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GILLILAND RANCH NEWS— FALL  2021

Welcome to the new Gilliland Ranch homepage revised by Hired Hand. We feature photos of 3 home grown, world class heifers shown above which project to the high 90's TTT---GLR Top 20 Gal, GLR Tsunamis Tuff Pearl and GLR 20 Whip Er Wil Gal. The system is working.

POLITICS ---I can't discuss politics this time. The open southern border policy has lead to unvetted immigration, increased crime, fentanyl trafficking and rampant Covid-19 cases in Texas. Combine that with the anti police sentiment, lenient prosecution, military blunders in Afghanistan, a $3.5 trillion "infrastructure" bill, increased taxes /inflation and this country is headed for unprecedented problems. It leaves me speechless. Dr. Red Duke used to say... "I have been to a lot of county fairs, but I have never seen anything quite like this!" I'm sure he is rolling over in his grave.

FALL BREEDING--The fall 2021 breeding season will be busy doing embryo transfers. We chose our top 10 cows and got embryos from them. The process is expensive with highly variable success rates (0-80%) but we are optimistic-- you have to be in this business.

SALES--We plan to attend Lynn and Josie Struthoff's "Deep in the Heart of Texas " sale in San Antonio 9/11/21,Justin Rombeck's Longhorn Legends Sale 9/17/21,The Fred Bryant Memorial Longhorn Sale in Springfield,Mo 10/2/21 and the TLBAA HSC in Ft Worth 11/12/21. Bear Davidson's East Coast Classic looks great but it conflicts with a more geographically desirable Texas sale. I plan to consign 3 cows to the HSC that have been great producers for us (see 2021 Consignments; ad forthcoming).

SD CORNELIA MARI--85'' TTT; 3:1
MINT JULEP 323/0 -- 82'' TTT; 3:1
GLR TSUNAMIS DIXIE GAL-- 70'' TTT calf at side

Finally, we have some young herd sires with 1/2 interest for sale---TKR Royal T, Texas Tuff GLR and Gold Maxim GLR ( see Sr. & Jr. herd sire category). We had an exciting bull calf prospect with the most unique color I have seen in the industry. Color that only comes along rarely-- BLUE MOON GLR ( TKR Royal T X Archer's 20Gauge Gal)-- photo below.The color is grulla with a reverse brindle(white streaks). We will check his DNA for color but he is probably carrying both the wild gene and dilution gene. Add a pedigree with 9 over 90'' TTT and 24 over 80" TTT and you have a rare animal.We are excited to be partners on Blue Moon GLR with Wayne Manning of the M7 Ranch in Aledo, TX. Thanks Wayne! It will be interesting to see how he develops.

See you down the road,
Mark Gilliland MD 


GILLILAND LONGHORN RANCH

We have a herd of  150 registered Texas Longhorns in the Kansas Flint Hills at the Oklahoma border. We combine the art and science of breeding using artificial insemination, embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization to create the best animal possible. Our goal is the complete package prioritizing a low twisty hornset  with great tip to tip measurements along with correct conformation, color, and disposition. That said, the most important trait is the ability to reproduce those traits in progeny. We have gone through each animal in our herd for several generations back to document the number of 80ʼʼ–90ʼʼ-100'' TTT ancestors in each pedigree and see if one ancestor transmits a dominant horn set. We try to genetically fix  that low twisty lateral horn length into each animalʼs blood line without compromising the total package. A pedigree with many high TTT ancestors indicates there is a higher heritability factor with more predictability. We also experiment with line breeding and  periodic outcrossing to stack genes from similar and different pedigrees for additive effects.We have discovered certain  pedigree combinations which are synergistic. When we discover them, the cow goes immediately into our OPU/IVF program to enhance our  future results. We hope there are some animals in our herd that could enhance your program.