OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE BEEF SHORTHORN DECEMBER 2015 SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA HOME OF THE AUSTRALIAN SHORTHORN (MS – Ed 17) Cow and calf at Malton, Finley. Calf sired by Kamilaroi Meat Packer The Federal Secretary Phone: 0419 317 990 Beef Shorthorn Society of Australia Fax: (03) 9333 3774 PO Box 2066 Greenvale Vic 3059 Email:
[email protected] As Beef Shorthorn and Australian Shorthorn breeders, we are always searching for the next joining bull. Sometimes we worry that we lack enough options. The Federal Council of the Society decided to do something positive about the matter. It surveyed present and past members, asking whether they had collected semen from a bull or bulls over the years; if yes, the name of each bull; and whether semen collected was licensed or unlicensed. The response was amazing. It was established that 12 members have in storage semen collected from no less than 57 bulls. In 9 instances, the semen is licensed. In all other cases, it is unlicensed. In 6 cases, the semen had been imported. In one case, semen had been collected from a bull imported as an embryo. In 18 instances, the semen in storage was collected from bulls before 1990 - bulls of pure Australian bloodlines, in the sense that the last imported influence must have been from English and Scottish bulls imported in the 1950s. This semen, often collected from bull which were Royal Show Champions, and almost always collected from bulls which were highly influential sires, is an extremely valuable resource. It can never be replicated. The bulls from which the semen was collected most often had in their pedigrees the bloodlines of studs which were prominent at the time, but which have now ceased operation.