEBVTT 00:00:14.189 --> 00:00:20.969 Creeping over fields of green Remembering the 00:00:20.969 --> 00:00:27.269 faces The moments unseen The hands that built 00:00:27.269 --> 00:00:33.590 a dynasty The vision in their eyes Echoes in 00:00:33.590 --> 00:00:38.810 the auction bar Beneath an endless sky This is 00:00:38.810 --> 00:01:04.129 the bull buy Turn the bar Welcome back to the 00:01:04.129 --> 00:01:07.670 Bullvine Podcast. I'm your host. And today we're 00:01:07.670 --> 00:01:10.689 sharing a story that, well, it honestly just 00:01:10.689 --> 00:01:12.590 stopped us in our tracks. And I'm your co -host. 00:01:12.939 --> 00:01:15.980 And yeah, this is the exact kind of deep dive 00:01:15.980 --> 00:01:18.299 that reminds you why you got into dairy in the 00:01:18.299 --> 00:01:20.840 first place. But honestly, it also serves as 00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:22.980 a massive warning about the decisions we're making 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:25.579 right now. Exactly. Because we usually sit here 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:29.219 and we talk about genetic progress as this linear 00:01:29.219 --> 00:01:31.760 celebratory march forward. Like every year the 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:33.680 cows just get better and better. But when you 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:35.400 dig into the source material we have in front 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.019 of us today, you realize we are actually looking 00:01:38.019 --> 00:01:40.379 at a bottleneck event. A singularity, really. 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:42.799 Yeah, a singularity. A moment. where the entire 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:45.640 global dairy industry basically passed through 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:47.900 the genetic filter of a single animal. Right, 00:01:47.939 --> 00:01:49.439 and what's wild is that this didn't start in 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:51.840 some corporate boardroom in Chicago or a high 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.400 -tech genetic laboratory over in Europe. It started 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:58.980 in the mud, in Marengo, Iowa, right in the middle 00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:02.200 of a brutal economic crisis. So let's drop you, 00:02:02.219 --> 00:02:04.519 the listener, right into that context, because 00:02:04.519 --> 00:02:06.439 you really can't understand the decision -making 00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:09.060 here without understanding the fear that was 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:12.349 driving everything. The year is 1981, and for 00:02:12.349 --> 00:02:14.030 the guys listening who were farming back then, 00:02:14.129 --> 00:02:16.750 you know exactly what the air felt like. Oh yeah, 00:02:16.810 --> 00:02:18.569 they do. But for the younger generation, you 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:21.349 have to understand, this was the post -Volcker 00:02:21.349 --> 00:02:23.669 shock. Right, we aren't talking about margins 00:02:23.669 --> 00:02:25.750 being kind of tight like we... complain about 00:02:25.750 --> 00:02:28.610 today. We are talking about prime interest rates 00:02:28.610 --> 00:02:32.229 hitting 20 percent, 21 percent. Which is just 00:02:32.229 --> 00:02:35.030 unimaginable. It was suffocating. Operating loans 00:02:35.030 --> 00:02:37.129 were literally strangling people out of the business. 00:02:37.349 --> 00:02:39.569 Land values were beginning to wobble and crash. 00:02:40.250 --> 00:02:42.289 So when we talk about the Tompkins family out 00:02:42.289 --> 00:02:44.550 in Marengo and we see them standing in their 00:02:44.550 --> 00:02:47.129 barn with a vet to do an embryo transfer, this 00:02:47.129 --> 00:02:48.810 is not a hobby. This isn't them just playing 00:02:48.810 --> 00:02:51.789 around with the genetics for fun. No. At that 00:02:51.789 --> 00:02:54.650 kind of interest rate. Every single dollar you 00:02:54.650 --> 00:02:57.509 spend has to fight for its life. And back in 00:02:57.509 --> 00:03:02.030 1981, embryo transfer ET was not the routine 00:03:02.030 --> 00:03:05.349 Tuesday morning task that it is for so many herds 00:03:05.349 --> 00:03:07.490 now. Not at all. It was non -surgical recovery, 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:10.969 sure. But it was still a very high -end, high 00:03:10.969 --> 00:03:13.449 -cost, high -stress procedure. You're pouring 00:03:13.449 --> 00:03:15.969 expensive hormones into a cow. You're paying 00:03:15.969 --> 00:03:19.110 for the flush media, the microscope time. You've 00:03:19.110 --> 00:03:21.750 got recipient cows standing by just eating feed. 00:03:21.969 --> 00:03:24.090 And you're doing the math in your head the entire 00:03:24.090 --> 00:03:26.610 time the vet is working. That's the real gut 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:29.810 punch of the early 80s economy. You're standing 00:03:29.810 --> 00:03:32.469 there thinking to yourself, I need five embryos 00:03:32.469 --> 00:03:34.389 just to break even on this vet bit. Oh, you need 00:03:34.389 --> 00:03:36.750 a jackpot. You need volume. If you flush a cow 00:03:36.750 --> 00:03:38.990 and you get zero, or you get one, you haven't 00:03:38.990 --> 00:03:41.370 just lost a morning, you've torched capital that 00:03:41.370 --> 00:03:43.990 you probably borrowed at 18%. So picture the 00:03:43.990 --> 00:03:46.469 scene. The vet finishes the procedure on this 00:03:46.469 --> 00:03:49.789 cow. Her name is Tumar Wayne Hay. They take the 00:03:49.789 --> 00:03:51.729 dish over to the microscope, and the tension 00:03:51.729 --> 00:03:53.949 in that barn had to be just thick enough to cut 00:03:53.949 --> 00:03:56.469 with a knife. And the result comes back. It's 00:03:56.469 --> 00:04:01.129 not 10. It's not 5. One. One. One single viable 00:04:01.129 --> 00:04:05.389 embryo. It's a complete disaster on paper. Statistically, 00:04:05.490 --> 00:04:08.050 that is a total failure. You can just imagine 00:04:08.050 --> 00:04:11.189 Randy Tompkins staring at that bill, then staring 00:04:11.189 --> 00:04:13.449 at the cow and thinking, I just threw money into 00:04:13.449 --> 00:04:16.430 a bottomless pit. Because you have to account 00:04:16.430 --> 00:04:18.449 for the attrition rates, right? Exactly. Getting 00:04:18.449 --> 00:04:20.689 an embryo in the dish is just step one. You have 00:04:20.689 --> 00:04:23.730 to implant it. The recipient has to carry it 00:04:23.730 --> 00:04:25.870 all the way to term without aborting. The calf 00:04:25.870 --> 00:04:28.870 has to be born alive. And then the ultimate coin 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.589 flip, there has to be the right sex. In 1981, 00:04:31.870 --> 00:04:34.310 long before genomic sorting was even a dream, 00:04:34.870 --> 00:04:37.069 you're praying for a bull if you want to sell 00:04:37.069 --> 00:04:39.230 to an AI stud or a heifer if you want to build 00:04:39.230 --> 00:04:41.569 your own family line. If you get a bull calf 00:04:41.569 --> 00:04:44.029 that nobody wants to buy, Well, you've got a 00:04:44.029 --> 00:04:48.350 very expensive steer. But that one embryo, that 00:04:48.350 --> 00:04:51.350 single, incredibly expensive, high -risk roll 00:04:51.350 --> 00:04:54.670 of the dice, it stuck. It carried. And nine months 00:04:54.670 --> 00:04:57.769 later, out comes a bull calf. Timur Blackstar. 