By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
How do you multiply a miracle?
Ranchers observe the miracle of birth in their cowherds during every calving season. It’s especially valuable when a top quality cow gives birth.
Innovators have figured out a scientific way that the best cows can produce additional offspring, making more top quality genetics available to livestock producers across the Midwest.
Clay Breiner, Kendra Rock-Breiner, and Joel Anderson are the owners of Cross Country Genetics, which specializes in this work. The business was founded by Kirk Gray, a 1982 graduate of Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
After graduation, Gray worked for Granada in Texas doing this type of work and eventually came back to Kansas where he founded Cross Country Genetics.
Clay Breiner grew up on a Wabaunsee County ranch, earned a degree in animal science in 1998 and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from K-State in 2002. He went to work for Cross Country Genetics after graduation.
In 2014, Anderson – an Ohio State veterinary medicine graduate — joined the company.
Gray retired in 2020 and the Breiners purchased the business. Breiner’s wife Kendra, also a DVM with degrees from K-State and Oklahoma State, specializes in the in vitro fertilization work. They are supported by a team of skilled technicians.
Cross Country Genetics specializes in embryo transfer of beef cattle. This involves a month-long process with each cow, beginning with stimulating the donor cow to produce additional oocytes, which are artificially inseminated with semen from a bull with desirable characteristics.
The fertilized embryos are flushed from the donor cow, microscopically examined and carefully preserved. Those embryos can ultimately be transferred to a recipient cow, which will carry them to full term with a natural birth.
The scientific process is managed very carefully. When the embryos are to be frozen, sucrose and then ethylene glycol are used to dehydrate the cells so that they can be frozen safely. When ready for freezing, the embryos are plunged into a liquid nitrogen container where the temperature is a minus 196 degrees. (And you thought January’s temperatures were cold.)
In the end, the genetic characteristics of the cow are multiplied, not modified. No surgery is involved on the cow.
Cross Country Genetics first opened in the rural community of Keats, population 96 people. Now, that’s rural.
The business then moved to a 320 acre parcel of land where it is today in Pottawatomie County south of Westmoreland. This Flint Hills rangeland is ideal for care of the donor cows that come to the facility.
Cross Country Genetics expanded to a second state-of-the-art facility in central Oklahoma and most recently added a site in Warsaw, Missouri. In addition, many services are performed at the customer’s locations across the Midwest.
“We’ll put in 50 or 60,000 miles on a car in a year,” Breiner said. Recent customer visits took him from Nevada, Missouri to the sandhills of Nebraska.
In addition to embryo collections and fresh or frozen embryo transfer, the business offers ultrasound pregnancy diagnosis, fetal aging and sexing, and more.
“The IVF side of the business has doubled,” Breiner said, adding that it is now possible to determine and select the gender of the embryo. Furthermore, with an intervention at a particular time, it is possible to create twins from a single embryo. Breiner served as national president of the American Embryo Transfer Association in 2022.
The ultimate goal of this work is to expand the genetic impact of high quality cows. “By the time a cow is six years old, she would have had five calves,” Breiner said. “Using embryo transfer, by the time she’s that age, there could be 25 to 50 calves carrying her genetics.”
For more information, see www.crosscountrygenetics.com.
How do we multiply the miracle of birth – or at least expand and enhance the number of high quality calves born for livestock producers across the midwest?
We commend Clay Breiner, Kendra Rock-Breiner, Joel Anderson, and all those involved with Cross Country Genetics for making a difference by using science to improve genetics for livestock production across the Heartland.
They are making miracles multiply.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
