Ethan Vorhes knows the quality of Canadian livestock genetics and he wants them in his cattle herd.
His parents have 4,000 head of finishing pigs on their farm in Marble Rock, Iowa, an operation built largely on Canadian genetics.
However, to do the same with his cattle business, the 21 year old has been forced to slowly build a Charolais herd on this side of the border, mostly because he can’t take his purchases home.
“I just leave them with the people I bought them from,” he said during Canadian Western Agribition, where he was showing a heifer in both the First Lady classic and the Charolais show.
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But Vorhes, the only American Charolais exhibitor, wants to incorporate those genetics into his Iowa herd.
He has three cows and two heifers in Canada right now and hopes to be able to ship embryos south next spring.
“They fit what I like in cattle better: big easy-doing cows, a lot of hair, they can handle a hard winter,” he said.
“I get the genetics I think would do good down there.”
He has 50 cows in Iowa, about half of them purebred Charolais and the rest recipients: commercial cows for embryo implants.
However, he also has a herd of small, black Lowlines.
Those are for his nieces and nephews so they can learn to enjoy the cattle business, too, he said.
Vorhes would like to see Charolais have a bigger profile in his state, but purebred cattle aren’t the main focus.
“The steer business is really big.”
There is little talk about the closed border there, although Vorhes said people have been laid off at packing plants because of it.
“It should open and it will open,” he said. “It’s hurting our economy quite a bit.”
Vorhes hoped to pick up a couple of heifers at Agribition or perhaps during a dispersal sale in Alberta later this month to add to his Canadian collection.
His heifer did not fare as well as he had hoped in the Charolais show, but he could take a lesson from A. Sparrow Farms from Vanscoy, Sask.
After 34 years of exhibiting at Agribition, the farm won its first grand champion female prize. The win qualified the cow, Sparrows Splendour, to participate in the RBC Supreme Challenge, where it finished in the top 10.
“It’s more important what our bulls were doing here, because we sell bulls,” said Cam Sparrow, but he added it was gratifying to win the top spot after many reserve finishes.