00:04:58.009 --> 00:05:00.589 And if Randy Tompkins had known what was standing 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:02.230 in the straw that morning, he wouldn't have been 00:05:02.230 --> 00:05:04.069 worried about the vet bill for a single second? 00:05:04.329 --> 00:05:05.949 No, he wouldn't have. He would have been worried 00:05:05.949 --> 00:05:07.990 about the fact that he was looking at the genetic 00:05:07.990 --> 00:05:10.889 architect of the next 40 years of Holstein history. 00:05:11.149 --> 00:05:13.569 Just to anchor this for you listening. We aren't 00:05:13.569 --> 00:05:16.250 just telling a fun Good Bull story today. According 00:05:16.250 --> 00:05:19.310 to the USDA and the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, 00:05:19.410 --> 00:05:22.850 this specific animal, born from that one bad 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:28.529 bed flush, now constitutes 15 .8 % of the distinct 00:05:28.529 --> 00:05:32.389 DNA of the entire modern Holstein breed. That 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:34.209 number is just staggering. I mean, it's higher 00:05:34.209 --> 00:05:36.550 than Pawnee Farmer Linda Chief. It's higher than 00:05:36.550 --> 00:05:39.750 Round Oak Rag apple elevation. If you walked 00:05:39.750 --> 00:05:41.810 into your barn this morning and you milked 100 00:05:41.810 --> 00:05:44.850 cows, statistically, the genetics of roughly 00:05:44.850 --> 00:05:47.850 16 of those cows are purely derived from this 00:05:47.850 --> 00:05:50.790 one single embryo in Iowa. He is the invisible 00:05:50.790 --> 00:05:53.310 ghost standing in every single stall. How does 00:05:53.310 --> 00:05:56.170 that even happen? Seriously, how do we go from 00:05:56.170 --> 00:05:58.930 a single embryo in a working barn in Iowa? to 00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:01.350 a bull that essentially colonized the entire 00:06:01.350 --> 00:06:03.689 global breed. To figure that out, we really have 00:06:03.689 --> 00:06:05.490 to strip away all the mythology and look at the 00:06:05.490 --> 00:06:07.449 actual cattle themselves, because the Tompkins 00:06:07.449 --> 00:06:10.110 farm wasn't a genetic boutique. Not at all. This 00:06:10.110 --> 00:06:12.949 was a row crop and dairy operation. And that 00:06:12.949 --> 00:06:15.189 matters so much to this story. It wasn't some 00:06:15.189 --> 00:06:17.709 tax write -off for a millionaire trying to breed 00:06:17.709 --> 00:06:20.629 show winners. Corn prices dictated the culling 00:06:20.629 --> 00:06:23.470 rate. If a cow didn't breed back, she was gone. 00:06:23.670 --> 00:06:26.329 If she had bad feet and couldn't handle the concrete 00:06:26.329 --> 00:06:28.910 or the dirt lot, she was gone. There was absolutely 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:30.970 no tenderness for a pretty cow that couldn't 00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:33.790 go out and work. It was a crucible. And that 00:06:33.790 --> 00:06:36.589 environment perfectly shaped the maternal line. 00:06:37.889 --> 00:06:39.589 Let's look at the dam for a second. Tamara Wayne 00:06:39.589 --> 00:06:42.649 Higgy, she's a second lactation cow, doing over 00:06:42.649 --> 00:06:45.850 25 ,000 pounds of milk, which in the early 80s, 00:06:45.850 --> 00:06:48.699 that is serious, serious production. But when 00:06:48.699 --> 00:06:50.180 you look at the classification reports and the 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:53.779 old photos, she's not this glossy magazine beauty 00:06:53.779 --> 00:06:55.819 queen. No, she was functional. She was solid. 00:06:55.959 --> 00:06:58.100 But, you know, the magic really happens a generation 00:06:58.100 --> 00:07:00.240 back from her. We need to talk about the Grand 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:03.680 Dame, Hannah. Royal Cedar O 'Connor. This is 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:06.120 the archetype. When I look at her data, I see 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.899 the exact kind of cow that every commercial berryman 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:11.379 quietly loves but never writes articles about. 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:14.300 She's the invisible cow. And I mean that as the 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:17.259 highest possible compliment. You know this cow. 00:07:17.689 --> 00:07:20.079 Every farmer listening knows this cow. She's 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:22.360 the one in your herd with the faded 300 series 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:24.399 ear tag because she's been there for so long. 00:07:24.579 --> 00:07:27.899 She's a deep heart girth. Massive capacity for 00:07:27.899 --> 00:07:30.019 roughage. She has an udder that isn't sty high, 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:32.399 but it's just welded on. Right. The texture is 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:34.819 right, but mostly she's invisible because she 00:07:34.819 --> 00:07:37.079 never appears on the vet's problem list. Exactly. 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:39.160 She never has ketosis. Yeah. She never has milk 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:42.079 fever. She breeds on the first service every 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:45.360 single time. She just stands at the bunk, eats 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:48.600 her corn silage, and fills the bulk tank. Hannah 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.319 was the engine. And Randy Tompkins, smart breeder 00:07:51.319 --> 00:07:53.959 that he was, realized that while Hannah wasn't 00:07:53.959 --> 00:07:56.480 going to win the World Dairy Expo, she was exactly 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:58.500 the biological machine he needed to replicate. