WEBVTT

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Creeping over fields of green Remembering the

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faces The moments unseen The hands that built

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a dynasty The vision in their eyes Echoes in

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the auction bar Beneath an endless sky This is

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the bull buy Turn the bar Welcome back to the

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Bullvine podcast. Today, we're sharing a deep

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dive into a story that stopped us in our tracks.

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This is the kind of conversation that reminds

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you why you got into dairy in the first place.

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It really is because, you know, we always try

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to picture you, the listener, right where you

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are. Like maybe you're leaning on the rail at

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World Dairy Expo right now with a coffee in your

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hand, just watching the colored shaving. Oh,

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yeah. Or sitting in the cab of the tractor. Oh.

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Or even pulling tea dips in the parlor. Just

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endlessly chasing those modern genomic proofs

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on your phone. Right. You see the big banners,

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the spotlights, the massive investor barns with

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the brass nameplates. But... What we're going

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to do today is strip all that completely away.

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We are going way back. Back to the manure -stained

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history of the ordinary, everyday farmers who

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actually built the genomic era. Exactly. Specifically

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between 1991 and 2010. Which is such a fascinating

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20 -year window. I mean, it really serves as

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the bridge between the old -school visual appraisal

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of cattle and the modern era of supercomputers

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and DNA testing. Yeah, it was a wild time. It

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was. It was this period where the foundation

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of literally every modern Holstein was poured.

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And the crazy part is, it wasn't poured by billionaires

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and climate -controlled show palaces. Yeah, not

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at all. It was poured by people who had to pay

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the feed bill at the end of the month. People

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whose biggest promotion for a cow was that she

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simply bred back, walked on sound feed, and milked

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her absolute heart out just to pay the mortgage.

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Yeah. So let's start with a moment that perfectly

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captures this whole tension, right? The tension

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between the elite show world and the actual commercial

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reality. Okay, lay it out. Picture the early

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1990s. Imagine you are an AI sire analyst. Oh

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boy. High stress job right there. Extremely high

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stress. In that era, before genomics, your entire

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job, like your entire reputation, relied on picking

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the right young bull to bring into the stud,

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strictly based on his pedigree and his parents'

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visual appeal. It was incredibly high stakes

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gamble. You'd have these flush brothers standing

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right in front of you. Actually, let's pause

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and define that for a second just to make sure

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we're all on the same page. Because the mechanics

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of a flush are really critical here. Right. Yeah.

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So embryo transfer or flushing was highly expensive

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back then. A vet flushes multiple fertilized

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embryos out of an elite donor cow. Right. and

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then transfers them into recipient cows' surrogates.

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Right, the surrogates carry the calf. Exactly.

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So you end up with full genetic brothers born

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at the same time. But genetically, because of

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how DNA recombines, they aren't identical. Not

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at all. One might inherit the mother's incredible

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utter traits, while his full brother just inherits

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a completely different, weaker genetic hand.

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And as an analyst, you have to guess. You have

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to look at these calves and guess which brother

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got the winning hand. Which is terrifying. It

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is. You pick one for heavy production. You look

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at his frame, his legs, his testicles. I mean,

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in those days, larger testicles often correlated

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with earlier sexual maturity in daughters and

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heavier semen production. Right. That was a big

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metric. So you make your choice. The bull goes

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to the stud, goes through this massive multi

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-year process of having his semen collected,

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distributed, and used on test herds. Yep. Then

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you literally wait years for his daughters to

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be born, grow up, have calves of their own, and

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finally start milking. And only then does the

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classification report come back. The ultimate

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moment of truth. A classifier from the Breed

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Association walks into a barn, looks at this

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bull's daughters, and scores them against the

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ideal breed standard. Which is basically the

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validation of a five -year, multi -million dollar

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investment by the stud. It's all on the line.

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Right. So you unfold this classification report

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expecting validation and it reads verbatim. I'm

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not making this up. Poor 50 points, straight

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legs and almost no middle. Wow. A 50 point bull.

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I mean, wait, 50 points. That's failing, right?

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It is almost mathematically impossible if you

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are actively trying to breed good cattle. I am

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struggling to even visualize what a 50 point

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score looks like in an era where a good classification

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actually still meant something. A 50 is the absolute

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bottom of the barrel. It essentially translates

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to do not even bother taking a picture of this

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animal. Right. So what does it biologically mean

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to have straight legs and almost no middle, like

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day to day for the cow? Well, from a biomechanical

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standpoint, a dairy cow needs set or a slight

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angle to the hock of her back legs. That angle

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acts as a shock absorber when she walks on concrete

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or pasture carrying, you know, 100 pounds of

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milk in her udder. OK, so a straight leg means...

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It means no shock absorption every single step.

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sends the impact straight up into her joints,

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which leads to early lameness. Oh, that's terrible.

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And no middle means she lacks the deep, sprung

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ribs required to hold massive amounts of forage.

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I mean, a cow is essentially a fermentation vat

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on legs. Right, a walking fermentation vat. Exactly.

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If the vat is small, she can't eat enough to

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support high milk production without just burning

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off her own body condition. So on paper... this

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bull is a catastrophic failure you can just imagine

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the absolute panic in the sire stud office the

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sheer terror of thinking oh man we backed the

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wrong flush brother oh heads would roll but and

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here's the hook this classification sheet belonged

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to a bull named biz may s -e -l Mountain. Yeah.

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And when AI centers actually started using Mountain

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Suns, the industry lost its collective mind.

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I mean, the Holstein Association and Holstein

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Friesian World magazine were absolutely flooded

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with cranky. angry letters from elite breeders

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protesting the use of a 50 -point bull as a sire

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of sons. Oh, the elite breeders were deeply,

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deeply offended by the aesthetics. But the commercial

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cows, they didn't read his proof. They didn't

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care about the letters to the editor? Not at

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all. When Mountain's daughters started freshening

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in typical freestall barns, they just milked.

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And not just volume. They were pumping out protein

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at a rate that shocked the industry. They were

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just resilient. Exactly. Despite their sire's

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visual flaws, the daughters actually ended up

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having better than average type and they just

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worked. So if you are listening right now and

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you've ever found yourself judging a bull strictly

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by a glossy center spread photo instead of his

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actual proof and, you know, the reality of a

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paid off feed bill, this deep dive is going to

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change how you look at your own herd. Absolutely.

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We are going to unpack exactly how a 50 -point

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anti -hero like Mountain and this ragged band

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of farmer -bred sires completely defeated the

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brass nameplate investor Barnes. Yeah. To understand

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the mechanics of how a supposedly poor bull could

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revolutionize the commercial dairy industry,

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we really have to look at the underlying math.

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The math of it all. Right. And to look at that

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math, we have to travel back long before Mountain

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was even born. We need to go back to a Vermont

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hillside in 19... 1946. Let's set that scene.

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Let's paint the physical reality of that era.

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1946, Bizmay Farm. It's sitting in the rolling

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hills around Moortown, Vermont, about 17 miles

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west of Montpelier. Beautiful country, but tough

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farming. Very tough. Picture the brutal Vermont

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winters. This is not a heated show barn with

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automatic scrapers. This is Everett Maynard and

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his father, Ralph. Just working guys. Exactly.

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They have a grade herd, meaning unregistered,

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unpedigreed cattle in a traditional tie stall

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barn. Let's talk about the economics of a tie

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stall in the 1940s, because it dictates everything

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about their breeding philosophy. It dictates

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everything. In a tie stall, you have a fixed

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number of stalls. Let's say 40 stalls. That means

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your maximum revenue capacity is capped at exactly

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40 cows. Right. If a cow doesn't breed back,

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or if she goes lame and stops producing, that

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empty stanchion is a massive, immediate financial

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blow. Because you still have the overhead. Exactly.

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You still have the overhead of the barn, but

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zero income from that spot. There is absolutely

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no room for a freeloader. Every cow has to earn

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her keep, pay her feed bill, and somehow leave

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a margin for the family to actually live on.

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So in the middle of this grueling daily reality,

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Everett has this absolute obsession. He's this

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young guy pouring over the pages of Holstein

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Friesian World. Thumbing through these black

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and white pictures of the legendary Mount Victoria

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rag apple cattle. The rag apples. Yeah. Now,

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the famous Mount Victoria dispersal had already

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happened back in 1942. The great herd was scattered,

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but Everett couldn't let it go. What was it about

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the Mount Victoria bloodlines that had this Vermont

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grade cow farmer so captivated? Well, the Mount

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Victoria herd. developed by T .B. Macaulay up

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in Quebec, was revolutionary because Macaulay

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didn't just breed for looks. He bred for intense

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butterfat production and rugged, debodied frames.

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He used intense, line -breeding mating, closely

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related animals to lock in those specific traits.

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So Everett looked at his own hard -working, unregistered

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cows and realized that to take his herd to the

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next level of production, he needed to inject

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that specific Concentrated Mount Victoria Genetic

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Code. Which is a massive leap of faith. He's

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working a great herd, but he starts saving his

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money to buy purebred Canadian cows. Yeah, taking

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a big risk. Huge risk. In 1950, they buy Kearsarge

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Governor Jean. A few years later, Everett's obsession

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pushes him to buy nine Canadian cows rich in

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that rag apple blood. Cows like Marie Pabst Lockenbar.

