Lochend Luing 223U is an exceptional female - she raised one calf a year for 14 years in the Lochend herd before joining our herd in 2001. She produced another 5 calves before finally coming up open at the age of 20 years in 2006. Despite her advancing age, this cow has never been given any extra feed or preferential treatment and easily maintains her condition running with the herd. Her type and qualities are perhaps best described in a comment made by Kit Pharo (of the Pharo Cattle Company in Colorado) regarding his own program being based on good old cows:

"Good old grandma cows — in a no-nonsense, unpampered ranch environment — precisely define what we should be selecting for. They have proven their genetic value. There are very few unknown variables to contend with. They are the correct size and type. They have the correct amount of milk, growth and fleshing ability. They may seem somewhat average in appearance, but they are right as right can be. They have survived the test of time."

Given that 223U was open last fall, we took the opportunity to perform some embryo transfer work on her in an attempt to build a significant pool of her genetics within the herd. Her exceptional fertility was proven again when she produced 18 Grade 1 embryos from the first flush. With this embryo transfer mating, we bred 223U to Lochend Snowlander 185Y who was her half-brother (through their shared sire, Luing Bonus). In addition to this, both animals were also very closely related through their dams (who were half sisters through their sire, Snowlander 27J). We believe that linebreeding will allow us to fix the type of this exceptional cow and carry it forward for generations to come. We are looking forward to these embryo calves hitting the ground in 2008. We are also eager to see the natural calf off 223U in 2008 which will be sired by Rothney Grand.