The Immortal Bull

At Janesville, Wis. last week, an unusual calf was born on the farm of John and Melford Hill. It was the first calf in the U.S. to be sired by bull semen that had been kept frozen at --110DEG F. The Wisconsin Scientific Breeding Institute, which supervised the affair, believes that frozen semen will start a kind of revolution in the cattle-breeding business.

The frozen semen system has been used in England with success, and its economics looks promising. Normally, a healthy bull can fertilize two cows a week, but during this period he produces enough semen to fertilize hundreds by artificial insemination. The main trouble has been that unfrozen semen begins to lose its potency after two days and is not much good after seven days. Under the new system, the output of a desirable bull can be stockpiled in the frozen state and be ready for use at any time in any part of the world. None need be wasted because the demand does not match the supply. This is especially important in the case of beef cattle, whose breeding should be timed so that the calves will be born in spring.

It is known that frozen semen will keep its viability for at least eight months, but there is a good chance that it will last indefinitely. Then a famous bull could become immortal in a sense: he could keep on fathering calves--as many as 100,000 of them--long after his body had been made into bologna and bone meal.

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