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:01.100 So he takes that highly functional, high capacity, 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:03.899 invisible maternal line and he crosses it with 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:07.100 Cal Clark, board chairman. Now, why that specific 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:09.100 mating? This is the key to everything. Break 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:10.720 down the sigh for us. What did board chairman 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:13.079 bring to the table? Board chairman was the frame 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:15.000 bowl. He brought the stature. He brought the 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.980 stretch. But he needed a cow with real guts to 00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:21.459 handle that frame. If you put a big, massive 00:08:21.459 --> 00:08:23.620 frame bull on a frail cow, you get an absolute 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:26.680 disaster. But you put him on Hannah's line, you 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:28.759 get the perfect synthesis. And that's what Blackstar 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:30.899 was. He was this perfect synthesis of show ring 00:08:30.899 --> 00:08:33.919 stature and commercial bunk capacity. Born May 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:39.590 17th, 1983. Coal black calf. And honestly. They 00:08:39.590 --> 00:08:41.269 probably just hoped he'd be good enough to sell 00:08:41.269 --> 00:08:43.870 to a stud to cover that awful flush bill. Oh, 00:08:43.889 --> 00:08:45.250 they probably would have been thrilled with a 00:08:45.250 --> 00:08:47.990 $500 check just to break even. But to really 00:08:47.990 --> 00:08:51.269 understand why Black Star exploded, why he became 00:08:51.269 --> 00:08:54.309 this absolute singularity, we have to pause the 00:08:54.309 --> 00:08:56.590 biography of the bull himself and look at the 00:08:56.590 --> 00:08:58.429 battlefield he was born into. Because the mid 00:08:58.429 --> 00:09:00.669 -1980s in the Holstein world wasn't just a time 00:09:00.669 --> 00:09:03.690 of transition. It was a full -blown civil war. 00:09:04.029 --> 00:09:06.110 It was incredibly tribal. You had two camps that 00:09:06.110 --> 00:09:07.789 were drifting so far apart they could barely 00:09:07.789 --> 00:09:09.750 even speak the same language anymore. You had 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:11.649 the production purists on one side and the type 00:09:11.649 --> 00:09:13.669 purists on the other, and both of them were hitting 00:09:13.669 --> 00:09:16.070 a massive wall. Let's unpack the production side 00:09:16.070 --> 00:09:19.509 first. The dominant force was a bull named Carlin 00:09:19.509 --> 00:09:22.269 M. Ivanhoe Bell. Everyone just called him Bell. 00:09:22.389 --> 00:09:24.730 If you look at these sire summaries from 1986 00:09:24.730 --> 00:09:28.570 or 1987, Bell is essentially a god. His production 00:09:28.570 --> 00:09:32.779 numbers were plus 1 ,704 pounds of milk. In that 00:09:32.779 --> 00:09:35.980 era, that is just astronomical. He was single 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:39.059 -handedly flooding the bulk tanks. But there 00:09:39.059 --> 00:09:41.440 was a catch. And it was a really heartbreaking 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.100 one for the farmers milking his daughters. Bell 00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:47.240 is often called the worst best bull in history. 00:09:47.500 --> 00:09:50.039 His daughters would milk their absolute hearts 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:52.379 out, but physically they were built like matchsticks. 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:54.659 It was the udders specifically. We need to get 00:09:54.659 --> 00:09:56.820 a little technical here. It was the medial suspensory 00:09:56.820 --> 00:09:58.740 ligament. For the listener who isn't staring 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:01.440 at an anatomy diagram right now, that is the 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:03.600 central wall of tissue that divides the outer 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:06.539 right and left and physically anchors it up to 00:10:06.539 --> 00:10:08.720 the body wall. It's the primary support system 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:11.559 holding everything together. Exactly. And adult 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:13.940 bell daughters had almost zero strength there. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:15.919 So you'd have a heifer, she calves in, she looks 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:17.980 okay. She milks a hundred pounds a day, which 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:20.399 is great. But by the time she hits her second 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:23.679 lactation, that ligament just snaps. The udder 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:27.700 floor completely drops out. The teats splay out 00:10:27.700 --> 00:10:30.100 sideways. We call it strutting. And once that 00:10:30.100 --> 00:10:32.440 happens, it's basically over. You can't get the 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:34.750 milking machine on her. The udder is dragging 00:10:34.750 --> 00:10:36.549 in the mud. It's getting stepped on by her own 00:10:36.549 --> 00:10:39.549 hooves. She's getting mastitis constantly. Farmers 00:10:39.549 --> 00:10:41.590 were having to cull these incredible, unbelievable 00:10:41.590 --> 00:10:44.389 producers at just four years old because they 00:10:44.389 --> 00:10:47.129 literally fell apart. It was emotionally draining. 00:10:47.389 --> 00:10:49.389 I remember talking to guys from that era, and 00:10:49.389 --> 00:10:51.409 they absolutely hated it. You raise a calf for 00:10:51.409 --> 00:10:53.169 two whole years, she milks like a freight train, 00:10:53.330 --> 00:10:55.129 and then you have to put her on the cull trailer 00:10:55.129 --> 00:10:57.450 because her body just failed her. It was financially 00:10:57.450 --> 00:11:00.629 stupid. So naturally, the pendulum swings wildly 00:11:00.629 --> 00:11:03.110 the other way. Everyone runs to the type solution. 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:06.960 And the absolute king of that side was Hanover 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.379 Hill Starbuck. The glamour bull. Beautiful, beautiful 00:11:09.379 --> 00:11:13.100 cattle. Wide rumps, perfectly attached udders, 00:11:13.100 --> 00:11:15.899 incredibly strong feet and legs. They won literally 00:11:15.899 --> 00:11:18.220 every show in North America. But in this of a 00:11:18.220 --> 00:11:20.100 bit, but you looked at the milkshake at the end 00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:22.679 of the month and it was incredible. light. They 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:25.279 lacked the volume. They lacked that sheer metabolic 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:28.159 will to produce massive amounts of milk that 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:30.600 the Bells had. They were pretty, but they didn't 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:32.519 pay the mortgage. So this is the desperation 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:34.799 of 1988. You're sitting at your kitchen table 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:38.259 trying to order semen for the year. Use Bellet 00:11:38.259 --> 00:11:41.700 and get a cow that pakes the bills but essentially 00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:44.620 dies in two years. Or do you use Starbucks and 00:11:44.620 --> 00:11:46.600 get a cow that lives forever but doesn't actually 00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:48.600 make any money? Everyone was searching for the 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.769 unicorn. The type and production crossover, the 00:11:51.769 --> 00:11:53.590 absolute holy grail. And honestly, nobody thought 00:11:53.590 --> 00:11:55.690 it actually existed. The genetic correlation 00:11:55.690 --> 00:11:58.309 between high type and high milk was widely accepted 00:11:58.309 --> 00:12:00.049 to be negative. You weren't supposed to get both. 00:12:00.110 --> 00:12:02.509 It was biologically contradictory. Enter Ron 00:12:02.509 --> 00:12:05.330 Long. And this part of the story plays out like 00:12:05.330 --> 00:12:07.850 a detective novel. Ron is working with select 00:12:07.850 --> 00:12:09.850 sires. He's traveling all over the country, scoring 00:12:09.850 --> 00:12:12.590 cows, looking at classification sheets. And remember, 00:12:12.750 --> 00:12:15.889 there's no internet. He's digging through actual 00:12:15.889 --> 00:12:18.370 paper stacks. And he starts seeing this ghost. 