curtiss breeding

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tuck

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I bought a semen tank from a retireing farmer and he brought out this curtiss breeding service AI box and put that in with the tank. I tried to do a search on curtiss but nothing came up. Does anyone know anything about them. I have heard that it was a cookie company. I'm guessing this box is from the early sixty's, just a guess.
 
This is really weird cause I was just thinking about them the other day. Curtiss was an AI outfit that my uncle used back in the 60's and 70's. I'm not sure, but I seem to remember them being located in Shawano, WI. I think they were mostly dairy, but had some beef, too.

I did a google search on them but nothing came up.I was going to put up a post asking if anyone knew what happened to them, but you beat me to it.
 
I talked to my select sires rep and he's the one that told me it was a cookie company but he did'nt know much else about it. It is a nice box has clip in the top for the AI gun and a styrofoam cooler in it and pretty much everything you need.
 
Called Curtiss Breeding Industries now. Assigned stud code #40.
Located in Cary, IL now. Sorry, no phone number.
 
I used to work for Curtiss Breeding Sevice from 1973-1980. When I started working for Curtiss they were located in Cary, Illinois. They later built a new bull facility in Elburn, Illinois and still had offices in Cary.

Curtiss had different owners from its beginning. It used to be a part of Curtiss candy. You know--Baby Ruth, and butterfingers, I believe. When I worked for Curtiss it was owned by G.D. Searle a large pharmaceutical company. Searle animal research was the one that developed the Synchro-mate B product that was used to synchronize cattle.

Unfortunatly, G.D. Searle decided to sell Curtiss and its new owners just bought it to dismantle the company and it went out of business in the early 1980's.

Curtiss sold both Dairy and Beef semen when they were in business as well as animal health products and supplies. Great company for many years. The last job that I had with them was as a regional training teaching A.I. schools all over the country.
 
Greg and cert- thanks for the info. I guess I was wrong about the location, but was a long time ago. Curiosity satisfied, at least on this one. ;-)
 
Curtiss Breeding Service is an interesting subject and one I can shed some light on for you fellows. I worked for them for several years as a distributor and AI tech in northeastern IL and northwestern IN. Well, as I started to type this msg I see Greg F. has already posted most of what I was going to write. I don't think he mentioned that before the company was dismantled, and somewhere near the time of the move to Elburn, (I'm thinking it was after the move) Northern Illinois Breeding Co-op became the distributor of Curtiss' Semen. I continued with NIBC for awhile, but because they already had a tech in my territory, who was now handling my products, and he being their chosen to succeed it was no longer profitable for me to continue with them. When I started with Curiss, the other fellow worked for NIBC and handled Select Sire semen. What Greg has written is pretty accurate. I started with them several years before Greg and hired out to them in Cary.
 
i remember curtis in upstate ny in the early 60's. mostly dairy. the big three in that area then were NYABC
(now Eastern), CURTIS and ABS. i never knew curtis was a part of the candy company.....
 
You made me look at my pile of old bull catalogs, turns out I have the '74 and '78 Curtiss beef catalogs. They had a little bit of everything including Welsh Blacks, Red Poll, Pinzgauers, etc. Only bull I saw listed that had much impact was the Simmental "Bold". I'd put up a few pics but our scanner is on the fritz. :( They had a lot of Emulous and Wye bred bulls on the Angus side.
 
VanC - my daddy was Curtiss Breeding Service in the Shawano area from Feb 1962 to April 1972. He then took over the Seymour route from Feb 1973 to its liquidation in 1981. They were located in Cary, IL ... And were the absolute best in their time!!! Do a google search on "Baby Ruths, Butterfingers and World-class stud Bulls". Fantastic article. It will tell you all about Curtiss and its beginnings.
 
I am the granddaughter of the founders of Curtiss Breeding Company. I have lots of information about this incredible AI company. Even James Mitchner wrote about my grandparents' company in one of his books, which I believe was Centennial.
In order to have the highest quality dairy products for his candy, the Curtiss Candy Company bought a large farm in Cary, Illinois where my grandparents bought, hired and breed the best foundation stock available in a wide variety of dairy breeds and beef cattle. It was innovative and a huge success.
When the candy company was sold, my grandparents Otto and Dorothy Schnering started the AI company. Both of hem are listed in the international Dairy Hall of Fame. My grandmother was quite active in the company and the source of many funny stories about people being mistaken about her role in the company.
The breeding service was sold, and eventually dismantled. But to this day, an award is in the name of Curtiss Candy Company at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, wisconsin. It's reputation, under my grandparents, shone around the world.
 
I worked in the lab (and Barn) at Curtiss Breeding Industries, Elburn back in 1978 and '79 right until that idiot Neff destroyed it. A lot of good people lost their jobs because of his incompetence, greed and shady business dealings, but that's another story.
Paclamar Astronaut was my buddy right up to the day he died and I'm trying to find a good photo of him or old add depicting him.
All I've found is just one which is too small. If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.
 
The dairy farm that I milked cows on in 1979 and 80 in Connecticut used to breed AI using curtis semen.
I remember when Astronaut was one of THE BULLS to use. I always thought it was merged with Eastern but then I moved south and lost track. I went to work part-time with select sire doing relief breeding for our area tech. That was slowly phased out as most dairyman did their own AI. There are still a few techs around that do alot of synch beef herds.
 
I attend the Curtiss (Candy) sire dispersal sale in Illinois I think it was in 1982... could have been in '81.
They had a top flight holstein line up in the 60s - 70s Astronaut was one of the superstars in the 70's but their bull
Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief was the one that really left his impact on the breed... he was really something special.
I remember Select Sires purchasing Char-Mar Elevation Pabst a great grandson of the old Chief bull.
(Elevation x Milu Betty Ivanhoe Chief) I liked that Pabst bull a lot.
The Arlinda Chief x Ivanhoe cross was known as the ton of milk cross back in the day as the daughters of that cross averaged over 2,000 lbs more milk per year than their herdmates in the late '60s which at the time was really big time special..
A ridiculous % of all holsteins today trace back to either Elevation (RORAE) or Chief and most to both of them.
Elevation was a grandson of Ivanhoe making Pabst a line-bred Ivanhoe.
 
Butch,
Heard a fellow talking on feeding Holstein steers once... made reference to their shallow gene pool - 'they're all their own grandpa'...
 

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