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Incredible names. Right. He's bringing elite

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historic genetics into a very humble working

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class Vermont tie stall. But he pairs this with

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what we really have to call Everett's mathematics

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of manure. The mathematics of manure. I love

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that. It's a perfect term for it. It really is

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the paradigm shift. Everett starts looking at

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the sheer probability of genetics across the

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whole dairy population. He realizes there are

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thousands and thousands of farmer breeder herds

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out there. Just regular hardworking herds milking

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twice a day. Exactly. But they're only a tiny

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handful of the famous elite investor barns with

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endless capital. I look at this exactly like

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baseball scouts. How so? Well, for years, major

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league scouts might only look at the elite prep

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schools or the big Division I colleges for the

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next great pitcher, right? Because that's where

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the coaching and the money are. Sure. But statistically,

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if you have hundreds of thousands of kids playing

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in dirt lot beer leagues across the country,

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the laws of probability dictate that there is

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a generational Hall of Fame arm out there just

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throwing absolute heat in the dust. You just

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have to be willing to look past the dirt. That

00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:34.500
is a perfect analogy. And Everett applied that

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exact statistical logic to dairy cattle. He knew

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they were out there. Right. If great sires come

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from good cows, and there are vastly more good

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cows standing in ordinary maneuver street barns

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than there are in a few famous show palaces,

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then the real untapped genetic power of the Holstein

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breed isn't in the elite pavilions. It's hiding

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in plain sight in the commercial herds. Exactly.

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Hold on, though. If he believes this, how does

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he actually access that genetics in the 1950s?

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I mean, AI was in its absolute infancy. It wasn't

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like today where you just order a straw of semen

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online and it shows up in a nitrogen tank. That's

00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.340
a great point. Early AI was heavily localized.

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Semen was often stored in glass ampoules, not

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plastic straws, and transported locally. Glass

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ampoules, wow. Yeah, it was a totally different

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world. So Everett became the chairman of his

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little local Central Vermont Breeding Association.

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At the time, they only had Jersey bulls in their

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battery. Oh, really? Yep, but Everett forced

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the issue. He pushed them to buy a Holstein.

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He pointed them to a bull named Walker Homestead

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Dawn. Okay, Walker Homestead Dawn. This bull

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was proven locally at Howickers in Vermont. He

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had high butterfat test, good type, nothing flashy

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on a global scale, but he was a working man's

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bull. And Everett just hammers this bull into

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his herd. He uses Walker Homestead Dawn so heavily

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that when the bull finally dies, Everett goes

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out, buys 100 extra doses of his semen, and just

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keeps right on breeding Dawn daughters. stacking

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this genetics hard. Stacking it. Out of this

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mix of grade cows, Canadian rag apple immigrants,

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and Walker homestead don come three bulls that

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absolutely nobody would have picked out of a

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show catalog. Bismay astrojupiter, Bismay tradition

00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:18.360
clatus, and the 50 -point antihero we mentioned

00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:21.539
earlier, Bismay SEL mountain. The impact of these

00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:23.629
three bulls is staggering. Because they were

00:13:23.629 --> 00:13:26.210
bred for function over form. Yeah. Take Jupiter,

00:13:26.309 --> 00:13:28.590
born in 1972. He ended up doing the heavy lifting

00:13:28.590 --> 00:13:30.950
at Eastern AI in New York. Okay. His daughters

00:13:30.950 --> 00:13:32.909
didn't look like runway models. They were medium

00:13:32.909 --> 00:13:35.929
for stature, which the show ring hated because

00:13:35.929 --> 00:13:39.250
the trend was for increasingly tall, sharp, dairy

00:13:39.250 --> 00:13:41.769
-like frames. But those Jupiter daughters had

00:13:41.769 --> 00:13:44.049
something else entirely. They had these massive,

00:13:44.190 --> 00:13:47.210
capacious rear udders that could hold incredible

00:13:47.210 --> 00:13:50.470
volumes of milk. They were wide. Wide in the

00:13:50.470 --> 00:13:53.740
muzzle, wide in the chest. Deep in the rib. Yes.

00:13:53.860 --> 00:13:56.700
Width is everything. Explain the biological advantage

00:13:56.700 --> 00:13:58.899
of that width to a farmer listening right now.

00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:01.759
Well, width equals capacity and capacity equals

00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:04.720
intake. A cow with a wide muzzle can physically

00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:07.860
take in more mouthfuls of grass or TMR per minute.

00:14:07.940 --> 00:14:09.860
Just eating faster and more efficiently. Exactly.

00:14:09.860 --> 00:14:12.840
And a wide chest floor means a larger heart and

00:14:12.840 --> 00:14:15.200
lung capacity to pump massive amounts of blood

00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:17.529
through the circulatory system. You have to remember,

00:14:17.629 --> 00:14:20.769
it takes about 400 to 500 gallons of blood flowing

00:14:20.769 --> 00:14:22.529
through the udder to produce just one gallon

00:14:22.529 --> 00:14:25.210
of milk. Wait, 400 to 500 gallons of blood for

00:14:25.210 --> 00:14:28.309
one gallon of milk? Yep. So cardiovascular capacity

00:14:28.309 --> 00:14:30.730
is everything. This is the ultimate farmer's

00:14:30.730 --> 00:14:33.590
wish list cow. She eats a mountain of cheap forage

00:14:33.590 --> 00:14:35.649
and converts it effortlessly into milk in the

00:14:35.649 --> 00:14:38.230
bulk tank. That brings us to a cow named Welcome

00:14:38.230 --> 00:14:40.570
Jupiter Gala. She makes a New York State record

00:14:40.570 --> 00:14:44.700
of 31 ,360 pounds of milk. Unbelievable production.

00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:47.059
And when they asked her breeder Bill Peck what

00:14:47.059 --> 00:14:50.279
he wanted in a cow, his answer is just legendary.

00:14:50.279 --> 00:14:53.669
He said, Wide in the muzzle, wide in the chest,

00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:56.629
and wide in the udder. That was his entire breeding

00:14:56.629 --> 00:14:59.909
philosophy encapsulated in one sentence. If we

00:14:59.909 --> 00:15:02.190
trace that philosophy forward, if we follow the

00:15:02.190 --> 00:15:04.850
bloodline of Welcome Jupiter Gala, it is mind

00:15:04.850 --> 00:15:08.509
-blowing. Her line produces a bull named Mark

00:15:08.509 --> 00:15:11.710
C .J. Gilbert Grand. Grand, yep. And Grand becomes

00:15:11.710 --> 00:15:14.350
the double grandsire of a bull named Braydale

00:15:14.350 --> 00:15:17.700
Goldwyn. Wait. Goldwyn, the absolute legend of

00:15:17.700 --> 00:15:20.059
the modern show ring. The very same. Goldwyn

00:15:20.059 --> 00:15:22.659
Sire and maternal Grandam were both sired by

00:15:22.659 --> 00:15:25.980
Grand. So, if you are sitting at Madison, watching

00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:28.440
a beautiful Goldwyn daughter step out onto the

00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:30.419
colored shavings and take your breath away with

00:15:30.419 --> 00:15:32.779
her style and dariness, what you are actually

00:15:32.779 --> 00:15:34.980
seeing, hidden deep in the fine print of her

00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:39.120
DNA, is a strand of Bismay Astro Jupiter, Walker

00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.700
Homestead Dawn, and the manure -stained math

00:15:41.700 --> 00:15:44.730
of a Vermont tie -stall farmer. That is incredible

00:15:44.730 --> 00:15:47.149
to me. The elite show ring is literally built

00:15:47.149 --> 00:15:49.529
on the back of the dirt lot beer league. It really

00:15:49.529 --> 00:15:52.389
is. But wait, if these Vermont bulls were pumping

00:15:52.389 --> 00:15:55.470
all this extreme milk into these cows, biology

00:15:55.470 --> 00:15:58.389
dictates that something has to give. You can't

00:15:58.389 --> 00:16:00.490
just exponentially increase milk volume without

00:16:00.490 --> 00:16:02.649
the cow's frame breaking down under the physical

00:16:02.649 --> 00:16:06.070
weight. Where did the industry find the skeletal

00:16:06.070 --> 00:16:08.470
structure to hold all that Vermont milk? That

00:16:08.470 --> 00:16:12.129
was the looming crisis. The bismay bowls flooded

00:16:12.129 --> 00:16:14.669
the Holstein breed with production, protein,

00:16:14.850 --> 00:16:18.450
and sheer volume. But all that milk has to go

00:16:18.450 --> 00:16:20.850
somewhere. It has to be carried by a physical

00:16:20.850 --> 00:16:23.830
frame. Right. If you breed for extreme milk without

00:16:23.830 --> 00:16:25.649
paying attention to the architecture of the cow,

00:16:25.870 --> 00:16:28.490
the strength of her suspensory ligaments, the

00:16:28.490 --> 00:16:31.070
angle of her foot, the depth of her heel, she's

00:16:31.070 --> 00:16:33.029
going to break down. She just can't hold up.

00:16:33.259 --> 00:16:35.919
Exactly. Her udder will drop below her hocks,

00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.440
making her prone to mastitis and difficult to

00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:40.960
milk. Her feet will give out. She literally won't

00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:42.740
last long enough to pay off the cost of raising

00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:45.299
her from a calf. So the industry had this massive

00:16:45.299 --> 00:16:48.000
volume of milk, but desperately needed a stronger

00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:50.500
chassis to carry it. Which brings us out of the

00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:52.919
Vermont hills and into a creek bottom in Wisconsin.

