Post by genebo on Aug 2, 2016 13:59:56 GMT -6
Age has a way of altering our best laid plans. Such is the case with my involvement with the American Red Restoration Project. It has gotten to the point that a 5 year plan has little chance of being completed here.
My involvement began with the arrival at Paradise Farm of Wee Gaelic Ms Fermoy in 2008. A beautiful cow, she was the last surviving Legacy qualified red Dexter. In fact, she was the last surviving Legacy qualified Dexter to carry red. She was 17 years old and had not had a calf for 3 years.
She had never had a calf that was not sired by a modern bull, Platinum, Lucifer or one of their descendants. While her own genetics did not include any of the modern blood, all of her calves did. The danger was very real that there would never again be an American red Dexter that did not include blood from one of the modern English imports.
Ms Fermoy was introduced to Brenn of Paradise, an extremely fertile bull, to see if she could still get pregnant. She could and did, but aborted after a couple of months. Repeat breedings ended the same. The vet diagnosed her as having a fibroid uterus, with the walls of the uterus being too scarred to expand properly. Once the fetus reached a certain size, it would be expelled.
This meant that she could never give birth to another calf. The only way to preserve her genetics would be to have her flushed of eggs and implant them into recipient cows. This would be an expensive effort, with marginal chance of success. The expert on flushing said that a cow that old may not have many good eggs left.
Getting together the money to have her flushed was a big task, that Judy Sponaugle shouldered. We came up with a plan that would be the most likely to give a good result.
I was to deliver Ms Fermoy and her companion cow to Dr. Fulper, the best at the process. Judy would deliver semen from a selected Legacy Qualified bull to fertilize Ms Fermoy's eggs in preparation for flushing. Ms Fermoy and her companion would board with Dr. Fulper and be under his care throughout the process. Finally the day came and Ms Fermoy was flushed. Laboratory examination of the embryos yielded 6 good embryos. A flushing of a younger cow should have yielded 20 or more. The 6 embryos were frozen, for use when suitable recipient cows could be found.
I brought Ms Fermoy back here and let her rest for a couple of months, then took her back to Dr. Fulper for a repeat. I stayed in constant contact with him and realized that one of my prized Windridge cows was in perfect sync with Ms Fermoy. It didn't matter what kind of pedigree a recipient cow had, because it would contribute nothing to the genetic makeup of the calf. It seemed like a terrible waste to use as valuable a cow as Bambi of Paradise as a recipient. Yet the timing was so perfect that I decided to do it. On the planned day of flushing, I loaded Bambi into the trailer and took her to Dr. Fulper.
We arrived just as Ms Fermoy was being led into the chute to be flushed. Dr. Fulper let me watch as he used his advanced equipment to extract all the embryos Ms Fermoy had. Then I watched as he took them into the laboratory and inspected them. One by one, he discarded embryos, until their was just one left. Each of the discarded embryos had a flaw. Quickly, we changed places between Bambi and Ms Fermoy and Dr. Fulper transferred the embryo into Bambi.
All 3 cows were loaded into my trailer and we went back home, to wait and see if the transfer would take and Bambi would be pregnant with Ms Fermoy's calf. It took. Bambi went through a perfectly normal pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy heifer. We named the calf Legacy Eve of Paradise.
Lots of people were following the events. Gabriella Nanci was one. She wanted to take Ms Fermoy to the University of Georgia to have them replicate what Dr. Fulper had done. While Eve was born and growing up on Paradise Farm, Ms Fermoy spent her days at UG. She was 19 years old.
They kept her there for several attempts at flushing. They only got one more embryo from Ms Fermoy. That embryo failed to implant in the recipient cow, so that attempt failed. A lot of money for no result.
In November of 2011, Ms Fermoy was put down, as winter weather was closing in. She was 20 years old.
Eve was flourishing. She bonded with Bambi and became a member of the herd. Bambi's daughter. She grew to maturity and was ready to breed. She had 3 flaws that Brenn could help, so I decided to breed her to Brenn, even though he was not Legacy qualified. He was Traditional, what Gabriella Nanci labeled "Legacy plus Bullfinch". She had a heifer, Inion, that did not inherit the red color. Her next heifer, Dara Inion, inherited the red. So did Triu Inion and Caethru Inion.
Now we had 3 females that carried the red, but no males. Then Dara Inion bred back to Brenn and produced Adam One of Paradise, that inherited the red. At last we had a bull calf with the red color and no imported blood. Now we needed to breed him to Dara, Triu or Caethru in hopes of getting red calves. A blending of Windridge and Fermoy.
However, these are all Traditional Dexters, no Legacy qualified Dexters among them. In order to ever recreate Legacy red, I must breed Eve to a Legacy bull.
I had searched and searched for the bull I wanted to breed to Eve. They all paled in comparison to Brenn, and the information on them was spotty. Eve had been born with 6 teats. Ideally, the bull she breeds to needs to carry good udders with 4 perfectly spaced teats. No information available for the Legacy bulls I could get semen for. Eve's hind feet are too long. Ideally she would be bred to a bull with perfect feet. Finally, Eve tested A1/A1 for beta casein. The breeding bull should be A2/A2. Again, no information on bulls I could get semen for.
