The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Agriculture and Energy

Related Photos

  • Dr. Barry Pollard looks at his prized clone, 2424, at his farm east of Waukomis. Pollard Farms encompasses 6,000 acres of land in Garfield County for farming and a cattle cloning operation. (Staff Photo by SHAWN YORKS)

    Pollard_4_SY.jpg

  • Pollard Farms, east of Waukomis, encompasses 6,000 acres of land in Garfield County for farming and a cattle cloning operation. (Staff Photo by SHAWN YORKS)

    Pollard_2_SY.jpg

  • Pollard Farms, east of Waukomis, encompasses 6,000 acres of land in Garfield County for farming and a cattle cloning operation. (Staff Photo by SHAWN YORKS)

    Cover_Pollard_1_SY.jpg

  • Pollard Farms, east of Waukomis, encompasses 6,000 acres of land in Garfield County for farming and a cattle cloning operation. (Staff Photo by SHAWN YORKS)

    Pollard_1_SY.jpg

Discussion

April 11, 2010

Building a special breed

Pollard finds success in cloning cattle at his ranch in Garfield County

By Joe Malan, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

WAUKOMIS — Head east of here on Wood Road, and a little ways down you’ll come to what appears to be a small ranch tucked on the north side of the road.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Pollard Farms actually encompasses 6,000 acres of land in Garfield County. It is home to not only a large plot of farmland but a significant cattle cloning operation as well.

Dr. Barry Pollard, who owns Pollard Farms with his wife, Roxanne, has cloned angus beef for several years.

The farm currently has 24 bovine cloned from five cows.

Vince Roberts, Pollard Farms manager, said the farm’s cloning operation is expansive.

“This may be the largest concentration of cloned (cattle) in the country,” he said as he drove through one of the farm’s pastures, trying to get the attention of a few cattle with his pickup horn.

Roberts said the cloning operation began a few years ago with a cow that was a quality genetic representation of its breed.

As Pollard Farms continued to grow, the farm was able to buy additional cattle with quality genetic makeups, and from there they decide which animals to clone.

Pollard said, as a physician, he had a high interest in genetics, and he was curious to explore the facets of genetics in cattle, specifically how they could be replicated to improve the overall quality of cattle in the country.

Pollard used the example of a cow that requires only three pounds of feed to produce one pound of meat.

Another cow might need eight pounds of feed to produce a pound of meat.

But if you take the cow that requires three pounds and clone that cow, it is more efficient for the farm as a whole because it takes less feed to manage a herd.

“If we cut it down by half, one half of the corn can be used for something else,” Pollard said, adding ethanol production is a popular example of demand for corn.

Other desirable traits — performance, health, fertility and marbling, which is fat content and appearance — also can be replicated with ease by cloning good cattle.

In order to produce cattle that suitable for cloning, Pollard said the farm buys DNA from some of the best bulls in the country.

A piece of tissue usually is taken from the ear or neck or a nearby area of the cow.

The tissue is inserted into liquid nitrogen and sent to Trans-Ova Genetics in Sioux Center, Iowa, which grows clones for Pollard Farms.

Inside the lab, the tissue continues to grow as cells multiply. When the sample is ready, DNA from the tissue cell is extracted. Meanwhile, DNA is removed from an embryo, and the DNA from the tissue cell is implanted into the embryo.

The embryo is inserted into a cow, where it grows into a sort of replica of the animal from which it was cloned.

“It’s a three-year period from the time you decide to clone until the cattle has its offspring,” Pollard said.

Though cloning cattle slowly is becoming more inexpensive, Pollard doesn’t believe it ever will become common, due to the still hefty price involved and the number of cattle worthy of being cloned.

Pollard believes cloning should only be considered on “really superb animals.”

“I think it truly should be saved for special animals,” he said.

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