00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:55.179
Let's talk about Wisconsin. I want to dive into

00:16:55.179 --> 00:16:58.600
the physical reality of a cow named Snowin Denise's

00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:02.419
Delia. She lives on Bob Snow's farm. She is not

00:17:02.419 --> 00:17:05.099
a pampered show cow standing in a deeply bedded

00:17:05.099 --> 00:17:07.940
box stall with fans blowing on her. Tell me about

00:17:07.940 --> 00:17:10.380
her daily commute, because it completely redefines

00:17:10.380 --> 00:17:13.000
what structural integrity means. Delia's daily

00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:16.539
reality was brutal by show cow standards. To

00:17:16.539 --> 00:17:18.799
get from the barn to the pasture, she had to

00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:21.700
travel down a steep hill, physically cross a

00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:24.019
creek, and then walk back up to the barn. Every

00:17:24.019 --> 00:17:26.000
day. And she had to do this every single day,

00:17:26.099 --> 00:17:28.500
twice a day for milking. And she is producing

00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:31.359
so much milk and her udder is so massive that

00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:33.160
there are nights she walks into the parlor carrying

00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:36.519
literally three gallons of wet sand in her udder

00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:38.619
from crossing that creek. Consider the physics

00:17:38.619 --> 00:17:41.240
of that. Three gallons of wet sand weighs roughly

00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:45.450
40 to 50 pounds. Add that to the 50 or 60 pounds

00:17:45.450 --> 00:17:47.710
of milk she is carrying before an evening milking.

00:17:47.829 --> 00:17:50.130
That's 100 pounds. You have nearly 100 pounds

00:17:50.130 --> 00:17:52.349
of dead weight pulling straight down on the medial

00:17:52.349 --> 00:17:54.789
suspensory ligament, the main band of tissue

00:17:54.789 --> 00:17:56.890
that divides the udder and attaches it to the

00:17:56.890 --> 00:17:59.609
pelvic bone. For a cow to carry that kind of

00:17:59.609 --> 00:18:02.869
weight, cross a muddy creek, climb a hill, and

00:18:02.869 --> 00:18:05.609
not have her udder blow out, requires a level

00:18:05.609 --> 00:18:07.789
of structural integrity you simply cannot fake.

00:18:07.990 --> 00:18:11.089
You just can't. Frank Regan from Regan Crest

00:18:11.089 --> 00:18:14.250
in Iowa sees this cow. And he cannot get her

00:18:14.250 --> 00:18:17.170
out of his head. He recognizes that she possesses

00:18:17.170 --> 00:18:20.289
the exact chassis the high -producing Holstein

00:18:20.289 --> 00:18:23.250
breed desperately needs. He sees the future.

00:18:23.450 --> 00:18:26.289
He really does. He negotiates to buy her, but

00:18:26.289 --> 00:18:29.289
there's one massive catch. Her current owners

00:18:29.289 --> 00:18:32.430
want to show her one last time at the 1991 Wisconsin

00:18:32.430 --> 00:18:34.869
Spring Show. You have to understand the immense

00:18:34.869 --> 00:18:36.869
financial risk here for Frank. Right, because

00:18:36.869 --> 00:18:39.329
what if she looks terrible? Exactly. Frank Reagan

00:18:39.329 --> 00:18:41.250
has just bought a cow based on her rugged creek

00:18:41.250 --> 00:18:43.730
bottom commercial power. Now she has to go up

00:18:43.730 --> 00:18:46.390
against fit, polished, professionally prepped

00:18:46.390 --> 00:18:48.950
show cattle at a highly competitive state -level

00:18:48.950 --> 00:18:51.349
show. Right. If she walks into that ring and

00:18:51.349 --> 00:18:54.430
completely falls apart or looks incredibly raw

00:18:54.430 --> 00:18:56.390
and unrefined compared to the show string, it

00:18:56.390 --> 00:18:59.079
throws his entire investment into question. So

00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:01.279
the night before the show, Delia looks rough.

00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:04.500
She is drawn. She is stressed from the trailer

00:19:04.500 --> 00:19:07.200
ride, the new environment, the noise of the fairgrounds.

00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:09.140
Naturally. So the crew steps in and they don't

00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:12.019
have some high -tech secret show ring solution.

00:19:12.619 --> 00:19:15.099
They do what true cow people do. They feed her

00:19:15.099 --> 00:19:17.819
four bales of hay and they bring her a massive

00:19:17.819 --> 00:19:20.460
tub of warm beet pulp. Warm beet pulp is the

00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:22.740
ultimate dairy farmer's secret weapon. Wait,

00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:25.460
really? Just beet pulp? Oh yeah. From a biological

00:19:25.460 --> 00:19:28.420
standpoint, beet pulp is highly digestible fiber.

00:19:28.779 --> 00:19:31.299
that expands massively when soaked in warm water.

00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:34.640
When a stressed cow eats it, it rapidly fills

00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:36.960
the rumen, the largest compartment of her stomach.

00:19:37.140 --> 00:19:39.200
Okay, so it fills her up. It does two things.

00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:42.160
It hydrates her internally, and it physically

00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:44.779
expands her rib cage, giving her that deep, sweeping,

00:19:44.819 --> 00:19:47.420
powerful look we call spring of rib. It is just

00:19:47.420 --> 00:19:49.799
wild to me. They're at a major show surrounded

00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:53.380
by the best genetics in Wisconsin. And their

00:19:53.380 --> 00:19:56.039
strategy to prep this creek bottom cow is just

00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:58.099
to stuff her with four bales of hay and a warm

00:19:58.099 --> 00:20:00.380
bowl of beet pulp and say, all right, girl, get

00:20:00.380 --> 00:20:03.440
some rest. And it works. It does. The next day,

00:20:03.500 --> 00:20:06.440
she walks into the ring. Judge Niles Wendorf

00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:08.900
takes one look at her, pulls her out first in

00:20:08.900 --> 00:20:10.619
the four -year -old class, gives her the best

00:20:10.619 --> 00:20:13.019
udder award, and slaps her grand champion of

00:20:13.019 --> 00:20:16.319
the show. Amazing. The cow with sand in her udder

00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:19.660
just conquered the elite show ring. Because true

00:20:19.660 --> 00:20:22.049
structural correctness cannot be hidden. And

00:20:22.049 --> 00:20:24.769
it cannot be faked. Frank Reagan immediately

00:20:24.769 --> 00:20:27.529
calls Charlie Will at Select Sires. He says,

00:20:27.549 --> 00:20:30.410
I have this cow. What do I mate her to? They

00:20:30.410 --> 00:20:33.990
decide on M Prize Belle Elton. Now, why Elton?

00:20:34.009 --> 00:20:37.390
Out of all the bulls available in 1991, why him?

00:20:37.569 --> 00:20:39.650
Elton daughters were building a massive reputation

00:20:39.650 --> 00:20:42.970
for impeccable udders, excellent feet and legs,

00:20:43.089 --> 00:20:45.650
and incredible longevity. So they were looking

00:20:45.650 --> 00:20:47.990
to double down on that structural frame. Exactly.

00:20:47.990 --> 00:20:50.289
They wanted to lock in Delia's suspensory ligaments

00:20:50.289 --> 00:20:52.630
and pair it with Elton's foot and leg traits.

00:20:52.829 --> 00:20:55.390
They decide to flush Delia to Elton, and this

00:20:55.390 --> 00:20:57.390
is where the mechanics of embryo transfer get

00:20:57.390 --> 00:21:00.430
deeply nerve -wracking. The flush produces four

00:21:00.430 --> 00:21:03.150
sons. Now think about the pressure of this moment.

00:21:03.269 --> 00:21:05.829
You have four full brothers. Four rolls of the

00:21:05.829 --> 00:21:08.759
genetic dice. Exactly. They share the same parents,

00:21:08.819 --> 00:21:10.839
but genetically they are a roll of the dice.

00:21:11.299 --> 00:21:14.220
Japanese buyers are heavily involved in the global

00:21:14.220 --> 00:21:16.980
genetics market at this time, looking for high

00:21:16.980 --> 00:21:19.440
-type, high -production animals. They get first

00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:21.519
choice of the bulls. Right. They examine the

00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:23.599
pedigrees, look at the calves, and make their

00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:26.940
pick for $20 ,000. A lot of money back then.

00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:29.519
A ton of money. Alta Genetics, another major

00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:32.700
AI stud, gets second choice. They take theirs.

00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:35.519
Select Sires, who helped plan the mating, is

00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:38.069
left with... the third choice. They get the leftovers,

00:21:38.309 --> 00:21:40.769
essentially. Right. The calf that two other major

00:21:40.769 --> 00:21:43.329
players looked at and decided to pass on. That's

00:21:43.329 --> 00:21:46.150
tough. They named that third choice calf Regan

00:21:46.150 --> 00:21:49.269
Crest Elton Durham. Wow. The bull who is the

00:21:49.269 --> 00:21:51.789
third choice of the flesh goes on to become the

00:21:51.789 --> 00:21:54.950
premier sire at World Dairy Expo for five straight

00:21:54.950 --> 00:21:59.309
years. From 2003 to 2007, Durham... absolutely

00:21:59.309 --> 00:22:02.670
ruled Madison. How does a third choice bull become

00:22:02.670 --> 00:22:04.990
the undisputed king of the breed's architecture?

