Twelve years ago, I joined the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America and started looking at cattle and going to a few sales and shows. It took eight years before I even started to buy a few cows. However, the ones I really wanted to own were either not for sale or cost $10,000 to $15,000 apiece. So I asked myself how could I get three or four or more of these without waiting for years? I soon found the answer-Embryos! A what? You can't see them or touch them, but they are there and at the right price.

The reproductive potential of a newborn heifer calf is enormous. Every female is born with an estimated 150,000 potential eggs. By natural breeding, a Texas Longhorn female may produce 10-20 calves in her lifetime under normal management programs so only a fraction of her total productivity is realized through natural service. Through embryo transfer, she might produce 10-15 calves in one nine month period. If you use the right cow and the right bull, the end result will be the exact calf that no one could or would sell you.

Briefly, embryo transfer involves (1) selection of a great female (the donor cow); (2) super ovulating her to release multiple eggs at a single estrus rather than a single egg; (3) artificially inseminating her to the bull of your choice; (4) "flushing" the donor cow to harvest the embryos; (5) implanting the embryos into surrogate or "recipient" cows, who will give birth to the calves and nurse them as it were their own, resulting in multiple full brothers and full sisters from the planned mating.

There are several ways to go about this. The first thing I did was buy sixty young cross bred, milk-influenced heifers for recipients. I do not recommend doing this because you have to keep these females open to receive embryos and you can amass a huge feed bill just keeping them in good shape. There are easier ways. The easiest, least expensive way is to find someone already doing embryo work, who will have recipients available for use. Several companies perform embryo transfer on a commercial basis. The current cost of the procedure is approximately $300 per flush plus $800 per embryo calf at weaning. Take your cow to them, or if you do not have a "super" cow, locate the one you like, go to the owner and lease her.

Several Texas Longhorn breeders are actively engaged in an embryo transfer program and may have embryos from several different matings available for sale. More and more in Texas Longhorn sales, you are seeing recipient cows carrying embryo calves. This is a great way to buy a planned mating already under way, and you are normally guaranteed a live calf.

The hardest part of embryo transfer to me is that you are coming home with a cow with no horns, even though you can sell her after she calves or use her again. But look at it this way, if the donor cow had cost you $4,000, what would you have had to pay for the calf at side or could you have even bought this calf? Most everyone, after spending dollars, wants to bring home the prize. With embryos, you will have to wait a while before the prize gets there, but in most cases, the outcome will be nice for the price.

Embryo work is happening all around you. At the seedstock man down the road, at the university, at the veterinarian clinic fifty miles away, etc. It is going on right now. All you have to do is look or call to get what you want. Look through the pages of this magazine, back and forth, and you will see some "greats" with embryos already implanted for sale today, or there will be a flush happening soon to the great cow and bull you want.

The quickest way to upgrade your herd or to start one is by spending a large amount of money or by utilizing embryo transfer. Think about it. If you purchase some low end cows, like Sally Sue Cow, and they have low-end calves by Bill Big Bull, what do you have? A whole herd of Big Sally and Billy Sues! Instead, why not go buy four embryos by a world class cow and a champion bull, and get a calf by the best of the best to start with-not just another calf-for the same price that it cost you to buy Big Bill and Billy Sue or close to it. Remember, there are one hundred thousand plus, okay Texas Longhorns, that 5,000 people own. There are only a few great ones that a few breeders own. Which kind do you want?

If you want the best standing in your pasture, it does not make much sense to breed just any cow to a bull, and hope the outcome will be something other than just another cow or bull. The great ones are not made that way!

Editor's Note: John Fore of Denham Springs, Louisiana, considers himself a small breeder; however, he wants top quality cattle in his pasture. If you know John, you also know that he is a "doer" who wants results as quickly as possible. Realizing that it might take him years to breed the kind of cattle he wanted, John investigated embryo transfer and feels that it is the way to go for many others, who do not want to outlay the cash it would take to buy "super" cows, even if they were or sale.