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IGENITY RESULTS CONFIRM WILODGE CERBERUS IS HOMOZYGOUS FOR THE F94L ‘PROFIT’ GENE
22/05/2009
Wilodge Cerberus semen available for purchase from Monday 1st June
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Test results conducted by Igenity have confirmed that the Limousin bull Wilodge Cerberus is homozygous for the F94L gene, dubbed the ‘profit’ gene. This means that Cerberus is a double carrier of the gene which has been shown to increase the weight of prime cuts by 19% and overall beef yield by 7%. The gene, a modification of the myostatin gene called F94L, is shown to occur with high frequency in Limousin cattle but with very low frequencies in other breeds.
Animals with two copies of the gene have been shown to consume the same amount of feed as animals with no copies of the gene, and with the clear advantages shown in weight of prime cuts and yield, they are therefore much more efficient at producing beef. The F94L gene also increases tenderness shear force testing in meat from animals with two copies of the gene requiring 11 percent less force to cut a sample of the eye round muscle compared to animals with no copies of the gene. The F94L gene is not the same modification of the myostatin gene which causes double muscling in breeds such as the Belgian Blue. Research has shown that the F94L variation of the myostatin gene does not have any deleterious effects on birth weight or calving difficulty.
The F94L tests were conducted prior to Wilodge Cerberus semen being made available exclusively through the e-commerce website www.semenestore.co.uk by Cerberus’s owner Mr Allan Jenkinson, Whinfellpark Limousins, Clifton Moor, Clifton, Penrith. The sale of Wilodge Cerberus semen has been brought forward and will now be launched and available on the site from Monday 1st June.
Commenting, Nick Scholefield, Whinfellpark Estate Manager said, “Availability of Wilodge Cerberus’s semen has been eagerly anticipated, which is no surprise as his exceptional shape and breeding is backed up by a Beef Value of LM+46, in the top 1%, as well as being in the top 1% for 200 and 400 day growth and Muscle Depth. He is being marketed as being ‘packed with breeding and performance’ and as such I am delighted that he has now been confirmed as carrying two copies of the F94L “Profit” gene. He truly is an exciting all-round bull!” Wilodge Cerberus semen, available worldwide, is being sold at £50.00 per straw with no Semen Royalty.
Wilodge Cerberus is the outstanding January 2007 born bull that made the 50,000gns top price, the fourth highest price paid for a Limousin bull at auction in the UK, when leading the trade at the British Limousin Cattle Society’s Autumn Bull Sale at Carlisle in October 2008. An embryo calf, Cerberus is sired by Wilodge Tonka, an Oxygene son who had himself sold for 30,000gns at Carlisle in October 2003. Full of breeding, Wilodge Cerberus’s dam is the 1999 born Wilodge Priceless, a daughter of the famous Broadmeadows Cannon and out of the Epatant-sired Wilodge Littlegem. Visual appearance is complemented by performance figures, with Cerberus carrying a Beef Value of LM+46 and a Muscle Depth of +7.2 which puts him easily into the top 1% of recorded Limousins.