00:22:05.329 --> 00:22:07.970
It speaks to the utter unpredictability of genetic

00:22:07.970 --> 00:22:10.369
recombination before the genomic era. It really

00:22:10.369 --> 00:22:13.789
does. The Japanese buyers and Alta likely picked

00:22:13.789 --> 00:22:16.210
the calves that look slightly sharper or perhaps

00:22:16.210 --> 00:22:19.700
grew a little faster. But Durham inherited the

00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:22.920
absolute perfect combination of Delia's rugged

00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:26.460
creek bottom strength and Elton's refined udder

00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:28.900
attachments. It was just magic. If the Japanese

00:22:28.900 --> 00:22:31.559
buyers had picked Durham, the trajectory of the

00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:34.319
U .S. Holstein breed would look completely different

00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:37.720
today. When you talk to farmers who actually

00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:40.460
milked Durham daughters in commercial settings,

00:22:40.740 --> 00:22:42.880
what did they actually say about them? What was

00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:46.119
the day -to -day reality in the parlor? They

00:22:46.119 --> 00:22:48.579
will tell you straight up that The Durham's weren't

00:22:48.579 --> 00:22:51.119
always the absolute highest milkers on the monthly

00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.220
test sheet. They weren't setting state volume

00:22:53.220 --> 00:22:56.460
records as two -year -olds. Right. But they were,

00:22:56.579 --> 00:22:58.900
hands down, the most trouble -free cows in the

00:22:58.900 --> 00:23:01.059
barn. Trouble -free is what you want. Exactly.

00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:03.980
They had these incredibly long bodies, wide rumps

00:23:03.980 --> 00:23:06.039
and udders that looked like they were hung with

00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:08.019
a carpenter's level. Yeah. Perfect teat placement,

00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:10.799
which became crucial as robotic milkers started

00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:12.839
to enter the industry. Oh, that's a huge point.

00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:17.170
Yeah. They walked beautifully on concrete. And

00:23:17.170 --> 00:23:20.309
most importantly, they look their absolute best

00:23:20.309 --> 00:23:23.269
at four and five years old. Which is when the

00:23:23.269 --> 00:23:25.670
milk check really starts to count. I mean, we

00:23:25.670 --> 00:23:28.269
have to remember the economics of raising a dairy

00:23:28.269 --> 00:23:30.650
replacement. Break it down. You feed a heifer

00:23:30.650 --> 00:23:33.369
for two solid years before she ever gives a drop

00:23:33.369 --> 00:23:35.549
of milk. She usually has to milk through her

00:23:35.549 --> 00:23:38.109
entire first lactation and part of her second

00:23:38.109 --> 00:23:40.849
just to break even on what it costs you to raise

00:23:40.849 --> 00:23:43.490
her. So a cow that peaks at four or five years

00:23:43.490 --> 00:23:47.170
old is pure profit. Yep. Durham gave the industry

00:23:47.170 --> 00:23:49.789
a structural blueprint just as we were entering

00:23:49.789 --> 00:23:52.309
a really dark period, what we often refer to

00:23:52.309 --> 00:23:54.650
as the fitness wars. I want to spend some time

00:23:54.650 --> 00:23:56.569
on the fitness wars because we've talked about

00:23:56.569 --> 00:23:59.190
how Everett Maynard fixed the milk volume and

00:23:59.190 --> 00:24:01.509
how Delia and Durham fixed the structural frame.

00:24:01.710 --> 00:24:04.289
But the industry was facing a massive invisible

00:24:04.289 --> 00:24:07.430
crisis right around the early 2000s. What exactly

00:24:07.430 --> 00:24:09.779
went wrong? It was a crisis of our own making,

00:24:09.880 --> 00:24:12.519
honestly, driven by antagonistic genetic traits.

00:24:12.740 --> 00:24:15.359
In biology, certain traits are negatively correlated.

00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:18.140
When you select heavily for one, the other naturally

00:24:18.140 --> 00:24:21.380
declines. For decades, the dairy industry selected

00:24:21.380 --> 00:24:24.740
relentlessly for extreme milk yield and extreme,

00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:28.480
tall, angular type. We rewarded the biggest,

00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:31.079
sharpest cows making the most milk. But we completely

00:24:31.079 --> 00:24:34.140
ignored the invisible traits. Things like daughter

00:24:34.140 --> 00:24:36.519
pregnancy rate, productive life, and somatic

00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:39.049
cell count. Precisely. Break down somatic cell

00:24:39.049 --> 00:24:41.329
count for the listener because it's a huge economic

00:24:41.329 --> 00:24:44.390
driver. Somatic cells are primarily white blood

00:24:44.390 --> 00:24:47.309
cells. They are the cow's immune response to

00:24:47.309 --> 00:24:50.009
inflammation or infection in the udder, specifically

00:24:50.009 --> 00:24:53.829
mastitis. A high somatic cell count, or SCC,

00:24:54.009 --> 00:24:57.539
means the cow is fighting an infection. Not only

00:24:57.539 --> 00:24:59.960
does mastitis cause the cow pain and reduce her

00:24:59.960 --> 00:25:03.140
milk yield, but milk processors strictly penalize

00:25:03.140 --> 00:25:05.640
farmers for high SCC milk. Because it ruins the

00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:07.960
cheese. Exactly. It reduces the shelf life and

00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:10.359
cheese yielding capacity of the milk. So high

00:25:10.359 --> 00:25:13.299
SCC directly hits the farmer's paycheck. So by

00:25:13.299 --> 00:25:15.680
the early 2000s, cows were getting taller, fancier,

00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:17.660
and producing more volume than ever, but their

00:25:17.660 --> 00:25:19.980
fertility was absolutely tanking. Just falling

00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:22.259
off a cliff. They were struggling to breed back.

00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:25.059
Somatic cell counts were creeping up across the

00:25:25.059 --> 00:25:27.900
national herd. Cows were washing out of the herd

00:25:27.900 --> 00:25:30.440
at two or three years old. It's a devastating

00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:33.160
economic model. It's unsustainable. The industry

00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:35.880
is desperate for a fix. And out of nowhere, from

00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:38.599
a farm in Illinois, comes a bull whose proof

00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:42.180
lands in 2002 like a boulder in a pond. Obie

00:25:42.180 --> 00:25:44.299
Manford Justice. Everyone just called him O -Man.

00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.880
O -Man. Good old O -Man. Yeah. He was bred by

00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:49.420
the Obert brothers. He was a Manfred son out

00:25:49.420 --> 00:25:52.579
of a cow named Meyer Meadows L. Jezebel. When

00:25:52.579 --> 00:25:54.799
Oman's proof was published, it was shocking because

00:25:54.799 --> 00:25:57.160
it violated every aesthetic rule of the dairy

00:25:57.160 --> 00:25:59.680
industry. Every single one. He had plain, almost

00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:02.200
negative type. His daughters were not going to

00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:04.259
win any beauty contests. They were often a bit

00:26:04.259 --> 00:26:06.720
thick, maybe slightly steeper in the rump angle

00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:08.960
than the show ring liked. But his numbers for

00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:11.119
a productive life, daughter pregnancy rate, and

00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:13.720
low somatic cell scores were mathematically off

00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:16.619
the charts. Off the charts. Let's get down to

00:26:16.619 --> 00:26:19.039
the practical reality of this. If I'm a farmer

00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:21.920
standing in my parlor in 2003, what does that

00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:24.019
trade -off actually look like? When I look at

00:26:24.019 --> 00:26:26.880
an O -man daughter standing next to a glossy,

00:26:26.980 --> 00:26:30.220
tall, showbred cow. Yeah, paint that picture.

00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:33.059
It is the ultimate test of your business priorities.

00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:37.259
Are you breeding cattle for your ego or for your

00:26:37.259 --> 00:26:40.819
bank account? Wow. Day to day, it means you look

00:26:40.819 --> 00:26:43.660
at this plain Jane O -man daughter. She doesn't

00:26:43.660 --> 00:26:46.009
catch your eye when you walk the pens. But she

00:26:46.009 --> 00:26:48.490
breeds back on the first service of AI every

00:26:48.490 --> 00:26:51.329
single year. She never spikes a fever. She never

00:26:51.329 --> 00:26:54.430
gets mastitis. She just quietly does her job,

00:26:54.529 --> 00:26:56.829
produces heavily, and stays out of the hospital

00:26:56.829 --> 00:26:58.890
pen. Meanwhile, what's happening to the show

00:26:58.890 --> 00:27:01.210
pedigree cow standing next to her? The gorgeous,

00:27:01.309 --> 00:27:03.450
tall, beautiful cow is suffering from the biological

00:27:03.450 --> 00:27:06.750
cost of her extreme dairy character. She is partitioning

00:27:06.750 --> 00:27:09.609
all her energy into milk, leaving nothing for

00:27:09.609 --> 00:27:12.579
reproduction. so she doesn't catch in calf after

00:27:12.579 --> 00:27:15.660
three or four breedings. Her deep udder is dragging,

00:27:15.740 --> 00:27:18.660
so she picks up environmental mastitis. Because

00:27:18.660 --> 00:27:21.380
she is so tall and angular, she struggles to

00:27:21.380 --> 00:27:23.299
stand comfortably on concrete and develops a

00:27:23.299 --> 00:27:25.700
foot ulcer. Oh, it's just a downward spiral.

00:27:26.039 --> 00:27:27.900
Before you know it, you are loading a beautiful

00:27:27.900 --> 00:27:32.420
three -year -old cow onto the coal trailer. Oman

00:27:32.420 --> 00:27:34.819
dragged these invisible fitness traits onto the

00:27:34.819 --> 00:27:37.000
front page. He forced everyone to look at it.

