Rancher uses embryo transfers to obtain 'right kind of cattle'

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

Bodey Langford watches as the crossbred cow at his Lockhart ranch receives an embryo that will grow into an Angus calf. Langford, who has been ranching for three decades, feels the Angus breed is what the "meat business (and the packing industry) is building itself around." -- Staff photos by Taylor

April 10, 2003 -- When you know what you like; you know what will sell; and you have an option; most producers would jump at the chance to breed the animals of their choice.

At the Langford Cattle Company owned by R.G. "Bodey" Langford, outside of Lockhart, that's exactly what he's chosen to do: Raise registered Angus cattle by embryo transfer.

"I just think that the Angus breed is the breed the meat business is building itself around, and the packing industry likes the Angus cattle. All the restaurants are serving Angus beef. It's just the right kind of cattle for me. I've tried almost every breed that existed, over the last 20 years. Everything gravitates back to the Angus," explained Langford.

Langford has been ranching for 30 years and owns ranches outside of Lockhart and in Sterling City in West Texas.

During a recent interview while completing the embryo transfers with the help of Regan Brooks of Agrimark Genetic Services and Steven Luna, attempts were made to transfer Angus embryos into crossbred cows, who would become surrogate mothers.

"We're going to do 45 cows ... what we call receip-cows. They're just crossbred cows ... no specific genetic base. They're just cows we've proven to be good, thick-framed cows and good milkers, and they're surrogate mothers to these embryos," said Langford.

Regan Brooks of Agrimark Genetic Services, and Langford share a laugh about the messy part of the job. -- Staff photos by Taylor

While there were no two cows alike, all were around 1,200 pounds and most had calved last year. Many were still nursing the purebred Angus calves, and all were no more than 11-years-old.

"We gave the cattle some shots, last week, to make them go into heat, and then we watched heats on them for three days, recorded their numbers and time of their heat. That's the key to it; the synchronization drugs," noted Langford.

After a brief but thorough palpation, Brooks identified which ovary had responded to the shots, and marked the cowhide on that side. While he administered an epidural block to each cow deemed "ready" to accept the embryo transfer, Luna was busy retrieving the certain bull/cow combination chosen by Langford from the cryogenic tank, and thawing it to body temperature.

Brooks said the block helped relax the cow so she wouldn't push against the transfer.

"We look at the cow and select which embryo. We're working with seven different sets of embryos this morning," said Langford.

While there is a cost incurred by the transfers, he believes it is well worth the money spent to insure of genetically superior cattle.

"We think they're some of the top genetic-based cows in the Angus breed, and you can afford to spend a good bit of money on one of these cows, if you can raise 20 to 30 calves a year out of her," he explained.

"We flush them (embryos) out of the donor cows around seven days post insemination time. We flush that embryo out, and then we freeze it, and then we want to put it back in a cow and an environment just like it came out of."

The average cost of a transfer is about $50-$60/head, and to flush the embryos, the cost is about $275 per cow. Obviously, the more good embryos received cut down the cost of the transfers. Brooks said that there are, usually, around 10 to 12 embryos in a normal flush.

Particular attention is given to record keeping, as to which embryo goes into which receip cow. After about 60 days, Langford will know how many cows will become surrogate mothers.

"They (cows) raise them (calves) up just like a regular calf, and they don't know it's not their own baby. That's why we went through and selected what we thought were some pretty maternal cows to do this. Good, heavy-milking cows that would really do the calves a lot of good," said Langford.

If nothing happens, the new calf crop should be born around Christmas time, and Langford thinks that's about the best gift he could give himself and his family!