The Program
PROVEN. PRODUCTIVE. PREPOTENT. PREDICTABLE.
It ALL starts with the COW
THE POWER OF 7
Prepotency: Picture a three-generation pedigree with seven cows and seven sires. Now imagine those seven cows all standing in the same pen. Are they consistent in their type, function, productivity and prepotency (effective at transmitting genetic strengths, regardless of the sire used)? If so, the odds of achieving your breeding objectives dramatically improve. With intentionality, we stack dams which are prepotent in each of the seven slots of the pedigree.
Mitochondrial DNA: The sires are important, yet the cows have much more impact on genetic expression. Offspring receive equal shares of Nuclear DNA (collection of genes) from its parents, but Mitochondrial DNA is only inherited from the mother and dictates which genes are expressed. The best analogy is: Nuclear DNA is the light, while Mitochondrial DNA is the switch that turns the light on or off.
We are often asked who are the seven cows we refer to in the Power of 7. The Answer is there are not just seven cows. It is simply referring to populating each of those seven slots with cows which are proven, productive, prepotent and predictable.
Breeding for the Right Reasons
Each and every mating we create is for the commercial cow-calf producer
Cattle which are predictable, problem-free, low-maintenance and sustainable with optimum growth and performance. As the seedstock industry has stacked more and more growth and terminal traits into the genetics, there has been no thought given that most environments do not provide enough nutrition for the genetics to express and cannot adequately support the added maintenance requirements of the resulting two, three and four-year-old cows have as they are breeding, milking and still growing. Unfortunately, the commercial cow-calf producer has been left with unrealized growth in their calves and higher-maintenance cows that are falling out of the herd at younger ages.
Maternal - It’s not one thing or some of the things, IT’S ALL OF THE THINGS.
Ultimately, maternal in its simplest form is the cow breeding on time year after year, all while bringing in a high percentage of her bodyweight at weaning time with no assistance to birth, nurse or raise her calf.
But maternal is much more nuanced. Maternal is elegant and beautiful. Sometimes it’s observed, but most often, the most maternal cows are the ones that no one notices. It is a cow working to get her newborn calf up and nursed. It is the cow placing herself between her calf and a howling wind in the depths of winter or the blistering sun in the summer. It is a cow which knows no fear when it comes to protecting her calf from a predator, yet has the intelligence to respect her caretaker. Maternal is all of the things.