00:12:18.860 --> 00:12:23.220 in the data code 7h 1897 he doesn't even know 00:12:23.220 --> 00:12:25.659 the bull's actual name at first he just sees 00:12:25.659 --> 00:12:27.759 the pattern he goes into a herd to score some 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:31.240 cows and he sees this heifer that is big strong 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:34.779 has a great udder he checks the paper sire 7h 00:12:34.779 --> 00:12:38.120 1897 he goes to the next farm the next day another 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:42.039 incredible one sire 7h 1897 He starts calling 00:12:42.039 --> 00:12:43.919 back to headquarters. He's telling them, I don't 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:45.600 know who this bull is, but his daughters are 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:47.860 the real deal. They are fixing the bell udders, 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:49.860 but they are milking exactly like bells. And 00:12:49.860 --> 00:12:52.440 that is the absolute definition of proof on concrete. 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.000 There was no slick marketing hype. Nobody was 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.240 pushing this bull in magazines. This bull was 00:12:57.240 --> 00:12:59.320 proving himself in the stanchions before anyone 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:01.320 even knew how to pronounce his name. And when 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:03.240 the veil was finally lifted, when the numbers 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:06.039 officially dropped in January of 1989, it was 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:08.440 a complete stampede. The numbers were shocking. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:13.220 Plus 58 pounds of fat. plus 63 pounds of protein. 00:13:13.789 --> 00:13:17.789 And a plus 3 .16 PTT for type. We really have 00:13:17.789 --> 00:13:20.789 to contextualize that. Plus 3 .16. Today we see 00:13:20.789 --> 00:13:22.789 high type numbers and we just think, okay, sure. 00:13:22.929 --> 00:13:26.210 But in 1989... It was literal science fiction. 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:29.250 The average breed type was hovering right around 00:13:29.250 --> 00:13:33.730 zero. A good type bull was maybe plus 1 .5. To 00:13:33.730 --> 00:13:37.929 be over plus 3 .0 and have massive positive milk 00:13:37.929 --> 00:13:40.929 components, it completely broke the paradigm. 00:13:41.090 --> 00:13:42.889 It was like seeing a semi truck that could corner 00:13:42.889 --> 00:13:44.960 like a... Ferrari. It just wasn't supposed to 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:47.899 happen. And by 1992, he officially tops the PPI 00:13:47.899 --> 00:13:52.080 list with 1 ,256 points. And then the frenzy 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:54.720 really begins. Oh, it was absolute chaos. Describe 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:56.399 the scene at Select Sires when that happened. 00:13:56.539 --> 00:13:58.440 The switchboard was completely overwhelmed. You 00:13:58.440 --> 00:13:59.759 have to remember, you couldn't just go online 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:01.779 and click order and have it shipped. People were 00:14:01.779 --> 00:14:03.820 physically calling in. Wire transfers were coming 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:05.980 in from Germany, from the Netherlands, from Australia. 00:14:06.700 --> 00:14:09.220 Breeders. All over the world simultaneously realized 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:12.399 that this was the answer to the Bell versus Starbuck 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:14.580 problem. And there was a massive scarcity issue, 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:17.320 too. Today, with modern technology and collection 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:20.200 methods, we can produce millions of units of 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:23.120 semen from a top bowl. Back then, they just couldn't. 00:14:23.179 --> 00:14:25.620 Jeff Ziegler from Select Sires actually said 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:28.379 they only ever sold about 500 ,000 doses of Blackstar. 00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:31.659 Only. Still sounds like a massive amount of semen. 00:14:31.740 --> 00:14:33.919 It is a lot, but compared to the global demand, 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:36.519 it was a drop in the bucket. Distributors were 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:39.320 actively rationing straws. You had to know someone 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:41.539 or call in a favor just to get a tank full of 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:45.539 Blackstar. Price skyrocketed. People were paying 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:48.820 hundreds of dollars per straw in 1992 money just 00:14:48.820 --> 00:14:50.980 to get their hands on his genetics. I just want 00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:52.919 to pause here and reflect on the emotional side 00:14:52.919 --> 00:14:55.039 of this for a second. Imagine Randy Tompkins. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:57.360 He's back in Marengo, Iowa. He gets that proof 00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:58.840 sheet in the mail. It probably just looked like 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:00.700 another piece of junk mail from Select Sires. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:05.500 He opens it up and he realizes that his one embryo. 00:15:05.850 --> 00:15:08.129 Gamble the calf he almost didn't get because 00:15:08.129 --> 00:15:11.029 of a bad flush is now the most important animal 00:15:11.029 --> 00:15:13.690 in the entire dairy world. It's the ultimate 00:15:13.690 --> 00:15:16.190 validation, isn't it? He wasn't trying to be 00:15:16.190 --> 00:15:18.350 famous. He wasn't trying to change the industry. 00:15:18.669 --> 00:15:21.649 He was just trying to breed a better cow for 00:15:21.649 --> 00:15:24.330 his own barn. And he accidentally changed the 00:15:24.330 --> 00:15:27.330 world. So we know the numbers on paper were great. 00:15:28.169 --> 00:15:30.629 But what did the cows actually look like? What 00:15:30.629 --> 00:15:33.629 did Black Star physically put in the tank? Because 00:15:33.629 --> 00:15:35.909 numbers on a page are one thing, but living, 00:15:35.950 --> 00:15:38.690 breathing cattle are another entirely. If you 00:15:38.690 --> 00:15:41.429 walked into any barn in the 90s, you could spot 00:15:41.429 --> 00:15:43.830 a Black Star daughter right from the center aisle. 