LONDON, Ohio — COBA has been a vital part of Ohio agriculture since 1946, and a part of the Farm Science Review (FSR) since the show’s beginning 50 years ago.

“We believe it is important to have a presence at Farm Science Review, as it allows us to visit with many of our customers on a face-to-face basis,” said Bernie Heisner, general manager of COBA/Select Sires. “As an Ohio-based cooperative, we believe it is important to have a presence at the largest and most prestigious farm show in Ohio.”

COBA has about 110 employees and Select Sires employs 200 people. Heisner said COBA was formed as a cooperative in 1946 to provide safe insemination services, disease-free and with no physical danger from a bull, for dairy and beef farmers.

In 1965, COBA was one of the four original cooperatives to join to form Select Sires, so that young sires could be sampled more accurately and they could provide the best information on proven sires for their customer-member-owners.

Prior to 1965, COBA chose its own bulls, collected and processed the semen and then sold it to customers. COBA is the only cooperative involved in the original formation of Select Sires still in business today.

With the formation of Select Sires, it is responsible for securing top young sires and collecting and assuring only the highest fertility semen is processed and frozen and shipped to the nine Member Cooperatives (such as COBA). Select Sires coordinates the sampling of young sires to ensure the information on proven animals is the most accurate and unbiased genetic evaluations possible.

In recent years, it has added sexed semen and genomic information on young Jersey, Holstein and Brown Swiss sires. COBA offers a unique heat detection system for consideration of their customers; Select Detect uses a radio transponder on the cow’s neck strap to monitor increased movement during the cow’s heat cycle.

 COBA is responsible for the marketing of semen, providing semen and nitrogen. It also provides the technicians as well as mating specialists to make mating recommendations to maximize improvement of herds, and reproductive specialists to assist customers in getting their cows and heifers pregnant with the least number of services.

“In the last 20 years COBA has grown from selling 500,000 units of semen a year to over 1.9 million units in 2011,” Heisner said. “COBA markets Select Sires semen in Ohio, western Pennsylvania and eastern Indiana, part of West Virginia, as well as Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico. 

“Select Sires is responsible for all international marketing of semen except to parts of Canada and Mexico.”

Heisner said participating in the FSR is beneficial to COBA/Select Sires.

“Many bovine artificial insemination companies no longer exhibit at FSR because of a decreasing emphasis on the livestock side of agriculture,” he said. “A greater proportion of equipment and products at Farm Science Review are related to the cropping side of agriculture.

“We believe it is valuable to interact with both existing and potential customers. It is beneficial to farmers because they can come to one location, view the latest in technology and visit face-to-face with those suppliers to get their questions answered.”