00:27:37.059 --> 00:27:38.960
He forced the industry to realize that a dead

00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:42.650
cow or an infertile cow makes exactly zero pounds

00:27:42.650 --> 00:27:44.970
of milk, no matter how pretty her pedigree is.

00:27:45.319 --> 00:27:47.660
It was a bitter pill for the purists to swallow,

00:27:47.799 --> 00:27:50.960
but a necessary one. Oman was so functionally

00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:54.180
dominant that his grandson, Snowman, became a

00:27:54.180 --> 00:27:56.819
worldwide sensation based almost entirely on

00:27:56.819 --> 00:27:58.720
those baked -in fitness and production traits.

00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:01.380
Yes. But Oman wasn't fighting this fitness battle

00:28:01.380 --> 00:28:03.680
alone. There were these quiet warriors working

00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:06.240
alongside him in the genetic pool, bulls like

00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:09.740
Shenval and VLM Formation. Formation is a deeply

00:28:09.740 --> 00:28:11.920
fascinating case study in pedigree analysis.

00:28:12.059 --> 00:28:15.000
How is that? Well, he was a leadman's son. But

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:16.960
if you trace his pedigree back generation by

00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:20.140
generation, he carried 33 crosses to the legendary

00:28:20.140 --> 00:28:23.440
1940 sire, Wisconsin Admiral Burklatt. Wait,

00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:26.519
33 crosses? Isn't that an incredibly high level

00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:29.480
of inbreeding? How is that an advantage? There

00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:31.980
is a fine line between inbreeding and line breeding.

00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:35.460
Inbreeding is... haphazardly mating close relatives,

00:28:35.720 --> 00:28:38.299
which often exposes recessive genetic defects.

00:28:38.500 --> 00:28:40.500
Right. Nobody wants that. But line breeding is

00:28:40.500 --> 00:28:44.220
the meticulous, calculated stacking of an exceptional

00:28:44.220 --> 00:28:48.019
ancestor to increase homozygosity, meaning you

00:28:48.019 --> 00:28:51.240
lock in the specific desirable genes so the animal

00:28:51.240 --> 00:28:53.240
breathes incredibly true to type. So you're just

00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:55.400
concentrating the good stuff. By crossing back

00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:58.619
to Birklab 33 times over decades, the breeders

00:28:58.619 --> 00:29:00.539
piped this incredible balance and durability

00:29:00.539 --> 00:29:03.460
straight into the modern gene pool. Formation

00:29:03.460 --> 00:29:05.619
daughters weren't extreme in any one area. They

00:29:05.619 --> 00:29:07.960
were just undeniably correct. Strong suspensory

00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:10.799
ligaments, great muzzle width. Exactly. They

00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:12.440
were the invisible cows that just kept coming

00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:14.359
back through the parlor doors year after year.

00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:17.740
Which brings us to another absolute giant of

00:29:17.740 --> 00:29:20.799
the fitness era, Startmore Rudolph. And to really

00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:23.079
understand Rudolph, we have to talk about the

00:29:23.079 --> 00:29:26.630
man behind his maternal line. Earl Start. This

00:29:26.630 --> 00:29:29.089
is a great story. This is one of the most emotional

00:29:29.089 --> 00:29:31.450
and profound segments of this entire story for

00:29:31.450 --> 00:29:33.789
me because it traces directly back to the Great

00:29:33.789 --> 00:29:37.049
Depression. Earl Start's story perfectly illustrates

00:29:37.049 --> 00:29:40.730
how human economic trauma shapes animal genetics.

00:29:41.049 --> 00:29:43.789
Let's dive into it. Earl Start is a lifelong

00:29:43.789 --> 00:29:46.799
dairyman from Ontario. But he didn't start in

00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:49.400
Holsteins. He had roots deep in the Guernsey

00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:52.440
breed. His family got their very first Guernsey

00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:55.680
cow back in 1931. Right in the thick of it. Yeah.

00:29:55.759 --> 00:29:57.920
And they didn't buy her at an elite auction.

00:29:58.119 --> 00:30:00.259
They got her as payment for doing a neighbor's

00:30:00.259 --> 00:30:03.140
fall plowing with a team of horses. That is a

00:30:03.140 --> 00:30:06.190
level of grit. survival and dirt under the fingernails

00:30:06.190 --> 00:30:08.710
farming that alters a person's DNA just as much

00:30:08.710 --> 00:30:11.029
as the cattle's. It absolutely does. When you

00:30:11.029 --> 00:30:13.289
grow up in the 1930s, knowing that the milk from

00:30:13.289 --> 00:30:15.490
a single cow is the literal difference between

00:30:15.490 --> 00:30:17.630
your family eating and starving through the winter,

00:30:17.769 --> 00:30:20.349
your perspective on cattle changes forever. You

00:30:20.349 --> 00:30:22.920
don't take it for granted. No. You don't look

00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:24.940
at cows as hobbies. You don't look at them as

00:30:24.940 --> 00:30:27.180
art projects for the show ring. You look at them

00:30:27.180 --> 00:30:29.180
as economic lifelines. They have to be durable.

00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:31.160
They have to be efficient. And they absolutely

00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:34.460
cannot fail. Exactly. So fast forward to 1976.

00:30:35.059 --> 00:30:37.799
Earl has decided to transition his herd into

00:30:37.799 --> 00:30:40.519
Holsteins because the market is demanding Holstein

00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:43.720
volume. He and his neighbor, Jerry Rowe, drive

00:30:43.720 --> 00:30:46.359
down to the reflections of Millie Sale in Henrietta,

00:30:46.359 --> 00:30:48.700
New York. A big high -end sale. Very high -end.

00:30:48.740 --> 00:30:50.880
They're just walking through the fairground sheds,

00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:53.599
taking it all in, and they see this big black

00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:57.099
cow being led to the water trough. Jim Marty

00:30:57.099 --> 00:31:00.539
astronaut gale. And Earl is absolutely captivated.

00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:02.519
He is a cowman to his core, and he can't stop

00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:04.680
looking at her. Keep in mind, this is a man who

00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:08.140
knows. dairy confirmation intrinsically but he's

00:31:08.140 --> 00:31:10.819
new to the high stakes big money holstein world

00:31:10.819 --> 00:31:14.019
and astronaut gail is not a hidden gem right

00:31:14.019 --> 00:31:16.460
she is an honorable mention all -american she

00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:18.299
is holstein royalty everyone knows who she is

00:31:18.299 --> 00:31:20.500
right and earl assumes there is no way they can

00:31:20.500 --> 00:31:22.359
touch her she's completely out of their league

00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:24.759
financially but jerry rowe looks at him and says

00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:27.859
well earl i'd like to buy half wow and right

00:31:27.859 --> 00:31:30.559
there these two dirt farming neighbors agree

00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:33.259
to split the risk They go into the auction tent

00:31:33.259 --> 00:31:37.579
and buy her together for $15 ,500. That is massive.

00:31:38.019 --> 00:31:41.299
Which in 1976, for a couple of working dairymen,

00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:44.440
is a staggering, terrifying amount of money.

00:31:44.660 --> 00:31:46.779
Adjusted for inflation, that's like dropping

00:31:46.779 --> 00:31:50.519
$70 ,000 or $80 ,000 on a single cow today. It's

00:31:50.519 --> 00:31:53.319
a bet -the -farm kind of moment. You can feel

00:31:53.319 --> 00:31:55.380
the knot in your stomach making a bid like that.

00:31:55.859 --> 00:31:58.740
It violates every single conservative instinct

00:31:58.740 --> 00:32:01.890
a Depression -era farmer has. But here is where

00:32:01.890 --> 00:32:04.470
Earl's Depression -era savvy shines through.

00:32:04.829 --> 00:32:07.630
Later on, a group of wealthy syndicate investors

00:32:07.630 --> 00:32:09.950
come sniffing around, wanting to buy the cow

00:32:09.950 --> 00:32:12.309
from them. They see these two regular farmers

00:32:12.309 --> 00:32:14.069
and figure they can flip a quick profit. They

00:32:14.069 --> 00:32:15.710
thought they could just buy him out. Exactly.

00:32:15.930 --> 00:32:18.170
And Earl does the mental math right there on

00:32:18.170 --> 00:32:20.450
the spot. He understands the mechanics of embryo

00:32:20.450 --> 00:32:22.630
transfer. He calculates what she's worth if they

00:32:22.630 --> 00:32:24.809
can get 10 good flushes out of her, multiplying

00:32:24.809 --> 00:32:27.029
the potential offspring. He's playing chess.

00:32:27.250 --> 00:32:30.279
He is. And he quotes the investors a massive

00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:33.259
astronomical number. He tells them, I'm not saying

00:32:33.259 --> 00:32:35.019
I'd sell her for that. I'm just giving you an

00:32:35.019 --> 00:32:37.380
idea of what she's actually worth. He knew exactly

00:32:37.380 --> 00:32:39.920
what he possessed. He wasn't intimidated by the

00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:42.960
money. He was entirely correct. They keep Gail.

00:32:43.059 --> 00:32:45.539
They flush her. And she builds this family of

00:32:45.539 --> 00:32:47.799
cows that dominate the Canadian index system.

00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:50.599
It's incredible. And out of that exact cow family

00:32:50.599 --> 00:32:53.400
comes... Startmore Rudolph. Startmore Rudolph,

00:32:53.579 --> 00:32:56.460
the bull they call the brood cow fountain. Yes.