00:15:43.950 --> 00:15:46.350 They just had a distinct look. Describe it for 00:15:46.350 --> 00:15:48.309 us. Paint that picture. It really starts with 00:15:48.309 --> 00:15:50.649 the rib. We talk about spring of rib a lot in 00:15:50.649 --> 00:15:52.929 show judging, but for a commercial, farmer rib 00:15:52.929 --> 00:15:54.990 is strictly synonymous with engine capacity. 00:15:55.509 --> 00:15:58.429 Black Star Daughters had this massive open sweeping 00:15:58.429 --> 00:16:00.590 rib structure. Why does that matter specifically 00:16:00.590 --> 00:16:03.009 for the guy milking them? Because of the rumen. 00:16:03.009 --> 00:16:05.450 The rumen is essentially a giant fermentation 00:16:05.450 --> 00:16:08.870 vat. If you want a cow to make 100 pounds of 00:16:08.870 --> 00:16:11.710 milk, she needs to physically consume a massive 00:16:11.710 --> 00:16:14.649 amount of dry matter, TMR, silage, hay, whatever. 00:16:15.850 --> 00:16:18.149 If she has a flat, tight rib, she physically 00:16:18.149 --> 00:16:20.629 can't fit enough food inside her to support that 00:16:20.629 --> 00:16:23.049 level of milk production without stripping all 00:16:23.049 --> 00:16:25.429 the body weight right off her back. So the rib 00:16:25.429 --> 00:16:28.330 structure directly allows for the intake. Exactly. 00:16:28.590 --> 00:16:31.289 Black star daughters could eat. And because they 00:16:31.289 --> 00:16:33.350 could eat, they held their body condition so 00:16:33.350 --> 00:16:36.110 much better than the frail bell daughters. They 00:16:36.110 --> 00:16:38.710 were incredibly strong. And then you go to the 00:16:38.710 --> 00:16:41.509 udders. The great bill fixer. He completely fixed 00:16:41.509 --> 00:16:43.570 the ligament. He put that deep, strong cleft 00:16:43.570 --> 00:16:46.070 right back into the udder. He pulled the teats 00:16:46.070 --> 00:16:48.029 squarely underneath the quarters where they belong. 00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:50.669 He made udders that stayed high and tight even 00:16:50.669 --> 00:16:52.690 in their fourth or fifth lactation. And that 00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:54.950 physically translates to longevity in the herd. 00:16:55.190 --> 00:16:59.600 And longevity is pure profitability. A cow doesn't 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:01.740 even start making real profit for the farm until 00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:04.359 her third lactation. If she leaves the herd after 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:07.099 two, she's at net cost. Black Star daughters 00:17:07.099 --> 00:17:09.700 stayed. They became the old ladies in the barn 00:17:09.700 --> 00:17:12.559 that everyone relied on. Let's look at two specific 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:14.599 examples from the source material that show just 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:17.480 how incredibly versatile this bull was. Because 00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:19.779 usually a bull is strictly a production bull 00:17:19.779 --> 00:17:22.799 or strictly a show bull. Black Star did not care 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:24.799 about those labels. First, let's talk about the 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:28.000 producer, L .A. Foster Black Star, Lucy. Lucy, 00:17:28.579 --> 00:17:31.059 man, what an absolute beast of a cow. She was 00:17:31.059 --> 00:17:33.380 the world production champion in 1998. Listen 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:38.079 to this. In a single 365 -day lactation, she 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:42.140 gave 75 ,275 pounds of milk. 75 ,000 pounds. 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:44.119 That is so hard to even wrap your head around. 00:17:44.220 --> 00:17:46.460 That's well over 200 pounds of milk a day, every 00:17:46.460 --> 00:17:48.579 single day for a year. That is a biological, 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.519 metabolic outlier. The Foster family said whenever 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:53.440 you looked for her, she's either at the bunk 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:55.869 eating or at the trough drinking. That's exactly 00:17:55.869 --> 00:17:57.930 what I mean about the engine capacity. To do 00:17:57.930 --> 00:18:01.410 that, a cow has to be a flawless metabolic machine. 00:18:01.789 --> 00:18:04.049 She has to be able to process that much energy, 00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:06.910 physically converting feed to milk without getting 00:18:06.910 --> 00:18:10.029 sick. Most cows, if you push them even half that 00:18:10.029 --> 00:18:12.650 hard, would immediately get ketosis. Their liver 00:18:12.650 --> 00:18:15.609 would shut down. Or they would pull so much calcium 00:18:15.609 --> 00:18:17.890 out of their own bones to make the milk that 00:18:17.890 --> 00:18:20.950 they would go down with milk fever. Lucy proved 00:18:20.950 --> 00:18:23.349 that Blackstar genetics created a metabolic system 00:18:23.349 --> 00:18:25.849 that was almost bulletproof. But then you have 00:18:25.849 --> 00:18:28.230 the complete other side of the coin. You have 00:18:28.230 --> 00:18:30.890 Stukion Park Black Rose. The absolute queen. 00:18:31.170 --> 00:18:34.430 She was EX96, All -American, Royal Winter Fair 00:18:34.430 --> 00:18:36.930 Champion. She's the absolute epitome of the beautiful 00:18:36.930 --> 00:18:39.009 cow. The kind of cow that literally makes you 00:18:39.009 --> 00:18:41.289 stop walking when you see her enter the show 00:18:41.289 --> 00:18:43.490 ring. But here is the kicker with Black Rose. 00:18:43.650 --> 00:18:45.690 She wasn't just a pretty face standing in deep 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:49.029 straw. She made 42 ,000 pounds of milk herself. 00:18:49.490 --> 00:18:51.769 Exactly. She proved that Black Star could win 00:18:51.769 --> 00:18:54.210 the biggest banners in the world and still completely 00:18:54.210 --> 00:18:56.930 fill the bulk tank. And that is the universal 00:18:56.930 --> 00:18:59.890 truth of Black Star. He completely bridged the 00:18:59.890 --> 00:19:02.150 gap. He ended the Civil War. You didn't have 00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:04.029 to choose between type and production anymore. 00:19:04.230 --> 00:19:06.069 For the first time, you could actually have both. 00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:08.759 And there is always a bite. But in these kinds 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:11.099 of stories, when you find something that works 00:19:11.099 --> 00:19:14.259 this perfectly, what does the dairy industry 00:19:14.259 --> 00:19:17.079 immediately do? We use it. We absolutely abuse 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:19.599 it. We double down on it until we break it. And 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:21.539 that leads us directly to the ripple effect. 