Our Donor herd is made up of 20-25 elite stud females, selected from the stud herd largely on pedigree, breed performance and structure.
These females act as a catalyst to enhance desired attributes and the spread of new sire lines; also to breed and maintain desired internal family lines in the Milwillah herd.
The Donor herd is currently made up of descendants of the cows VTMR312, VTMR182, and VTMR426, and of late has been used to line breed these families with homebred bulls of the same background, to ensure that the longevity of these families is achieved.
Two exciting new sire lines have also been introduced into the donor program in recent months. With these, we are looking to further promote muscularity and softness in our cattle, with an emphasis on calving ease to 400-day growth spread.
With 130 embryos frozen from each of these new sire lines, out of closely related female lines, we are able to get a good sample of progeny quickly. From this we will be able to improve where we see necessary and get a good gauge on whether these lines fit our parameters in terms of consistency of type.
Current donor cows, with complete pedigrees, are listed below. Current photos and vision will be available in early Spring.