Then I discovered Legacy Jams Dunder, a dun Legacy qualified bull that could provide live service. He was only a little over an hour away, so I could go see him. All of his DNA test results were posted in the Legacy Dexter Cattle Registry. He is A2/A2.
I brought him here to breed Eve last January. He stayed until mid-March. Eve was properly bred. However, my vet did a routine pregnancy check on her in late June and announced that she was no longer pregnant. No reason could be given. It just happens sometimes. So, I brought Dunder back to repeat the job. He is here now and appears to have rebred Eve. We will keep him with Eve until September. Then Eve will be pregnancy checked. If for any reason she is open, she will be AI'd to Fairy Hill Peter, a different dun Legacy bull.
One way or another, we want Legacy calves out of Eve.
In September, 2014, I was hurt and couldn't do my farm work. My lovely bride and two wonderful neighbors filled in, but I was forced to sell some of my most prized Dexters. I now have just Eve and Caethru that carry the red. Cathy is Traditional. So is Eve's fifth calf, Mac Cuigiu of Paradise. Yes, she finally had a bull calf that inherited the red, only he was sired by McBrenn of Paradise, Brenn's son, which means he is Traditional. We are close to having Traditional red calves, but still need a Legacy bull calf with the red before we can have any Legacy red calves.
I'm back at work on the farm, but the work is harder to do, now, and it isn't all due to injury. Age has a lot to do with it. I have decided it is time to turn the American Red Restoration Project over to a younger person. I'm seeking that person now. Taking applications
I want to find someone who can promise the same dedication to preserving the precious genetics of the old line Dexters. It is a great honor to be entrusted with this and I want to pass it along to someone worthy.
The assets of the Project include:
Legacy Eve of Paradise L00584LH-10HH and ADCA 024970
Caethru Inion of Paradise L02027TH-14HH and ADCA 036858
Mac Cuigiu of Paradise L02336TH-16HH and ADCA 038577
One frozen embryo from Wee Gaelic Ms Fermoy and Rafter Dee Finn Bennach. Both parents have genotypes recorded with ADCA so the calf can be registered. The calf will be Legacy qualified and will carry the red.
Eve and Cathy are at Paradise Farm and can be seen any time. Cujo is staying with Cathy Vaden while Dunder is here. He can be seen during the ADCA Region 9 meeting there on August 20.
The last embryo is in storage with Dr. Fulper in Gretna, VA.
Contact me if you think you are the right person to further the American Red Restoration Project.
Gene Bowen
Paradise Farm
paradisedexters.com
My involvement began with the arrival at Paradise Farm of Wee Gaelic Ms Fermoy in 2008. A beautiful cow, she was the last surviving Legacy qualified red Dexter. In fact, she was the last surviving Legacy qualified Dexter to carry red. She was 17 years old and had not had a calf for 3 years.
She had never had a calf that was not sired by a modern bull, Platinum, Lucifer or one of their descendants. While her own genetics did not include any of the modern blood, all of her calves did. The danger was very real that there would never again be an American red Dexter that did not include blood from one of the modern English imports.
Ms Fermoy was introduced to Brenn of Paradise, an extremely fertile bull, to see if she could still get pregnant. She could and did, but aborted after a couple of months. Repeat breedings ended the same. The vet diagnosed her as having a fibroid uterus, with the walls of the uterus being too scarred to expand properly. Once the fetus reached a certain size, it would be expelled.
This meant that she could never give birth to another calf. The only way to preserve her genetics would be to have her flushed of eggs and implant them into recipient cows. This would be an expensive effort, with marginal chance of success. The expert on flushing said that a cow that old may not have many good eggs left.
Getting together the money to have her flushed was a big task, that Judy Sponaugle shouldered. We came up with a plan that would be the most likely to give a good result.
I was to deliver Ms Fermoy and her companion cow to Dr. Fulper, the best at the process. Judy would deliver semen from a selected Legacy Qualified bull to fertilize Ms Fermoy's eggs in preparation for flushing. Ms Fermoy and her companion would board with Dr. Fulper and be under his care throughout the process. Finally the day came and Ms Fermoy was flushed. Laboratory examination of the embryos yielded 6 good embryos. A flushing of a younger cow should have yielded 20 or more. The 6 embryos were frozen, for use when suitable recipient cows could be found.
I brought Ms Fermoy back here and let her rest for a couple of months, then took her back to Dr. Fulper for a repeat. I stayed in constant contact with him and realized that one of my prized Windridge cows was in perfect sync with Ms Fermoy. It didn't matter what kind of pedigree a recipient cow had, because it would contribute nothing to the genetic makeup of the calf. It seemed like a terrible waste to use as valuable a cow as Bambi of Paradise as a recipient. Yet the timing was so perfect that I decided to do it. On the planned day of flushing, I loaded Bambi into the trailer and took her to Dr. Fulper.