00:19:21.740 --> 00:19:24.099 Yeah. The genetic avalanche. Because Blackstar 00:19:24.099 --> 00:19:26.700 didn't just stay in the barns as milking daughters. 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:30.559 He became the ultimate sire of sons. The numbers 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:32.819 here are just as crazy as the production records. 00:19:33.059 --> 00:19:36.819 The industry ended up sampling 2 ,500 of his 00:19:36.819 --> 00:19:40.279 sons. 2 ,500 sons. That represented fully half 00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:42.759 of the entire world's sampling capacity at the 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:45.299 time. Think about that. For a few years, every 00:19:45.299 --> 00:19:47.700 other bull entering an AI stud, whether it was 00:19:47.700 --> 00:19:51.460 ABS or Select or Alta, was a Black Star son. 00:19:51.660 --> 00:19:53.839 That is an incredible concentration of genetics. 00:19:54.099 --> 00:19:57.119 It's a massive funnel. It is. And it worked beautifully, 00:19:57.259 --> 00:19:59.240 which is actually the core of the problem. If 00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:01.579 his sons had been duds, the line would have naturally 00:20:01.579 --> 00:20:04.059 died out. But the sons were fantastic. You had 00:20:04.059 --> 00:20:07.859 MJR, Blackstar, Emery. He sired a bull called 00:20:07.859 --> 00:20:12.500 Blitz. And Blitz sold 1 .5 million doses? A total 00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:16.380 record. And then Blitz sired Socrates. Socrates 00:20:16.380 --> 00:20:19.839 sired... robust robust sired super sire let's 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:21.359 stop there for a second super sire if you were 00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:24.180 milking cows today you know super sire he was 00:20:24.180 --> 00:20:27.519 the absolute milk king of the early genomic era 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:30.059 he basically defined the modern commercial cow 00:20:30.059 --> 00:20:33.400 for a decade and that is a direct unbroken male 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:35.339 line straight back to blackstar and then you 00:20:35.339 --> 00:20:37.789 have the m total line over in europe right Through 00:20:37.789 --> 00:20:39.970 the damn side, you get in Toto who gives us Pixton 00:20:39.970 --> 00:20:42.349 Shottle. Shottle. I feel like everyone listening 00:20:42.349 --> 00:20:44.150 on a tractor just nodded their head at that name. 00:20:44.309 --> 00:20:46.410 Yeah. Shottle was the bull of the 2000s. He was 00:20:46.410 --> 00:20:49.009 the ultimate satisfaction bull. If you used Shottle, 00:20:49.150 --> 00:20:51.529 if you use Super Sire, if you use Mogul, if you 00:20:51.529 --> 00:20:54.430 use literally any modern elite bull, you're using 00:20:54.430 --> 00:20:57.009 Blackstar. Jeff Ziegler at Select Sires currently 00:20:57.009 --> 00:20:59.450 estimates that 60 % of their current lineup directly 00:20:59.450 --> 00:21:03.910 traces to him. 60 % from that one single embryo 00:21:03.910 --> 00:21:06.569 in Iowa. It's a total genetic avalanche. But 00:21:06.569 --> 00:21:08.430 avalanches can be incredibly dangerous. They 00:21:08.430 --> 00:21:10.829 alter the entire landscape. And they completely 00:21:10.829 --> 00:21:13.150 destroy diversity. They destroy everything in 00:21:13.150 --> 00:21:15.589 their path if you aren't careful. And this brings 00:21:15.589 --> 00:21:19.250 us to the challenge. The ultimate cost of monopolies. 00:21:19.950 --> 00:21:21.930 Because while Black Star was an absolute miracle 00:21:21.930 --> 00:21:24.670 for the farmers struggling in the 90s, he has 00:21:24.670 --> 00:21:27.660 left us with a massive, invisible bill. that 00:21:27.660 --> 00:21:29.960 is coming due right now. A massive bill is right. 00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:32.720 We really need to talk about the inbreeding reality. 00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:35.359 The cautionary tale of this whole deep dive. 00:21:35.579 --> 00:21:37.920 The industry found a sure thing. And just like 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:40.059 with the stock market or with planting monopulture 00:21:40.059 --> 00:21:42.559 crops, when you go all in on one single thing, 00:21:42.740 --> 00:21:45.500 you create massive vulnerability. Let's look 00:21:45.500 --> 00:21:48.140 at the data on this. We mentioned the 15 .8 % 00:21:48.140 --> 00:21:50.200 relationship to the current population earlier. 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:53.140 That is higher than elevation. It's higher than 00:21:53.140 --> 00:21:56.880 chief. And in 1999, a researcher named Van Raden 00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:00.000 published a major study. He warned us. He flat 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:02.039 out said Black Star had the highest expected 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:05.759 inbreeding of future progeny at 7 .9%. He saw 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:08.200 this coming almost 30 years ago. But the train 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:10.500 had already left the station. It was moving way 00:22:10.500 --> 00:22:12.880 too fast to stop. And now today we are facing 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:15.440 an effective population crisis. Explain that 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:18.299 term to us. Effective population size. Yeah. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:21.180 Because it sounds very academic, but it's actually 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:23.599 a very scary concept for the breed. Okay, imagine 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:26.380 a human village. If you have a million people 00:22:26.380 --> 00:22:28.960 living in a city, but they all directly descend 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:32.119 from just the exact same two families, the actual 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:34.579 genetic size of that city is very small. That's 00:22:34.579 --> 00:22:37.940 effective population size. For Holsteins, even 00:22:37.940 --> 00:22:40.019 though there are millions and millions of cows 00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:42.380 standing in barns across the U .S., genetically, 00:22:42.539 --> 00:22:44.779 the population size is down to between 40 and 00:22:44.779 --> 00:22:49.019 70 animals. Wait. 40 to 70? Yes. The most numerous 00:22:49.019 --> 00:22:51.359 dairy breed in the entire world is genetically 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:54.160 the size of a small isolated village. That is, 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:56.700 honestly, that is terrifying. It is. For wild 00:22:56.700 --> 00:22:59.200 species, anything less than 50 is considered 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:02.440 critically at risk of extinction. We are dancing 00:23:02.440 --> 00:23:04.279 right on that line with our commercial dairy 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:06.480 cows. And this directly leads to haplotypes, 00:23:06.660 --> 00:23:10.019 right? Yes. When you severely narrow the gene 00:23:10.019 --> 00:23:12.980 pool, you drastically increase the chance that 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:15.460 two carriers of a bad recessive gene will mate. 00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:19.119 We call them haplotypes, HH1, HH2, and so on. 00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:22.160 These are genetic defects that cause early embryonic 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:24.880 death. So the cow gets pregnant, but the embryo 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:27.960 basically just dies at 40 days. Exactly. To the 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:29.720 farmer, it just looks like the cow didn't catch. 