Mr. Greenjeans
Well-known member
So anyway, it has been a few years since I last posted. After setting off to create my own Gelbvieh bloodline by standing on the shoulders of giants (via A.I.), I now have some first hand knowledge on both success and setbacks within the process. My small, heavily culled, herd went from the bottom 30% in most EPD measurables within the breed to the top 20-30% in most of the EPD categories and in some categories top 5%. I started with 47R, then Bennett U271 (a calving non-ease mistake), then Pure Power, then M/L Advantage, then Govenor 3N. My entire herd is the result of at least one A.I. breeding and in some cases up to 3 A.I. breedings in succession. We sit with Homozygous Black (not easy to accomplish and only after 7 years of A.I.) and Homozygous Polled across the herd. Consistency of phenotype is now observed in physical conformation. Some line breeding occurred with using half brothers to sometimes cover half sisters but most of those offspring were culled due to a preference for A.I. progeny. The herd is now consistently above breed average in all aspects except Marbling. I originally gave myself 10 years to get to this point but the ability to perform blood draws for Genomically Enhanced EPD's accelerated the process. I try breed for 2 years before changing A.I. sires but availability of semen was sometimes a problem. I am now am set to use Hille Stock Options D410 for the next 2 years followed potentially by Franchise F806. Herd expansion is now the plan while continuing to A.I. for future herd sires since the core group of females is set. This will inherently lead to line breeding to some degree. It was certainly more challenging that I expected. I certainly have more respect for those in the industry that got us to this point with traditional breeding. When people ask why I followed this path -- I respond with: "I don't golf."