00:32:56.599 --> 00:32:59.480
When Rudolph debuted as a young proven sire in

00:32:59.480 --> 00:33:02.640
1996, he sat at the absolute top of the Canadian

00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:05.880
LPI list, the Lifetime Profit Index, which balances

00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:08.460
production, confirmation, and durability for

00:33:08.460 --> 00:33:11.420
four consecutive years. Four years at the top.

00:33:11.559 --> 00:33:14.559
He sold nearly 1 .5 million doses of semen globally.

00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:17.579
He was a super millionaire sire. And what the

00:33:17.579 --> 00:33:19.839
industry eventually realized was that his true

00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:23.009
gift wasn't just type and milk. It was his ability

00:33:23.009 --> 00:33:25.650
to transmit late maturity, extreme longevity,

00:33:25.950 --> 00:33:28.650
and exceptionally low somatic cell count. Because

00:33:28.650 --> 00:33:31.009
he had that depression -era survival fitness

00:33:31.009 --> 00:33:33.509
built into his maternal line from the very beginning,

00:33:33.869 --> 00:33:37.289
Earl Starr didn't tolerate fragile cows. Rudolph's

00:33:37.289 --> 00:33:39.849
daughters became the mothers of the next generation.

00:33:40.049 --> 00:33:42.180
They anchored everything. If you look at sale

00:33:42.180 --> 00:33:45.299
catalogs from the mid -2000s, it's just a solid

00:33:45.299 --> 00:33:48.079
wall of Rudolph daughters anchoring the maternal

00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:50.759
side of the pedigrees of the most powerful bulls

00:33:50.759 --> 00:33:53.200
in the world. This sets the stage perfectly for

00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:55.119
the culmination of everything we've talked about.

00:33:55.299 --> 00:33:57.519
Think about the genetic pieces we have assembled

00:33:57.519 --> 00:33:59.700
on the table. Okay, let's lay them out. We have

00:33:59.700 --> 00:34:02.579
the Extreme Milk production, mapped out by Everett

00:34:02.579 --> 00:34:05.799
Maynard and the Biz May Bulls. We have the impeccable

00:34:05.799 --> 00:34:08.420
physical frame, feet, and udder attachments provided

00:34:08.420 --> 00:34:11.940
by Deli and Durham. Right. And we have the indestructible

00:34:11.940 --> 00:34:14.820
fitness fertility in the low somatic cell counts,

00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:17.860
hardwired by Old Man and Startmore Rudolph. The

00:34:17.860 --> 00:34:19.699
puzzle pieces are scattered all over the global

00:34:19.699 --> 00:34:22.460
industry. But the moment when all those disparate

00:34:22.460 --> 00:34:25.400
pieces snap together, the absolute breakthrough

00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:27.420
of what we can call the golden age of Holstein

00:34:27.420 --> 00:34:30.519
breeding happens at the 2008 World Dairy Expo.

00:34:30.699 --> 00:34:32.920
This is an earthquake in the history of the breed.

00:34:33.309 --> 00:34:36.250
It is the moment where form and function finally

00:34:36.250 --> 00:34:38.050
align. Let's set the scene for the listener.

00:34:38.309 --> 00:34:40.750
Durham has ruled the Coliseum in Madison for

00:34:40.750 --> 00:34:43.190
five straight years. His premier sire banners

00:34:43.190 --> 00:34:46.030
are hanging everywhere. He is the undisputed

00:34:46.030 --> 00:34:48.829
king of dairy architecture. Everyone expects

00:34:48.829 --> 00:34:51.389
his dominance to continue indefinitely. But in

00:34:51.389 --> 00:34:55.909
2008, a new bull steps up and seizes the premier

00:34:55.909 --> 00:34:59.570
sire banner, Braydale Goldwyn. He is the youngest

00:34:59.570 --> 00:35:03.039
sire in 25 years to win it. And Goldwyn was not

00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:05.559
an accident of genetic recombination. He was

00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:08.780
a masterclass in deliberate, meticulous, highly

00:35:08.780 --> 00:35:11.539
mathematical line breeding by Canadian breeders.

00:35:11.559 --> 00:35:13.599
He really was. Okay, we talked about line breeding

00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:15.800
briefly with formation, but how did the Canadian

00:35:15.800 --> 00:35:18.699
breeders use it to create Goldwyn? What was actually

00:35:18.699 --> 00:35:21.780
happening at the DNA level in his pedigree? The

00:35:21.780 --> 00:35:24.440
Canadian breeding philosophy for decades had

00:35:24.440 --> 00:35:27.239
been to carefully stack old sovereign and rag

00:35:27.239 --> 00:35:29.800
apple bloodlines, tracing right back to the Mount

00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.119
Victoria cattle Everett Maynard loved. Right

00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:34.719
back to Everett's obsession. Exactly. They were

00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:37.760
using modern bulls like Aerostar and Chief Mark,

00:35:37.940 --> 00:35:39.719
layering them on top of each other generation

00:35:39.719 --> 00:35:43.360
after generation. Golden had three close crosses

00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:46.219
to Aerostar and three to Chief Mark. That's a

00:35:46.219 --> 00:35:48.690
lot of concentration. If you look at an extended

00:35:48.690 --> 00:35:51.510
pedigree and go back 10 or 11 generations, you

00:35:51.510 --> 00:35:54.469
find this incredibly tight, dense knot of genetics

00:35:54.469 --> 00:35:57.769
tracing all the way back to an anchor Dutch import

00:35:57.769 --> 00:36:01.469
cow named Vruca. They believe that those ancient

00:36:01.469 --> 00:36:04.730
foundation cows still held the structural answers

00:36:04.730 --> 00:36:07.510
to modern dairy farming. So they essentially

00:36:07.510 --> 00:36:10.510
compressed time. They took a century of slow

00:36:10.510 --> 00:36:13.329
genetic drift and squeezed it into a diamond.

00:36:13.510 --> 00:36:16.469
Precisely. By continually folding those bloodlines

00:36:16.469 --> 00:36:18.969
back on themselves, they eliminated their recessive

00:36:18.969 --> 00:36:21.110
weaknesses and locked in the dominant strengths.

00:36:21.449 --> 00:36:23.909
And the physical result was Goldwyn. His daughters

00:36:23.909 --> 00:36:26.090
had udders that didn't even look biologically

00:36:26.090 --> 00:36:28.789
possible. They were high, incredibly silky, and

00:36:28.789 --> 00:36:31.070
heavily veined, indicating massive blood flow.

00:36:31.269 --> 00:36:33.789
The rear udders looked like they were literally

00:36:33.789 --> 00:36:36.250
welded onto the cow's pelvis. Welded onto the

00:36:36.250 --> 00:36:38.769
pelvis. That is such a vivid structural image.

00:36:38.989 --> 00:36:41.000
It is, isn't it? It implies that no matter how

00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:43.579
many thousands of pounds of milk she gives, no

00:36:43.579 --> 00:36:45.300
matter how many times she crosses a creek or

00:36:45.300 --> 00:36:48.599
walks a free stall alley, that suspensory ligament

00:36:48.599 --> 00:36:51.199
is not stretching. The udder is not dropping.

00:36:51.530 --> 00:36:54.329
Exactly. And what made 2008 so groundbreaking

00:36:54.329 --> 00:36:56.949
was not just that Goldwyn won the premier sire

00:36:56.949 --> 00:36:59.849
banner at Madison. It was that while he was winning

00:36:59.849 --> 00:37:03.369
the elite show ring, he was also sitting at or

00:37:03.369 --> 00:37:06.110
near the top of the commercial LPI lists for

00:37:06.110 --> 00:37:08.150
confirmation and production. Right. Which was

00:37:08.150 --> 00:37:10.730
unheard of. For the first time in decades, the

00:37:10.730 --> 00:37:12.710
elite show ring and the commercial freestyle

00:37:12.710 --> 00:37:15.130
industry were looking at the exact same cow.

00:37:15.489 --> 00:37:17.929
The show ring finally shook hands with the future.

00:37:18.360 --> 00:37:20.900
The commercial farmer and the elite breeder wanted

00:37:20.900 --> 00:37:23.719
the same genetics. And you see this exact same

00:37:23.719 --> 00:37:26.360
global convergence with another massive bull

00:37:26.360 --> 00:37:30.039
of that era, Pixton Schottel. Oh, Schottel. Schottel

00:37:30.039 --> 00:37:31.920
is a brilliant addition to this story because

00:37:31.920 --> 00:37:34.300
he proves that these genetic principles work

00:37:34.300 --> 00:37:37.099
across entirely different environments. His story

00:37:37.099 --> 00:37:39.699
crosses the Atlantic Ocean. It starts at a seemingly

00:37:39.699 --> 00:37:44.460
ordinary dispersal sale in Ontario in 1991. A

00:37:44.460 --> 00:37:47.300
cow named Condon Inspiration Sally walks through

00:37:47.300 --> 00:37:49.800
the auction ring with a nine -month -old Aerostar

00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:52.440
heifer calf at her side. Just a cow and a calf.

00:37:52.639 --> 00:37:55.719
The calf is named Condon Arrow Sharon. The calf

00:37:55.719 --> 00:37:59.360
sells for $4 ,400 to an English buyer, and she

00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:01.519
is loaded onto a plane and crosses the ocean

00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:03.380
to the United Kingdom. Let's pause on the price.

