Longley Whitebred Shorthorn Embryo's Exported to Canada

February 14th 2020

Early in 2019 we had a communication from a Canadian cattleman. He talked about Whitebred Shorthorns, and how they would fulfil a need in Canada. I told him semen had been successful exported to Canada and the USA, but the only way to get pure Whitebred Shorthorns there was by embryos. 

As a result of many conversations he arrived at Sunnyside Farm in May. He spent the day with us looking at cows and discussing the possibility of producing embryos. At the end of the day, three cows had been chosen, and I agreed to flush them.

Longley Talisman - the service sire

We started the embryo program on 6th June, by having to do a test for Schmallenburg virus. Unfortunately the oldest cow selected had antibodies, so she was ineligible, which left the two younger cows to work with. The length of the program was 35 days, with flush day planed for 6th August. It turned out a good day with twice the average number of embryo's collected. Unfortunately this was not the end, after 30 days we had to do a second Schmallenburg test, before the embryos were eligible for export.

The whole operation was made easy by the laid back, easy going temperament of the two cows.

In November the good news came from our customer, the embryos had arrived in Canada.

A project which took more or less the whole of 2019, but turned out a good thing for Longley Whitebred Shorthorns, and more importantly the breed itself. 

Adrian Wheelwright