|
Brady Christopher Janssen |
The
History of Janssen Farms
Brady
Christopher Janssen, son of Chris and Dawn Janssen is the 6th
generation of the Janssen family who have enjoyed the pleasures
and faced the challenges of breeding purebred seed stock on the
rich Iowa black soil. Brady’s great, great grandfather John
Janssen, started the rich tradition of breeding Polled Hereford
cattle in the early 1930’s taking over
from his father who was a prominent area Horned Hereford breeder.
John’s foresight in switching from Horned to
Polled is well documented as he and his son, Harold, Brady’s
Great Grandfather, grew the operation to around 100 Registered
Polled Hereford cows by the 1960’s. The Janssen Polled Herefords
were bred with the same disciplined principals as the Simmental of
today. They were performance tested and only the best stayed on
the farm. When John retired in the early 1970’s, Brady’s
Grandfather, David, teamed up with his father to build one of the
most respected Polled Hereford herds in North America. |
| The Janssen bulls
were sold in many states including ND, SD, NE, IA, MO and Kansas
and were highly revered by commercial cattlemen seeking
performance animals in a time that was dominated by only
"phenotype." One of the Polled Hereford sires that
helped propel the 1970’s Janssen success was Banner 382J, a WSF
Banner son who proved to be one of the best maternal bulls of his
era in the breed.
In the Mid 1970’s David made the decision to
add a second breed to offer his commercial bull customers some
genetic diversity and heterosis. The "Exotic Boom" was
resounding across the country and David teamed up with neighboring
Simmental breeder, Golden Acres, to purchase several foundation
Simmental herd sires. In 1986 the decision was made to privately
disperse the 150 cow Polled Hereford herd and move in a different
direction with the Simmental operation, black!
By the late 1980’s
and early 1990’s Brady’s father, Chris, and his uncle, Jon,
were actively involved with foundation cow purchases, and started
the storied embryo transfer program that is the genetic backbone
of the JF nucleus herd. Today, the JF program consists of 60
registered Simmental cows, 30 Angus recipients and 10 Registered
Angus cows. Chris, David and their partner, Dr. David Duitscher,
also run a large scale embryo transfer business named Dutchland
Embryo Services. The embryo company office and service is
headquartered in the same barn as the sale will be held on
November 24th.
|
John Janssen |
Chris
and Dawn, and Jon and Maradith own most of the donors and some of
the registered cows while David and Kathy are the owners of the
remainder of the registered cows and most of the recipients. David
manages the day to day activities at Janssen Farms, and yes, Val,
Chris and I know, he and Grandpa Harold are the ones that do all
the work! If you can’t already tell, the team (family) at
Janssen Farms is extremely close.
We believe that family comes
first. That value was instilled in us originally by our Great
Grandfather, John to his son Harold then to his son David and will
be passed on to Chris’s son Brady. Chris and I are very
fortunate to have been raised as 5th generation Janssen’s by
good parents that set such a demanding precedence. We are also
grateful to have an excellent cooperator herd near Bismarck, ND,
Berg Ranch, where we transfer 80 to 100 embryos each year. All of
the April born calves in this offering were raised in ND under the
watchful eye of the Berg family. Special thanks to them for a job
well done! Also, special thanks to Jeff Joyce, who helped break
the 30+ open JF heifers and has been a great asset. |
Madeline Miriam Janssen |
|
 |
|
|
