GILLILAND
LONGHORN RANCH-- We have a herd of 100 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 TTT ancestors in each pedigree and see if one ancestor transmits a dominant hornset. 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 linebreeding and periodic outcrossing to stack genes from similar and different pedigrees for additive effects.Different pedigree combinations are sometimes discovered to be synergistic. We hope there are some animals in our
herd that could enhance your program.