Agriculture: Onward & Upward

Most beef cattle are doomed to the butcher’s block. Not Sam 951. A 2,500-lb. Charolais breeding bull, Sam lives in a red-carpeted, maple-paneled building, breathes humidity-controlled air. By pampering him, Owners Charley Litton, 56, and Son Jerry, 29, of Chillicothe, Mo., hope to keep the eight-year-old animal going at assembly-line efficiency for at least seven more years. Like other prize breeding bulls, Sam is big business; this year alone, he is expected to sire more than 8,000 calves by artificial insemination.

What makes Sam particularly valuable is that the Charolais is a relatively new and increasingly popular breed in the U.S. The first Charolais in North America were brought to Mexico from their native France in the 1920s. But for years U.S. foot-and-mouth-disease restrictions and Mexican law allowed them to trickle north of the border only periodically. Nonetheless, the creamy-white, deep-chested Charolais quickly caught on with U.S. cattlemen because they are one of the world’s heaviest breeds. They grow faster than most cattle; after weaning, many gain 100 lbs. a month. Two years ago, there were 30,000 purebred Charolais in the U.S. Today, there are nearly 50,000, plus another 200,000 crossbreeds.

By doing his part in that population explosion, Sam 951 has been a big moneymaker. The Littons bought Sam as a two-month-old calf for $10,000, soon found that he was perfectly suited for breeding: Sam has the size, color and easy disposition of the best Charolais, has proved unusually effective in passing along those traits to his progeny. A small vial of his semen, enough to impregnate one cow, sells for $10. The Littons sell the semen abroad as well as in the U.S., take in $80,000 a year on such transactions. Looking back on his original investment, Jerry Litton happily calls Sam 951 “an accident.”

Because of the potential returns, all cattle breeders watch closely for just such “accidents.” A completely unexpected one, for example, has turned up at Bueyeros, N. Mex., involving a six-year-old Hereford bull named Doctor Onward 211. The bull, it seems, has 14 ribs instead of the usual 13. More than that, it has passed on the mutation to many of its offspring. Of the 200 calves sired so far by Doctor Onward, 65 have been born with an extra rib—and thus an extra cut of valuable beef.