Geordie and Julia Soutar, two farmers, run a worldwide genetics project on their rural farm in Forfar, Scotland. When only 20 cows were left among the animals in their farms with no imported blood ties, they started working to produce purebred cows.
Most of the animals on their farms at that time were old and calves from North American bulls. For this reason, they started the process by collecting cows of other breeds and supplying some old semen. They currently have about 50 cows on their farm, and one of them was born from sperm from the 1960s. A 60-year-old frozen sperm has resurrected an extinct cow species, Aberdeen Angus.
“It’s the same as someone having IVF”
Native Aberdeen Angus cows began to be diluted with the commercial use of American beef in Britain in the 1970s. As a result of the studies carried out for the purpose of efficiency, over time, the pure breed faced the danger of extinction. In 1995, it was announced that there are only 9 domestic cow families registered by the Aberdeen Angus Society, and although the Aberdeen Angus breed is common in the meat industry, they do not belong to pure lineage. This started the breeding process of Geordie and Julia Soutar at Kingston Farm.
BoJo was born when sperm from 60 years ago, frozen in liquid nitrogen, was fertilized in the ovary of another purebred Aberdeen Angus on the farm. Soutar likened this process, which gives birth to a bull, to the IVF process, saying, “It’s the same as when someone has IVF, you mix a little something with nature to get the result you want.”
The bull, born last year, was named “Dunlouise Champion Boris”, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has an undetermined number of children. “We are not sure if he will be more fatherly than the other Boris,” said Farmer Soutar.
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