Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

I'd like to report that 3 of my recipient cows are now pregnant with Registered Shetland Cattle embryos! It's something I've been working on for over 5 years now. I had a total of 15 embryos, got 3 cows pregnant out of the first 5 tries with 10 left to go. Currently my success rate is 60% about 10% better than the norm so at this rate I should hopefully get 9 calves or better. If you'd like to follow my progress you can follow my FB page at Shetland Cattle USA. It would be great to get mostly heifers so I can build the breed quicker with the 200+ straws of semen I have from genetically diverse registered Shetland bulls. First 3 calves should be born around September of this year. Shetland cattle are a rare, heritage breed. See you at the shows some day.

intersting breed it seems.  just be carefull not to ruin the breed by pampering and over caring for them.  think back to Boer goats,  the original goats were fairly hardy. however cost, rareity  and demand were high so the vast majority lost their hardiness and soon they were considered a very high maintence breed.  the breed is making head way with some breeders selecting for hardiness.

Great point, one of the main reasons I decided to do it was to help ensure the breed doesn't face extinction as the U.K. has been notorious for some devastating bovine diseases and could wipe out a breed with small numbers...as evidenced in the near impossible USDA import rules for bovine tissue of any sort. I know a breeder of Highlands in Louisiana and I never would have thought the long hair would work there, but they seem to be thriving anyway. Shetlands are considered a very hardy breed to begin with and I get skepticism regarding how they'll fair in the Texas heat but I'm not too worried as I've got plenty of shade, breeze and water here close to the Oklahoma border. I feel that if the Scottish Aberdeen Black Angus can make it, the Shetlands should be just fine. My partner in Scotland had the first Shetlands born outside of the UK using embryos and had 7 calves in Australia back in 2015. She's got them in some pretty challenging conditions there. Obviously I'll keep hardiness in mind but for now I'm focused on maintaining the lowest inbreeding co-efficient while also breeding to keep what makes a Shetland a Shetland, i.e. hardiness, low birth weight, A2 milk, etc.

Welcome to the Planet. Good luck with your new venture.
Link to info link below

http://www.shetlandcattle.org.uk/