Richardson Ranch became part owner of a $100,000 bull after a recent auction at the Copper Creek Ranch in Princeton, BC, Heather Ramsay writes.
The Ranch and a consortium of 11 other cattle interests across Canada and the United States, including a Tennessee ranch owned by the band Alabama, paid $36,000 for a 1/3 interest in a bull called Stamina.
"We can't lose on it," said Don Richardson. He said the deal gives him exclusive use of the bull's semen for three years.
The bull stays in Princeton, but its semen is frozen in straws, kept in liquid nitrogen and sent up to the islands where it can be used for artificial insemination. Dr. Richardson can then sell animals bred from this prize bull or animals carrying the bull's offspring.
He can even produce embryos that can be brought to term in wombs for rent on other ranches.
He said this is happening on many ranches and embryo production is a cash cow in itself.
This year he sold a 13-year-old cow for $5,200. The difference between this cow and older animals he used to get a mere $400 for, is that he sold her for her capacity to produce embryos. He even gets to keep 50-percent of the embryos for the ranch.
Embryos can be implanted in any surrogate mother, so even a water buffalo in China could bring a prize Holstein to term. And embryos are a lot cheaper to ship, says Dr. Richardson
Dr. Richardson is happy that he sold all seven of the animals he brought to the sale for an average price of $2610.
He also reports that the ranch will have 35 calves next spring.