January 2024 News

Lonny Flack has written another witty segment about raising and showing Shorthorns over many years. It is part 4 of the “A Shorthorn Heritage” articles, and it will be posted within the next week or two in the Cattle Viewpoints Section of the HSS website. Be sure to look for it.

The ad below about Heritage Shorthorns will be in the January/February 2024 issue of “Grit” magazine. This ad will also be in the May/June 2024 Grit issue. These ads were initiated and financed with a generous matching donation by an HSS member who prefers to remain unnamed. A huge thanks to this generous person, in helping to promote Heritage Shorthorns to a wider audience of potential buyers.

Another in a series of Heritage Shorthorn Society ads will be in the January 15, 2024 edition of the “Canadian Shorthorn Report” to encourage continuing interest in Heritage Shorthorn bloodlines by Canadian Shorthorn breeders.

An extensive article is scheduled in the January issue of the “Canadian Shorthorn Report” about Heritage Shorthorns and the Heritage Shorthorn Society. We expect this article to stimulate even more interest in Heritage Shorthorn genetics in Canada. An increasing number of American Heritage Shorthorns are being sold into Canada because the Canadian Shorthorn industry is interested in diversifying with quality traditional Shorthorn genetics, rather than just “modern show cattle”.

It’s amazing how many thousands of units of valuable old Heritage Shorthorn semen have been lost over the past 5-10+ years because of various issues. HSS has heard many sad accounts about lost semen due to: “wasn’t using it so I just threw it out to make more room in my tanks”, or “forgot to have the liquid nitrogen replenished and lost everything in the tanks”, or “one semen tank failed due to a defect, and everything in that tank was lost”, or “a tank was sold after someone passed away to a non-Shorthorn breeder who didn’t realize the potential value of the older semen”, or “straws or amps were lost because of transportation problems when trying to transfer the semen”, etc. In 2024 make sure that your semen tanks are routinely serviced, and consider chatting with any retiring breeders about their plans for older Shorthorn semen which they may have in their semen tanks.