00:23:29.980 --> 00:23:32.019 She comes back in heat a little late. You think, 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:35.059 oh, just bad luck, or maybe it was too hot. But 00:23:35.059 --> 00:23:38.099 it's not bad luck. It's genetics. It's the direct 00:23:38.099 --> 00:23:40.660 biological cost of inbreeding. And this obviously 00:23:40.660 --> 00:23:43.460 hits the wall at heart. Absolutely. I'm the farmer 00:23:43.460 --> 00:23:45.240 translator here, so let me translate all this 00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:48.160 science into actual dollars. Inbreeding causes 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:50.180 what we call inbreeding depression. That means 00:23:50.180 --> 00:23:52.559 fertility drops across the board, embryo loss 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:55.440 goes up. The immune system is just a little bit 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:57.839 weaker than it should be. So what does that actually 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:01.099 cost the farm? Back in 1999 dollars, every 1 00:24:01.099 --> 00:24:04.059 % increase in inbreeding cost about $22 to $24 00:24:04.059 --> 00:24:08.319 in lost lifetime net income per cow. And today? 00:24:09.140 --> 00:24:11.579 What are the current estimates? Today the estimates 00:24:11.579 --> 00:24:15.140 are sitting between $200 and $400 in hidden losses 00:24:15.140 --> 00:24:18.839 per cow. $400 per cow. That's money you don't 00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:21.039 actively see leaving your bank account. Nobody 00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:23.920 writes a check for inbreeding. It's the cow that 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:25.980 takes three services to breed instead of one. 00:24:26.220 --> 00:24:28.839 It's the calf that gets pneumonia and just never 00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:31.960 quite catches up to her pen mates. It's the heifer 00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:34.680 that calves in and just doesn't milk the way 00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:38.039 her shiny genomic numbers said she should. That 00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:40.039 is the cost of inbreeding. That is the direct 00:24:40.039 --> 00:24:42.380 cost of the Black Star avalanche. So we clearly 00:24:42.380 --> 00:24:44.740 have a problem. We have a genetic base that is 00:24:44.740 --> 00:24:47.220 incredibly narrow, largely because we found a 00:24:47.220 --> 00:24:49.920 bull that was just too undeniable good not to 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:52.180 use. We did it with Bell. We did it with Blackstar. 00:24:52.279 --> 00:24:53.700 And frankly, we are doing it again right now 00:24:53.700 --> 00:24:55.700 with genomics. The inbreeding rate is currently 00:24:55.700 --> 00:24:59.819 rising by plus 0 .4 % every single year. We are 00:24:59.819 --> 00:25:01.960 accelerating our truck right into the wall. It's 00:25:01.960 --> 00:25:05.359 the sure thing versus diversity. It's that constant 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:07.680 temptation to just use the highest number on 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:09.759 the list, even if literally everyone else is 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:12.559 using it too. So the real question is, For the 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:14.140 guy sitting on the tractor right now listening 00:25:14.140 --> 00:25:16.880 to this, what do they do? You can't just stop 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:18.980 breeding cows. You can't just quit dairy farming. 00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:21.339 No, you can't. So let's get right into the list 00:25:21.339 --> 00:25:23.859 and takeaways. The real lesson from Marengo. 00:25:24.200 --> 00:25:26.680 Give us the actionable plan here. We call it 00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:29.680 the 30 -93 -65 plan. Okay, break that down for 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:31.759 us. What do they do right now? Right now, the 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:34.720 30. When you get off the tractor today, go into 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.359 the office and turn on your computer. Pull your 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:40.789 herd's inbreeding report. Every modern herd management 00:25:40.789 --> 00:25:43.670 software, has it Dairy Comp, BovaSync, whatever 00:25:43.670 --> 00:25:47.049 you use, looks specifically for the F coefficient. 00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:48.930 What's the magic number they should be looking 00:25:48.930 --> 00:25:51.630 out for? If your herd average is over 8%, you 00:25:51.630 --> 00:25:54.109 are actively losing money. Plain and simple. 00:25:54.309 --> 00:25:56.930 You are firmly in the danger zone where those 00:25:56.930 --> 00:26:00.069 hidden costs, those $400 losses start really 00:26:00.069 --> 00:26:02.710 kicking in. You need to know exactly where your 00:26:02.710 --> 00:26:05.029 herd stands today. Okay, so that's step one. 00:26:05.150 --> 00:26:07.849 What's step two for the next 90 days? The four 00:26:07.849 --> 00:26:11.809 April proofs. The 90. The new sire proofs come 00:26:11.809 --> 00:26:13.849 out in April. Before you buy your semen for the 00:26:13.849 --> 00:26:17.309 year, sit down and pick 8 to 10 completely unrelated 00:26:17.309 --> 00:26:20.490 sires. Unrelated is the key word there. But how 00:26:20.490 --> 00:26:22.230 do you actually find them when the gene pool 00:26:22.230 --> 00:26:24.750 is this small? You have to force yourself to 00:26:24.750 --> 00:26:28.230 look past the top 10 TPI list. Because very often 00:26:28.230 --> 00:26:30.410 the top 10 bulls are all brothers or cousins. 00:26:30.509 --> 00:26:32.730 They literally all come from the exact same flush. 00:26:33.230 --> 00:26:35.789 You have to actively look for outcross sires. 00:26:35.970 --> 00:26:38.910 Look for bulls that don't have super sire or 00:26:38.910 --> 00:26:40.890 mogul anywhere in the first three generations. 00:26:41.069 --> 00:26:43.950 They do exist. They might be a few points lower 00:26:43.950 --> 00:26:46.710 on total TPI, but the heterosis, that hybrid 00:26:46.710 --> 00:26:48.970 vigor you get from using a truly unrelated bull, 00:26:49.130 --> 00:26:51.410 will absolutely more than make up for those few 00:26:51.410 --> 00:26:53.750 lost index points. Make a hard rule for your 00:26:53.750 --> 00:26:56.460 breeding program. Yes. No single bull makes up 00:26:56.460 --> 00:26:59.099 more than 15 % of your total matings. Period. 