In the increasingly
high-tech world of cow reproduction, a top bull’s career tends to last just a
few years as farmers chase better genetics to boost milk output and animal
durability, playing a numbers game not unlike a Major League Baseball manager.
Rare is the bull with the genes and testicular fortitude to sell a million
units of semen, known among breeders as the millionaires club. Over nearly a
decade, Toystory shattered the record for sales of the slender straws that hold
about 1/20th of a teaspoon and are shipped using liquid nitrogen to farmers
around the world. A unit fetches anywhere from a few dollars to several
hundred.
After joining the
millionaires club, Toystory surpassed Sunny Boy, a Dutch bull who sold more
than 1.7 million units in the 1990s and is memorialized with a life-size statue
at the headquarters of his owner in Arnhem, Netherlands. When he died on
Thanksgiving Day, Toystory had surpassed 2.4 million units according to his
owner, Genex Cooperative Inc., and had fans from Brazil to Japan. His prowess
was celebrated on hats, T-shirts and even his own commemorative semen straws.
Recent posts to the Facebook page of Genex included “He was legend” and
“Torazo!”—Spanish for super bull. With a neck nearly 57 inches around, Toystory
was no cuddly show animal. He was blessed with a ravenous libido, typically
producing sperm nine times a week, about twice the average of other bulls at
Genex. One veterinarian dubbed him “meaner than a snake,” say his handlers, who
were grateful some days for the safety fences keeping him penned in.
Toystory was born on May 7,
2001, at Mystic Valley Dairy farm in central Wisconsin. Owner Mitch Breunig
named the promising calf after one of his daughter’s favorite movies. The
bull’s father, Bellwood Marshall, was a popular sire, while his mother, Toyane,
was a top milk producer at Mystic Valley. Mr. Breunig remembered Toystory
standing out because he gained weight faster than other calves on the farm. At
6 months old, Mr. Breunig sold Toystory to Genex for around $4,000. The young
stud moved about 150 miles to the cooperative’s facilities here, which are
scattered amid dairy barns and corn fields.
After it was first used for
breeding, the owner reportedly waited for more than three years, as dairy producers had to see how the daughters
of a bull turned out before deciding to buy his semen. The farmers wanted to
see how much milk a cow produced, the fat and protein levels of her output, and
how well she handled the rigors of milking. By the mid-2000s, producers liked
what they were seeing in Toystory’s offspring, and sales of his semen started
to surge. He scored highly on influential performance rankings watched by the
global dairy industry. Toystory grew into a global brand through a rare mix of
fertility, genetics and looks. His semen was good at getting cows pregnant and
his daughters were easy to birth and dependably strong.
Over the summer, Toystory
was hobbled by back problems, and his handlers decided to retire him. Mr.
Gilbert feared Toystory wouldn’t make it through the winter and had a grave dug
at one of Genex’s farms before the ground froze solid. His handlers chose a
spot atop what is known as Stony Hill to reflect Toystory’s stature. A larger
memorial service will be held in the spring when Genex plans to name the
breeding campus where Toystory lived after its most-famous bull.
“It is very possible that no other bull will
ever surpass his record,” said Keith Heikes, chief operating officer at Genex. For
his part, Mr. Breunig doesn’t regret selling Toystory more than a decade
ago—even though the bull went on to bring in tens of millions of dollars for
his new owners. In recent years, dairy farmers from Europe and Asia have
flocked to his farm by the hundreds to buy semen and embryos from members of
Toystory’s family. The bull also helped Mr. Breunig achieve one of his lifetime
goals: being in the pages of Holstein International. The glossy monthly has
featured his farm three times.
A record-breaking 'dream
bull' bull who sired an estimated 500,000 offspring in more than 50 countries
been laid to rest. While the story of Toystory ends, his legacy lives on
through his many offspring; he remains a sellout bull with semen sold in more
than 50 countries.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
19th Jan 2015.
Souce : wsj.com
