Tourists who visit Lake County want to see what you would expect them to: Gurnee Mills for a whirlwind shopping spree; Ravinia for a potpourri of music; Great America for the ride of their lives on a giant roller coaster; the beautifully landscaped beaches along Lake Michigan; and maybe Lake Forest to catch a glimpse of a Chicago Bears workout.
And, of course, Scarlett, a Lake County superstar.
Scarlett? Before you rethink your geography and think you’re at Tara in the heart of the Confederacy, waiting for Rhett to come back and the South to rise again, read on.
This Scarlett is on the Lake County Convention & Tourism Bureau’s suggested stops for international visitors to see one of the world’s most sought-after stars.
What in the name of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh do we mean? Well, before you think the tourism folks have sipped a few too many mint juleps, it seems that Scarlett is a 10-year-old cow that grazes comfortably on the Golden Oaks Farms in Wauconda, one of the biggest farms in Lake County.
Scarlett isn’t your average Holstein. She’s a red-and-white cow as opposed to your more standard black-and-white model. But it isn’t just her hue that makes tourists–and farmers–cry out for a peek at her.
In a world where people are just learning about advances in cloning of animals, transferring of cow embryos has become common and a big business. And when you have a track record like Scarlett’s, word gets out that she may be the Secretariat of cows–at least in this area.
Gary Janssen, who manages Golden Oaks’ 3,000 acres, explained that Scarlett is a registered purebred Holstein, and because of her unique color, the demand for her embryos has reached international proportions.
“To tell you the truth, the demand has slowed a bit lately, but her embryos have brought great demand not just in the Midwest and the United States but all over the world,” Janssen noted.
Because red Holsteins are rare–they don’t produce any special type of milk (forget ideas of strawberry shakes)–they do bring a higher price for embryos on the breeding market. But it is the careful records that are kept of a cow’s reproductive capabilities that allow her to get a high pedigree, if you will, from groups such as the National Holstein Association and the Red and White Dairy Cattle Association. Dairy and cattle farmers all over the world can tap into this information and receive a high-tech readout of which cows are the best. And they can bring a top dollar.
“Agents are out there all of the time, looking for the top-bred cattle for this purpose,” Janssen explained. “In Scarlett’s case, she has a top pedigree, and the fact that she’s red and white, unlike most Holsteins that are black and white, means she can bring a good dollar for her embryos.”
John Carpenter, spokesman for the Red and White Association, based in Crystal Spring, Pa., explained that Scarlett is, say, a kind of Drew Barrymore in the cow world. (Of course, the Barrymores have been the cream of the crop among actors.) She came from the first family of red-and-white Holsteins, starting with her Canadian grandmother and her Indiana mother. “This cow is known around the world,” he said. “In the red business, this is the No. 1 cow family.”
He also explained that reds aren’t as rare as they once were, guessing 2 to 4 percent of the Holstein population, but members of this particular cow family are capable of producing incredible quantities of milk, are prodigious reproducers and, of course, have that unique color.
Considering the financial possibilities, the sale and distribution of embryos is similar to the breeding of race horses and has similar risks.
“Just because you have a superior athletic performer doesn’t mean that it’s going to be passed on to the offspring in any animal,” said Dr. Stephen Hopkins of the Iowa State University School of Veterinary Medicine, who has done testing and research on cow embryo development and transfer for more than 20 years. “Even with all of the production data that is kept on offspring, and there is tremendous work done in this area, it doesn’t mean it will continually be passed off to another animal.”
Embryo sales are not unique to Scarlett. Mark Irwin, who works at Golden Oaks Farms’ 500-acre Antioch location, said there are about 10 cows on that farm whose embryos are shipped for sale, but they haven’t had the interest that Scarlett has generated.
“But, indeed, a red cow is unusual, and that’s why she is so popular,” Irwin said. “Some of the other farmers who buy the embryos want to see if they can get a red cow out of the embryo, but that’s not a guarantee.”