00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:02.099 Spread your risk out. Do not put all your genetic 00:27:02.099 --> 00:27:04.240 eggs in one basket, even if it's a really, really 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:05.900 nice looking basket. And what about the long 00:27:05.900 --> 00:27:10.900 term? The 365? The 365 is about mindset. Treat 00:27:10.900 --> 00:27:13.200 your genetic diversity exactly like you treat 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:15.880 your feed inventory. You wouldn't let your bunker 00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:17.940 run completely empty before you thought about 00:27:17.940 --> 00:27:20.910 ordering more corn. Don't let your herd's genetic 00:27:20.910 --> 00:27:23.750 diversity run out before you try to fix it. Monitor 00:27:23.750 --> 00:27:26.369 it constantly. If you see that inbreeding number 00:27:26.369 --> 00:27:29.890 creeping up year over year, make a hard change. 00:27:30.049 --> 00:27:32.509 Use entirely different bloodlines. Maybe even 00:27:32.509 --> 00:27:34.309 look at a different breed for a crossbreeding 00:27:34.309 --> 00:27:36.490 program if you have to like procross or something. 00:27:36.730 --> 00:27:39.109 But at the very least, within the Holstein breed, 00:27:39.390 --> 00:27:42.329 aggressively find those outcrossed bulls. It's 00:27:42.329 --> 00:27:44.710 really about being intentional rather than just 00:27:44.710 --> 00:27:46.930 going with the flow. It is. It's about realizing 00:27:46.930 --> 00:27:49.599 that the absolute best bull bull on a piece of 00:27:49.599 --> 00:27:52.200 paper isn't always the best bull for your specific 00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:54.819 herd if he happens to be related to every single 00:27:54.819 --> 00:27:57.519 cow you own. You know, I think there is a profound 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:00.819 philosophical lesson here, too. It directly goes 00:28:00.819 --> 00:28:03.160 back to Randy Tompkins and that initial bad bet 00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:06.319 flush. It really does. We constantly keep chasing 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:08.259 the sure thing. We want the absolute guarantee. 00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:12.220 But the deep irony of this whole story is that 00:28:12.220 --> 00:28:14.579 Blackstar wasn't a sure thing at all. He was 00:28:14.579 --> 00:28:17.519 a massive gamble. He was an unglamorous working 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:20.859 cow bred to a solid frame bull. He wasn't the 00:28:20.859 --> 00:28:23.279 result of some massive computer algorithm trying 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:26.380 to maximize TPI. He was simply the result of 00:28:26.380 --> 00:28:28.920 a farmer trying to breed a cow that could actually 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:31.039 work in his barn. And I think that brings us 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:32.940 to the final thought we really want to leave 00:28:32.940 --> 00:28:35.549 people with today. go ahead lay it out somewhere 00:28:35.549 --> 00:28:37.269 in the semen catalog right now maybe it's the 00:28:37.269 --> 00:28:39.109 one literally sitting on the dash of your pickup 00:28:39.109 --> 00:28:43.490 truck there is a bull he's ranked maybe 300th 00:28:43.490 --> 00:28:46.789 on the active tpi list he's cheap he doesn't 00:28:46.789 --> 00:28:50.839 have a glossy full page ad he's completely unglamorous 00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:53.180 just exactly like hannah was just like hannah 00:28:53.180 --> 00:28:54.940 just like blackstar was in the very beginning 00:28:54.940 --> 00:28:57.740 but he's the next one he's the one who will make 00:28:57.740 --> 00:29:00.259 cows that actually last in the herd he's the 00:29:00.259 --> 00:29:01.960 one who brings something structurally different 00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:04.940 to the table and 99 of people are going to flip 00:29:04.940 --> 00:29:07.480 right past his page because his composite numbers 00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:09.640 aren't quite elite enough but he might be the 00:29:09.640 --> 00:29:12.000 exact one who steps in and saves your herd's 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:15.349 fertility Exactly. History consistently tells 00:29:15.349 --> 00:29:17.670 us that the cheap bulls with the deep, solid 00:29:17.670 --> 00:29:20.609 maternal families often outlast the high -number 00:29:20.609 --> 00:29:23.710 shooting stars. So take a second look at the 00:29:23.710 --> 00:29:26.230 bulls you usually ignore. Look closely at the 00:29:26.230 --> 00:29:28.950 cow families behind them. Look for the Hannahs. 00:29:28.950 --> 00:29:31.150 I just love that. It brings it all right back 00:29:31.150 --> 00:29:33.710 to the emotion and the core of farming. Randy 00:29:33.710 --> 00:29:35.829 Tompkins just wanted to make a good cow better. 00:29:36.029 --> 00:29:37.950 And in the end, when you strip everything else 00:29:37.950 --> 00:29:39.980 away... That's what we're all just trying to 00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:41.799 do. It's the entire job. It's about stewardship. 00:29:42.019 --> 00:29:44.180 It's about leaving the herd and the land better 00:29:44.180 --> 00:29:46.819 than you found it. So we really want to hear 00:29:46.819 --> 00:29:49.380 from you. Take our advice and check your herd's 00:29:49.380 --> 00:29:52.160 numbers. Did you pull that software report? Did 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:54.519 you find out you were sitting at 10 % inbreeding 00:29:54.519 --> 00:29:57.140 and didn't even know it? Or maybe do you have 00:29:57.140 --> 00:29:59.839 a Black Star story, an old cow that traced back 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:01.920 to him that fundamentally changed your farm? 00:30:02.250 --> 00:30:05.029 Share it with us. We actively want to hear the 00:30:05.029 --> 00:30:07.690 reality from the barn floor. Tell us about the 00:30:07.690 --> 00:30:09.970 absolute best cow you ever milked. Was she a 00:30:09.970 --> 00:30:12.230 black star daughter? You can find us and share 00:30:12.230 --> 00:30:16.630 your stories at www .thebullvine .com. Send us 00:30:16.630 --> 00:30:18.970 an email or leave a comment on the site. We honestly 00:30:18.970 --> 00:30:20.910 read every single one of them. That's another 00:30:20.910 --> 00:30:22.930 deep dive from the Bullvine podcast. These are 00:30:22.930 --> 00:30:24.970 the incredible people building the future of 00:30:24.970 --> 00:30:28.890 dairy. Find more deep dives at www .thebullvine 00:30:28.890 --> 00:30:31.849 .com. Next time we're talking to a breeder who 00:30:31.849 --> 00:30:34.150 completely rewrote the rules on crossbreeding, 00:30:34.230 --> 00:30:36.250 make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it. 00:30:36.750 --> 00:30:38.730 Thanks so much for listening. See you next time. 00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:14.220 Legends live here.