We arrived just as Ms Fermoy was being led into the chute to be flushed. Dr. Fulper let me watch as he used his advanced equipment to extract all the embryos Ms Fermoy had. Then I watched as he took them into the laboratory and inspected them. One by one, he discarded embryos, until their was just one left. Each of the discarded embryos had a flaw. Quickly, we changed places between Bambi and Ms Fermoy and Dr. Fulper transferred the embryo into Bambi.
All 3 cows were loaded into my trailer and we went back home, to wait and see if the transfer would take and Bambi would be pregnant with Ms Fermoy's calf. It took. Bambi went through a perfectly normal pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy heifer. We named the calf Legacy Eve of Paradise.
Lots of people were following the events. Gabriella Nanci was one. She wanted to take Ms Fermoy to the University of Georgia to have them replicate what Dr. Fulper had done. While Eve was born and growing up on Paradise Farm, Ms Fermoy spent her days at UG. She was 19 years old.
They kept her there for several attempts at flushing. They only got one more embryo from Ms Fermoy. That embryo failed to implant in the recipient cow, so that attempt failed. A lot of money for no result.
In November of 2011, Ms Fermoy was put down, as winter weather was closing in. She was 20 years old.
Eve was flourishing. She bonded with Bambi and became a member of the herd. Bambi's daughter. She grew to maturity and was ready to breed. She had 3 flaws that Brenn could help, so I decided to breed her to Brenn, even though he was not Legacy qualified. He was Traditional, what Gabriella Nanci labeled "Legacy plus Bullfinch". She had a heifer, Inion, that did not inherit the red color. Her next heifer, Dara Inion, inherited the red. So did Triu Inion and Caethru Inion.
Now we had 3 females that carried the red, but no males. Then Dara Inion bred back to Brenn and produced Adam One of Paradise, that inherited the red. At last we had a bull calf with the red color and no imported blood. Now we needed to breed him to Dara, Triu or Caethru in hopes of getting red calves. A blending of Windridge and Fermoy.
However, these are all Traditional Dexters, no Legacy qualified Dexters among them. In order to ever recreate Legacy red, I must breed Eve to a Legacy bull.
I had searched and searched for the bull I wanted to breed to Eve. They all paled in comparison to Brenn, and the information on them was spotty. Eve had been born with 6 teats. Ideally, the bull she breeds to needs to carry good udders with 4 perfectly spaced teats. No information available for the Legacy bulls I could get semen for. Eve's hind feet are too long. Ideally she would be bred to a bull with perfect feet. Finally, Eve tested A1/A1 for beta casein. The breeding bull should be A2/A2. Again, no information on bulls I could get semen for.
Then I discovered Legacy Jams Dunder, a dun Legacy qualified bull that could provide live service. He was only a little over an hour away, so I could go see him. All of his DNA test results were posted in the Legacy Dexter Cattle Registry. He is A2/A2.
I brought him here to breed Eve last January. He stayed until mid-March. Eve was properly bred. However, my vet did a routine pregnancy check on her in late June and announced that she was no longer pregnant. No reason could be given. It just happens sometimes. So, I brought Dunder back to repeat the job. He is here now and appears to have rebred Eve. We will keep him with Eve until September. Then Eve will be pregnancy checked. If for any reason she is open, she will be AI'd to Fairy Hill Peter, a different dun Legacy bull.
One way or another, we want Legacy calves out of Eve.
In September, 2014, I was hurt and couldn't do my farm work. My lovely bride and two wonderful neighbors filled in, but I was forced to sell some of my most prized Dexters. I now have just Eve and Caethru that carry the red. Cathy is Traditional. So is Eve's fifth calf, Mac Cuigiu of Paradise. Yes, she finally had a bull calf that inherited the red, only he was sired by McBrenn of Paradise, Brenn's son, which means he is Traditional. We are close to having Traditional red calves, but still need a Legacy bull calf with the red before we can have any Legacy red calves.
I'm back at work on the farm, but the work is harder to do, now, and it isn't all due to injury. Age has a lot to do with it. I have decided it is time to turn the American Red Restoration Project over to a younger person. I'm seeking that person now. Taking applications
I want to find someone who can promise the same dedication to preserving the precious genetics of the old line Dexters. It is a great honor to be entrusted with this and I want to pass it along to someone worthy.
The assets of the Project include:
Legacy Eve of Paradise L00584LH-10HH and ADCA 024970
Caethru Inion of Paradise L02027TH-14HH and ADCA 036858
Mac Cuigiu of Paradise L02336TH-16HH and ADCA 038577
One frozen embryo from Wee Gaelic Ms Fermoy and Rafter Dee Finn Bennach. Both parents have genotypes recorded with ADCA so the calf can be registered. The calf will be Legacy qualified and will carry the red.
Eve and Cathy are at Paradise Farm and can be seen any time. Cujo is staying with Cathy Vaden while Dunder is here. He can be seen during the ADCA Region 9 meeting there on August 20.
The last embryo is in storage with Dr. Fulper in Gretna, VA.
Contact me if you think you are the right person to further the American Red Restoration Project.
Gene Bowen
Paradise Farm
paradisedexters.com