00:38:03.500 --> 00:38:07.260
A $4 ,400 calf. In 1991, that is a very solid

00:38:07.260 --> 00:38:09.900
price, but it is not a million -dollar syndicate

00:38:09.900 --> 00:38:12.360
animal. She isn't carrying the hype of a Durham

00:38:12.360 --> 00:38:15.539
or a Goldman Flush. No, she is just a good, solid,

00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:18.289
well -bred heifer. But over the UK, under the

00:38:18.289 --> 00:38:20.309
care of the Pickford family, Sharon becomes an

00:38:20.309 --> 00:38:22.789
absolute force of nature. The UK environmental

00:38:22.789 --> 00:38:25.050
and economic system is heavily pasture -based,

00:38:25.250 --> 00:38:28.329
demanding immense durability. Sharon adapts perfectly.

00:38:28.570 --> 00:38:31.429
She thrives. She earns an astounding 60 brood

00:38:31.429 --> 00:38:34.150
cow points, which is the Canadian and UK system

00:38:34.150 --> 00:38:36.630
of awarding points to a mother based on the outstanding

00:38:36.630 --> 00:38:38.409
production and classification records of her

00:38:38.409 --> 00:38:40.639
offspring. She becomes one of the most powerful

00:38:40.639 --> 00:38:44.500
brood cows in UK history. They mate her to a

00:38:44.500 --> 00:38:47.900
bull named Emtoto, who brings in heavy Italian

00:38:47.900 --> 00:38:50.920
genetics, and they get Pixton Shottle. And Shottle

00:38:50.920 --> 00:38:54.039
just takes over the world. He was a global phenomenon.

00:38:54.099 --> 00:38:56.940
His breeders, the Pickfords, admitted they literally

00:38:56.940 --> 00:38:59.739
had to pinch themselves to believe the impact

00:38:59.739 --> 00:39:03.559
a $4 ,400 calf's son was having on every continent.

00:39:03.860 --> 00:39:06.539
It's hard to fathom. Here's what I love most

00:39:06.539 --> 00:39:09.199
about the Shottle daughters. They were the ultimate

00:39:09.199 --> 00:39:11.500
blue -collar workers, but they could dress up

00:39:11.500 --> 00:39:13.469
for the weekend. That's a great way to put it.

00:39:13.550 --> 00:39:15.829
You could take a chattel daughter, park her in

00:39:15.829 --> 00:39:19.550
a massive, concrete -heavy, 400 -cow, freestall

00:39:19.550 --> 00:39:22.630
barn, and she would milk her heart out, breed

00:39:22.630 --> 00:39:24.889
back on the first service, and stay completely

00:39:24.889 --> 00:39:27.750
healthy. Or you could take that exact same cow

00:39:27.750 --> 00:39:30.510
out of the freestall, wash her, clip her hair,

00:39:30.650 --> 00:39:32.710
and put her in the front row of a competitive

00:39:32.710 --> 00:39:34.769
county fair, and she would look completely at

00:39:34.769 --> 00:39:37.269
home. That is the ultimate test of a dairy cow's

00:39:37.269 --> 00:39:39.449
architecture. Can she work in the dirt and win

00:39:39.449 --> 00:39:42.260
in the shavings? Shottle daughters did both effortlessly.

00:39:42.440 --> 00:39:45.019
They really did. They had quiet temperaments,

00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:47.800
which is highly heritable and crucial for modern

00:39:47.800 --> 00:39:50.679
parlors. They had correct feet and legs, and

00:39:50.679 --> 00:39:54.400
udders that didn't need any excuses. For a stretch

00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:57.440
in the mid -2000s, Shottle sat at the top of

00:39:57.440 --> 00:39:59.980
the genetic lists in the U .S., Canada, and Italy

00:39:59.980 --> 00:40:03.239
simultaneously. He was the bull you used if you

00:40:03.239 --> 00:40:05.659
wanted a cow that could survive and thrive anywhere

00:40:05.659 --> 00:40:08.340
on Earth. Exactly. I have to ask you a challenging

00:40:08.340 --> 00:40:10.420
question here, looking back at this entire timeline.

00:40:10.659 --> 00:40:13.039
When you look at all these Bulls Mountain, oh

00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:16.840
man, Rudolph, Goldwyn, Shottle, and we look at

00:40:16.840 --> 00:40:19.039
where they came from, Everett's tie stall, a

00:40:19.039 --> 00:40:22.400
creek bottom, a Guernsey farmer, a $4 ,400 calf,

00:40:22.719 --> 00:40:26.000
what would the elite brass nameplate investor

00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:28.579
breeders have done differently during this era?

00:40:28.989 --> 00:40:31.050
If they had controlled all the genetic decisions.

00:40:31.170 --> 00:40:33.550
Yeah. That is the million -dollar question, and

00:40:33.550 --> 00:40:36.329
it's a sobering one. The honest truth is the

00:40:36.329 --> 00:40:38.550
elite investor breeders probably would have completely

00:40:38.550 --> 00:40:40.769
ignored the needle -in -a -haystack bulls that

00:40:40.769 --> 00:40:43.030
actually saved the breed. Why? Because they didn't

00:40:43.030 --> 00:40:44.869
have the right marketing syndicates behind them.

00:40:45.070 --> 00:40:47.769
Partially marketing, but mostly because they

00:40:47.769 --> 00:40:50.489
didn't come from the right zip codes. The elite

00:40:50.489 --> 00:40:53.769
industry had a massive bias toward famous prefixes.

00:40:54.050 --> 00:40:57.030
Oh, interesting. Consider a bull like Marathon

00:40:57.030 --> 00:40:59.920
B .W. Marshall. Marshall didn't come from a famous

00:40:59.920 --> 00:41:02.480
prefix in a historic dairy hotbed like Lancaster

00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:05.239
County or Madison. He was bred by a partnership

00:41:05.239 --> 00:41:07.679
in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Hemingway

00:41:07.679 --> 00:41:10.920
country? Exactly. Bitter cold, deep snow, and

00:41:10.920 --> 00:41:13.480
dense woods. The investor syndicates were looking

00:41:13.480 --> 00:41:16.219
for the safe bet. They heavily marketed cow family

00:41:16.219 --> 00:41:19.159
from a recognized master breeder. They would

00:41:19.159 --> 00:41:21.139
have walked right past a 50 -point mountain,

00:41:21.260 --> 00:41:24.079
or an ugly o -man, or a bull from the freezing

00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:26.619
isolation of the Upper Peninsula. But the farmer

00:41:26.619 --> 00:41:29.340
breeders, the AI analysts who were paying attention

00:41:29.340 --> 00:41:31.599
to the commercial reality, they didn't care about

00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:33.579
the zip code. They just cared about the volume

00:41:33.579 --> 00:41:35.739
of milk in the bulk tank and the cow breeding

00:41:35.739 --> 00:41:38.500
back. Exactly. Charlie Will from Select Sires

00:41:38.500 --> 00:41:40.699
literally called Marshall a needle found in a

00:41:40.699 --> 00:41:44.320
stack. But those rural isolated needles were

00:41:44.320 --> 00:41:46.940
what sewed the whole breed together. Marshall's

00:41:46.940 --> 00:41:49.119
daughters were incredible. His daughter, Brooks

00:41:49.119 --> 00:41:52.980
MBM Elsa. was named Global Cow of the Year. Her

00:41:52.980 --> 00:41:56.619
family set world milk records. Right. Okay, so

00:41:56.619 --> 00:41:59.059
we've walked through this incredible multi -decade

00:41:59.059 --> 00:42:01.880
timeline, from Everett Maynard doing probability

00:42:01.880 --> 00:42:05.039
math in a Vermont tie stall, to a creek -bottom

00:42:05.039 --> 00:42:08.239
cow winning Madison on warm beet pulp, to an

00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:10.860
ugly bull named O -Man saving the breed's fertility,

00:42:11.179 --> 00:42:14.599
to Goldwyn welding udders onto pelvises. It's

00:42:14.599 --> 00:42:16.639
quite the journey. Let's bring this right up

00:42:16.639 --> 00:42:18.639
to the modern day. Let's talk about the ripple

00:42:18.639 --> 00:42:21.199
effect and the dawn of the genomic era. This

00:42:21.199 --> 00:42:23.079
is where the history lesson becomes incredibly

00:42:23.079 --> 00:42:25.780
concrete for the listener today. Today, genomics

00:42:25.780 --> 00:42:28.199
runs the industry. A calf is born, you pull a

00:42:28.199 --> 00:42:30.519
few hairs from her tail switch, rub it on an

00:42:30.519 --> 00:42:33.380
FTA card, send it to a lab, and they run it through

00:42:33.380 --> 00:42:36.179
a SNP chip. Let's explain the mechanism of that

00:42:36.179 --> 00:42:40.099
SNP chip quickly. SNP stands for single nucleotide

00:42:40.099 --> 00:42:43.510
polymorphism. Essentially, the lab looks at tens

00:42:43.510 --> 00:42:45.730
of thousands of specific markers across the calf's

00:42:45.730 --> 00:42:48.750
DNA. Supercomputers compare those markers against

00:42:48.750 --> 00:42:51.150
a massive database of millions of older cows

00:42:51.150 --> 00:42:54.489
whose performance is already known. The algorithm

00:42:54.489 --> 00:42:58.130
calculates exactly how much milk, fat, protein,

00:42:58.130 --> 00:43:00.570
and fertility that day -old calf will have with

00:43:00.570 --> 00:43:03.670
incredible accuracy before she ever eats a single

00:43:03.670 --> 00:43:06.269
pound of grain. It's basically a genetic crystal

00:43:06.269 --> 00:43:08.469
ball. So when you open your digital semen catalog

00:43:08.469 --> 00:43:10.690
today or you look at the genomic headliners on

00:43:10.690 --> 00:43:13.630
your phone, you see these modern superstars.