Irwin also noted that international tourists coming out to see a cow with a bright red color may be somewhat disappointed; it’s more a shade of “reddish brown.” He and Janssen also reported that tourists who get to see Scarlett on the Lake County tour don’t seem to upset the animal. Maybe it’s the Hollywood in her. (By the way, don’t bother dropping by for a visit; for the time being, Scarlett is available only to international agricultural tourists, according to the tourism bureau.)
Genetics being what they are, purchasing one of Scarlett’s embryos doesn’t guarantee a bunch of candidates for an all-cow casting of “I Love Lucy.”
If the bull whose semen is used to fertilize one of Scarlett’s eggs carries the gene for red color, then there still is just a 50-50 chance that the offspring will be red. And in some cases, the bull may not have the red gene at all, according to Janssen, because the desired result simply may be the exceptional physical characteristics rather than the red color.
Apparently, buyers like the odds. Scarlett has drawn interest from breeders as far away as Japan, although there seems to be a concentrated interest in France, Holland and Switzerland, where national regulations regarding the importation of live cattle vary from those in the United States. It’s no coincidence that those three European countries are known for their production and export of cheese.
“However, we’ve seen now that they do have great cows in other countries,” Janssen said. “In fact, due to their own breeding and work with embryos, they are actually shipping some of their own cow embryos back to the United State for sale.”
How much do Scarlett’s potential offspring bring on the open market? It varies. Some as high as $2,000 for a single embryo, although the market has softened through the years because of advanced research, according to Hopkins.
“When the original research began in the early 1970s, after they tested it with rabbits and other animals, a single embryo from a cow could bring as much as $50,000, which was a lot of money then and now, but it was a new science and unique,” Hopkins said. “It’s come down significantly since then, although in the case of the cow in Lake County being a red, it can bring a pretty handsome dollar.”
By comparison, in Israel, where the recent birth of a red heifer is believed to be the first in 2,000 years, some fundamentalist religious groups are hailing the birth as a sign of a coming Messiah.
In Scarlett’s case, it has just been the coming of money. When she was purchased six years ago by Golden Oaks, the farm paid $57,000. Officials wouldn’t say how many embryos she has produced since then, but Janssen said with a laugh, “She has paid for herself, believe me.” (At Golden Oaks alone, she reportedly has produced more than 90 calves.)
Although embryo transfer is a relatively new phenomenon, transfer of bull semen has been fairly common on Lake County and Midwestern farms for decades. Some bull semen has been frozen in nitrogen for as long as 50 years and dispatched around the world, according to Janssen, who went to work for Golden Oaks Farms owners Lester and John Crown eight years ago.
Mark Olbrich, who farms about 950 acres in Harvard, was intrigued by Scarlett’s track record and bought one of Scarlett’s embryos for about $1,500. He was more interested in the quality of the cow and its embryo than its color.
“What we did on Scarlett was put one of her embryos, which was about a Grade 2 (Grade 1 is the best) and placed it in a good quality animal,” Olbrich explained. “As it turned out, the offspring wasn’t red. . . .” But Olbrich thought the gamble was worth it.
“There are advantages, particularly when you get a donor that has a high pregnancy rate like Scarlett had,” Olbrich noted, meaning many of her implanted embryos result in calves. “But this is a risky business. Even if you are paying around $1,500 for a donor’s embryo, you aren’t counting the money you must pay to have the embryo implanted in the cow and other cost factors.”
Then there is the subject of frozen versus fresh. Frozen embryos taken from cows have a naturally longer shelf-life, but with today’s advances in transportation, Hopkins said, an embryo can be taken from a cow such as Scarlett and be in a European host the next day.
“You are dealing with fewer risks, shipping them live, than frozen,” Hopkins added.
So how is Scarlett enjoying this national and international attention? She hasn’t commented publicly yet, but Janssen said she enjoys a pretty good life.
“Really hard to say. She’s got her own stall in the barn, and life has been pretty good for her,” he said. “I would have to say with all she goes through, she is comfortable all of the time.”
It may not be Tara for Scarlett, but tomorrow is another day.
