“I have two Holstein donors at Trans Ova Genetics. Penn-Gate Durham Finely and Markwell Leader Rose *RC both come from strong maternal lines that have demonstrated an ability to transmit consistently. Finely is a daughter of the popular Penn-Gate Skychief Finesse, and Leader Rose is a daughter of Blackrose and also the dam of Talent. These cows’ genetics continue to be in high demand, but they struggled with traditional ET programs.

Now, both donors are making pregnancies at Trans Ova Genetics in the in vitro fertilization program. Sex-sorted semen is used on their oocytes (eggs) to produce female pregnancies. While there would be demand for bull calves from both cows, the heifers are worth considerably more money, making the IVF and sexed-semen program valuable to me.”

Jonathon Lamb
Lamb Farms / Oakfield Corners Dairy, Inc.
Oakfield, N.Y.

Click here to visit Oakfield Corners Dairy, Inc.

“We have sent Vital-I Lincoln Bonnie EX96 and Luck-E Jed Blinky EX93 – both with tremendous show careers – to Trans Ova Genetics.  Bonnie, who we own in partnership with her breeder Joe Vitale, already has high-profile offspring, including sons in AI and her famous daughter Vital-I Integrity Anastasia EX95 who sold for $100,000. In fact, Bonnie has the distinction of being one of only a few Holstein cows scored EX96 and to also have an EX95 daughter.  Blinky is special to us because she’s from one of our main cow families, and is one of six Excellent sisters from Luck-E Mandel Bobbi. Blinky’s full sister, Jed Bikini EX92, has sold embryos world-wide, and her maternal sister is the show-winning Luck-E Blackice Blizzard EX94. 

At Trans Ova Genetics, we are using IVF and sexed semen on both Blinky (while pregnant) and Bonnie, and have daughters by Talent*RC, Stormatic, Goldwyn and Skychief on the way.  It is nice being able to get almost all female offspring, so we don’t have the expense of unneeded males. 

Matt Engel
            Luck-E Holsteins
            Hampshire, Ill.

Click here to visit Luck-E Holsteins.

“We sent Budjon-JK Encore Elegant EX-92 to Trans Ova Genetics in 2006 for in vitro fertilization using reverse-sorted sexed semen, and she was there a couple months. We chose to purchase the health-certified, beef recipients from Trans Ova Genetics after they were confirmed pregnant at 60 days. We retested the recipients after we brought them home, and all tested Leukosis and Johnes negative. They calved from September to November of 2007, and we ended up with 16 live heifer calves by four different sires.” 

Mark and Mary Ryan along with their son Chad and his wife, Amy, operate Ryan-Vu Dairy, located near Fond du Lac, Wis. They currently milk around 80 cows, including Elegant. “After we brought her home, Elegant was bred and calved in March of 2008. When we classified three months later, she was raised a point to EX-92.”

“The service I found the most useful from Trans Ova Genetics was the reverse-sort sexed semen. For us, the reverse-sort sexed semen was very valuable as it produced all heifers. The fact that Elegant could make heifers, and that many of them, was amazing. Although the upfront costs seemed prohibitive, with good results, we felt the cost per head was justified. Plus, we really appreciated the Trans Ova Genetics customer service. They called us regularly with updates, which gave us peace of mind.”

Chad Ryan
Ryan-Vu Dairy
Fond du Lac, Wis.