EDITOR'S NOTE - New Jersey can lay claim to a significant role in the nation's agricultural history. The artificial breeding of dairy cattle in the United States began here. The first bull headquarters was established on Mulhocaway Farm, which lay northwest of Clinton in Hunterdon County and was inundated by what is now Spruce Run Reservoir. The first artificial breeding unit in the country was in Annandale. The article below, taken from our files, was written for Hoard's Dairyman by the late Lloyd Wescott, the owner of Mulhocaway Farm.
By LLOYD B. WESCOTT
The year 1978 marked the 40th anniversary of the first cooperative
artificial breeding unit in the United States. For several years,
experiments had been conducted on a very small scale between individual
animals especially in Russia.
In 1937, however, Professor E. J. Perry, a New Jersey Extension
dairyman on a visit to Denmark, witnessed the first efforts to
apply the concept on a broader scale. He sensed the potential
that existed for raising the quality of dairy cattle by the greater
use of better bulls and, upon his return to this country, urged
local breeders to attempt to organize it.
He interested the Hunterdon County Board of Agriculture - a
quasi-official membership organization that had had a remarkable
record of sponsoring innovative projects. They decided to see
what could be done and made a commitment to appropriate $500 to
fund the project if interest were shown.
To start the project, the letter (see attached) was sent to the
county's dairymen. On May 16, 1938, the first cow was bred, and
on Feb. 15, 1939, the first calf was born. It was a great curiosity.
During the first three months, 296 cows were bred, but the service
spread quickly to neighboring counties. Over the next 15 months,
3,271 cows were bred, with an average conception rate of 1.67
percent.
The first bull headquarters in America was located on my farm,
a U-shaped, open shed housing nine bulls. At the outset, the bull
with the best pedigree and most in demand was NJES Jewel Ormsby
Alice. Possibly his name had some bearing on it, but his conception
rate was terrible and he was used less and less.
From these humble beginnings has grown the artificial breeding
industry that we know today. I have been told that some 11 million
ampules of semen were exported last year.
In a recent transaction involving much of the remaining semen
of Osborndale Ivanhoe, each ampule brought $4,000, with no guarantees.
The fact that one great bull, Paclamar Astronaut, can have sired
over 50,000 registered offspring including 30,000 tested daughters,
is nothing short of astonishing.
The dairymen of Hunterdon County, N.J., foresighted though they
may have been, could have had no notion what lay in store for
this venture.