00:43:13.630 --> 00:43:15.989
The big names. Bulls with astronomical numbers

00:43:15.989 --> 00:43:18.769
like Genesaurus Captain or Seymour's Lambda Paris.

00:43:19.190 --> 00:43:22.010
Or you see news that a cow like Eastside Louisdale

00:43:22.010 --> 00:43:24.409
Gold Missy just sold at public auction for $1

00:43:24.409 --> 00:43:28.480
.2 million. Yeah. When you look at those animals

00:43:28.480 --> 00:43:31.840
with their flawless genomic profiles and their

00:43:31.840 --> 00:43:34.500
million -dollar price tags, you are not looking

00:43:34.500 --> 00:43:37.019
at a modern technological invention. No. You

00:43:37.019 --> 00:43:39.800
are looking at the direct, undeniable mathematical

00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:42.179
descendants of the farmer -bred sires we've been

00:43:42.179 --> 00:43:44.619
talking about. Look at Genesaur's captain. He

00:43:44.619 --> 00:43:46.500
has been the most dominant bull of the genomic

00:43:46.500 --> 00:43:48.639
era. If you trace his complex pedigree back,

00:43:48.820 --> 00:43:51.320
he carries 11 direct crosses to start more Rudolph.

00:43:51.579 --> 00:43:54.460
11 crosses to the Guernsey farmer's bull. 11.

00:43:54.639 --> 00:43:57.760
And he's stacked on top of Oman, Goldwyn, Marshall,

00:43:57.860 --> 00:44:00.659
and Schottel. So what this really means, fundamentally,

00:44:00.980 --> 00:44:04.179
is that genomics did not invent great cows. Not

00:44:04.179 --> 00:44:06.800
at all. Genomics is just a tool. It's a massive,

00:44:06.880 --> 00:44:09.420
highly efficient calculator. Right. What the

00:44:09.420 --> 00:44:12.420
genomic SNP chip did was finally put mathematical,

00:44:12.659 --> 00:44:15.380
precise numbers to the invisible traits that

00:44:15.380 --> 00:44:17.780
cow people in commercial parlors had already

00:44:17.780 --> 00:44:20.219
spent three decades hardwiring into the breed

00:44:20.219 --> 00:44:23.179
through trial, error, sweat, and sheer farmer

00:44:23.179 --> 00:44:25.360
instinct. Everett Maynard was doing the math

00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:28.280
in 1946 with a number two pencil in a magazine.

00:44:28.420 --> 00:44:30.940
Today, we do it with supercomputers mapping base

00:44:30.940 --> 00:44:34.340
pairs of DNA. But it's the exact same math. We

00:44:34.340 --> 00:44:36.139
are just using a billion -dollar technology to

00:44:36.139 --> 00:44:38.099
prove what the farmers already built by hand.

00:44:38.300 --> 00:44:40.219
And that is the absolute truth of the Holstein

00:44:40.219 --> 00:44:43.239
breed. We owe the modern, hyper -efficient genomic

00:44:43.239 --> 00:44:45.440
dairy cow to the people who couldn't afford a

00:44:45.440 --> 00:44:48.159
bad flush and who couldn't afford an empty stanchion.

00:44:48.349 --> 00:44:49.949
All right, I want to bring this right down to

00:44:49.949 --> 00:44:52.769
the ground. Someone is listening to this deep

00:44:52.769 --> 00:44:54.869
dive on their tractor right now. They've been

00:44:54.869 --> 00:44:57.210
out there for hours hauling manure or mixing

00:44:57.210 --> 00:45:00.550
TMR, and they are listening to us trace these

00:45:00.550 --> 00:45:04.190
pedigrees across decades and continents. Yeah,

00:45:04.230 --> 00:45:06.190
what's the bottom line? What is the one thing

00:45:06.190 --> 00:45:08.630
from this story they should sit with today? What

00:45:08.630 --> 00:45:11.429
is the core takeaway for their own farm? The

00:45:11.429 --> 00:45:13.110
one thing you have to take away from this is

00:45:13.110 --> 00:45:16.550
a very simple equation. Classic equals quality

00:45:16.550 --> 00:45:19.400
plus time. But consider how contradictory that

00:45:19.400 --> 00:45:21.619
sounds based on what we've discussed. Are you

00:45:21.619 --> 00:45:23.920
saying a high -quality cow is naturally fragile

00:45:23.920 --> 00:45:26.280
or that breeders just need to balance the scale?

00:45:26.460 --> 00:45:29.199
Break down how quality and time actually interact

00:45:29.199 --> 00:45:32.280
on a dairy farm. Think about it like this. Bulls

00:45:32.280 --> 00:45:34.199
like Durham and Goldwyn gave us the corality.

00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:36.980
They gave us the perfectly attached udders, the

00:45:36.980 --> 00:45:39.760
wide frames, the beautiful, efficient structures

00:45:39.760 --> 00:45:42.019
we see from the stands at Expo. Right, the pretty

00:45:42.019 --> 00:45:44.579
stuff. But if a cow only lasts one lactation,

00:45:44.679 --> 00:45:47.730
that quality is economically worthless. Bulls

00:45:47.730 --> 00:45:50.590
like Oman, Rudolph, and those Bismay bulls from

00:45:50.590 --> 00:45:53.530
Vermont. They gave us the time. The staying power.

00:45:53.750 --> 00:45:57.329
Exactly. They hardwired the fertility, the low

00:45:57.329 --> 00:46:00.110
somatic cell scores, the sheer physical durability

00:46:00.110 --> 00:46:03.289
that allows that high -quality cow to actually

00:46:03.289 --> 00:46:05.829
survive in your freestall for six or seven lactations.

00:46:06.869 --> 00:46:10.510
Without the time, the quality is useless. You

00:46:10.510 --> 00:46:13.849
need both to create a classic, profitable herd.

00:46:14.070 --> 00:46:16.210
The pretty cow has to pay the bills. And she

00:46:16.210 --> 00:46:18.389
has to live long enough to make a profit. Exactly.

00:46:18.989 --> 00:46:21.590
And the decisions you are making today, which

00:46:21.590 --> 00:46:23.849
straw of semen you pull out of the nitrogen tank

00:46:23.849 --> 00:46:25.670
to breed that heifer standing in your headlock,

00:46:25.809 --> 00:46:28.429
you are literally building the genetics of tomorrow.

00:46:29.030 --> 00:46:31.630
You are participating in the exact same process

00:46:31.630 --> 00:46:34.369
Everett Maynard was. You are the Everett Maynard

00:46:34.369 --> 00:46:37.050
of today. I want to leave you with one final

00:46:37.050 --> 00:46:39.570
provocative thought. The next time you're sitting

00:46:39.570 --> 00:46:41.489
in the pickup truck, the radio is playing low,

00:46:41.690 --> 00:46:43.849
the windows are a little fogged up from the winter

00:46:43.849 --> 00:46:46.019
air, and you are... endlessly swiping through

00:46:46.019 --> 00:46:48.320
a genomic proof list on your phone. I want you

00:46:48.320 --> 00:46:50.460
to look past the high numbers. Past the indexes,

00:46:50.460 --> 00:46:52.619
yeah. Yeah, look past the GTPI and the net merit

00:46:52.619 --> 00:46:55.219
indexes. Scroll down and find the names printed

00:46:55.219 --> 00:46:57.280
in the very small print at the bottom of the

00:46:57.280 --> 00:46:59.300
pedigree. The foundation. When you see those

00:46:59.300 --> 00:47:02.820
names, Jupiter, Cletus, Mountain, Durham, Goldwyn,

00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:06.579
Oman, Shottle, Rudolph, Marshall, I want you

00:47:06.579 --> 00:47:09.400
to realize something profound. The most advanced,

00:47:09.519 --> 00:47:12.619
highly calculated, computationally massive dairy

00:47:12.619 --> 00:47:16.579
technology on Earth is just an echo. It is an

00:47:16.579 --> 00:47:18.880
echo of a hard -doing cow walking through a muddy

00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:21.619
Wisconsin creek with sand in her udder. It's

00:47:21.619 --> 00:47:23.480
an echo of a Guernsey man risking everything

00:47:23.480 --> 00:47:26.260
he had at a New York sale. And it's an echo of

00:47:26.260 --> 00:47:28.639
a Vermont farmer with manure on his trousers

00:47:28.639 --> 00:47:31.039
betting the entire future of his family on the

00:47:31.039 --> 00:47:32.739
math. That's another story from the Bullvine

00:47:32.739 --> 00:47:34.539
Podcast. These are the people building the future

00:47:34.539 --> 00:47:38.480
of dairy. Find more at www .thebullvine .com.

00:47:38.980 --> 00:47:41.380
Next time, we're talking to a breeder who accidentally

00:47:41.380 --> 00:47:44.059
created a global phenomenon in a retrofitted

00:47:44.059 --> 00:48:04.920
calf barn. Subscribe so you don't miss it. Never

00:48:04.920 --> 00:48:09.340
will die. From the show ring, from the tune,

00:48:09.539 --> 00:48:14.840
the quiet strength they knew. Hear their stories

00:48:14.840 --> 00:48:21.239
now, coming right on through. Oh, tell the tale,

00:48:21.500 --> 00:48:26.539
tell the tale, the Beaumont legends lived here.