Clones Are Showing Up in Livestock Shows

With scant fanfare, the offspring of a cloned Holstein cow became a champion at the Fort Worth Stock Show on Monday.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has released a long-awaited study finding that milk and meat from healthy clones are no different than those from ordinary animals and critics seek to keep clone-derived food off the market, clones and their close relatives have left the pasture and are making their way into major livestock competitions.

"I’ve seen them. I’ve seen the animals," Indiana dairyman and breeder Jeff Stookey said of clones that have competed in Northern stock shows during the past three years.

Stookey’s own animal, Middland View Heart’s Hope, the clone offspring, was named Junior Champion Holstein Female and won a $500 premium. And no one seemed to mind, he said, as he drove the hoofed winner home to Milford, Ind.

Actually, not many at the Stock Show were aware of its pedigree, Stookey said. "A few asked about its genetics. But there was no criticism."

Mixed feelings

That’s not to say the industry unanimously agrees about such entries.

At least one cattle breed group, the American Brahman Breeders Association, will not register clones, so they and their offspring cannot compete.

The Stock Show itself has decided not to stop clones or near relatives from being entered. "While cloning continues to be discussed in the media, exhibitors and breed associations have yet to express views or concerns about how it could impact livestock shows," Bradford Barnes, the Stock Show’s executive vice president and general manager, said in a statement.

"We will continue to monitor this issue, but unless the industry begins to raise concerns, we do not foresee the need for such rules in the near future."

Raising the costs

Not every Holstein owner was pleased.

"When you allow clones, you are sort of limiting [the competition] to the more wealthy people," said John Norman Williamson, 52, a former dairyman from Garrison whose son showed a Holstein in a different class. Williamson didn’t know that a cloned offspring had won Monday.

Others, including a livestock judge, similarly unaware that a relative of a clone had been entered, said the sheer cost of cloning will severely limit the numbers competing.

Stookey said he spent $25,000 on an embryo transfer derived from a clone. The original cow, Shirman Astre Heart, was ranked among the top six dairy cows in the country four years in a row and could produce 35,000 pounds of milk a year, about a third more than a typical Holstein.

High hopes

But with the Fort Worth victory under her belt, Stookey hopes that Middland will fetch $100,000 from a dairy farmer profiting from high milk prices.

One Texas competitor who knew Middland’s background said he wasn’t bothered.

"A cow’s a cow," said Chad Steinberger of Windthorst, whose family has entered Stock Show dairy cattle competitions for three decades. "Even when you clone, it’s still taking a shot, you’re still taking a chance."

Various factors can affect how a clone matures, Steinberger said, but "it did work out for Jeff."

Gage, 8, Steinberger’s son, showed a cow — bred through artificial insemination — that was judged Grand Champion of the Holstein Junior Livestock Competition on Tuesday.