Sunday, February 18, 2007
enlarge
Staff photo s by David Leamingfrom the Kennebec Journal
QUESTIONS REMAIN
No complaints from those who switched to Somerset County center
Vote on 1 may hurt some in election
Steeple at center of debate in Whitefield
VETERANS REQUIRE ASSISTANCE: Homelessness takes center stage
J.P. DEVINE: Overcome sadness with hope
BASKETBALL: NBA Hall of Famer Barry doles out advice at Thomas College
HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY: Maranacook sophomore Mace dominates Class B field
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
A year later, families await answers on fatalities
Owner of topless coffee shop on the comeback trail
Officials report cheaper, better service after switch
Two people in critical condition
Young Marines stick to program
Issue of homeless veterans at center stage
GIRLS SOCCER STATE CHAMPIONSHIP: Winslow falls to York in Class B
Bard hits her marathon stride
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
With no farming background, but with a work ethic built during 26 years of self-employment in the commercial lobster business, Dennis and Sara Wilk, both 51, have jumped into a new venture in Maine.
The entrepreneurs now have a growing herd of more than 50 high-quality black Angus beef cattle on their 171-acre farm in Industry and others in western states. And Wilk is implementing an ambitious genetics-based beef breeding program that he believes is the most comprehensive in the state.
Not long after he knew nothing about cattle, Wilk now is versed in the cutting-edge technology of breeding that gets more cows pregnant and results in genetically superior calves.
"We had to self-teach everything. When we started out, no one thought we would make it," Sara Wilk said over a cup of coffee after the couple had finished feeding the herd in blustery, sub-zero weather.
Dennis Wilk summed up their goal: "We want to help put the Maine beef market back on the map. But to succeed, you have to raise cattle that can be marketed across the country."
Wilk, who holds a degree in criminal law and juvenile justice, worked for less than a year in that field before he realized he could make more money digging clams. That eventually led to his buying a lobster boat and learning the lobstering trade, and later, starting his own lobster wholesale business.
Sara Wilk worked alongside him on the boat for 10 years.
"Here's a woman who can handle 300 four-foot-long traps in a day that each weigh 50 pounds, and she pulled in 1,000 feet of rope," Dennis Wilk said of his wife. "We are used to hard work. After lobstering, this work is like butter."
n n n
"When we started out, I read every piece of Angus and livestock literature I could get my hands on. When I wasn't selling lobsters, I was learning about cattle," Dennis Wilk said.
As the business grew, he studied what animals were going for at the big sales and started using those bulls to fertilize his herd.
"In the past two years, we have been using the finest genetics money can buy," he said.
Wilk saw the profit potential of buying and selling top-of-the-line Angus, but found Maine was not where he would make his mark.
"I knew my market was not in Maine. I could never get the money I needed here to make this a viable business. I built my herd to market around the country," he said.
According to the American Angus Association, Montana has about 30,600 registered Angus cattle while Maine has 142 -- of which 30 belong to the Wilks.
According to Clint Giustra, livestock specialist with the Maine Department of Agriculture, there are between 35,000 and 40,000 head of beef cattle in Maine. Compare that to Virginia, where there are 750,000 beef cows.
Giustra said more Maine beef farmers are responding to consumer demand for beef raised without antibiotics or growth hormones. At Pineland Farms Natural Beef, based in New Gloucester, the for-profit arm of Wolfe's Neck Farm in Freeport, 5,000 head are processed each year and Maine farmers are being recruited to get into the business.
"Maine has an extraordinarily successful program and is the only state in the Northeast that showed an increase in its cattle herd," Giustra said. "Angus cattle are always highly desirable. They have a naturally superior carcass, high-retail yield and palatability with marbling and tenderness. Right now, black-hided cattle demand a premium price."
Giustra said the Wilks' focus on genetics could help the whole industry in Maine.
"A lot of folks in the purebred cattle industry in Maine are interested in the show ring or in growth. The reality is, we eat beef cattle," Giustra said. "Dennis is collecting a great source of genetics based on carcass weight, and he is marketing that throughout the country and the Northeast."
"If no one knows who you are or where you are, then what you have won't matter," he said. "The demand for Dennis' quality bulls is high. If you take one of those bulls, with all the performance data behind it, you will improve your herd and he will help you do that."
n n n
The Wilks bought the former Sherman Tracy dairy farm on the New Sharon Road in 2000 as a second home.
The following year, they bought a three-year-old Angus cow from a breeder they met at Fryeburg Fair and slowly built their herd to 11. The next year, they went to an out-of-state livestock sale and were shocked at the prices.
A half-interest in a 14-year-old Black Angus "donor cow" whose eggs have been used to produce top-quality animals sold for $200,000. Most lots didn't go for under $15,000.
"Right away I said, 'Why are these people paying this kind of money for these animals?' That is what intrigued me," Wilk said.
In 2004, the couple traveled to Kentucky, bought half-interest in their first donor cow and brought her home to Maine.
Wilk now talks about EPDs -- Expected Progeny Differences -- and intramuscular fat that is measured through ultrasound technology. These are among the data used by the American Angus Association to track and compare an animal's genetics and quality.
For his program, Wilk relies on Genex Cooperative, Inc., a top genetics and reproduction center that is a pioneer the industry. For breeding, he transports his donor cows to Double Diamond Genetics in Illinois.
At the lab, hormone shots are used to bring animals into a super-ovulated heat where several eggs are produced. The cows are artificially inseminated by different bulls and the embryos removed, frozen and implanted into the Wilks' commercial Black Angus "recip cows," or surrogate mothers living in herds in Idaho and Nebraska. The embryo success rate is 67 percent, Wilk said.
The sex of the fetus is determined after 90 days. Heifer pregnancies are sold for between $6,000 and $8,000, while bull calves are brought to term and sold to commercial breeders. This June, Wilk said he will be placing 70 embryos, and he is already looking ahead to 2009.
Seven heifers will be brought back to Maine for sale in October, along with 15 calves born at the farm last fall.
n n n
In 2004, King & I Angus was named Conservation Farm of the Year by the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District. Relying on advice from District Conservationist Paul Hersey and grant assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Wilks cleared and expanded pasture land, built two free-stall barns and winter paddocks on concrete slabs, put up electric fencing and installed automatic flow water systems with 2,000 feet of pipeline. They also stabilized a water runoff area, developed a rotational grazing program and built a manure storage facility. The Wilks also have bought 130 acres of hay fields in the Sandy River Valley.
"(The conservation district) has been an endless source of information and help.
We could not have been able to reach our goals in such as short time without their advice," Dennis Wilk said.
His long-range plan is to continue to bring in the best beef genetics in the Northeast and hold a public auction of his calves in 2008.
In June, the couple will host an open house and farm tour. Speakers will include Giustra, of the Department of Agriculture, who will demonstrate ultrasound, as well as livestock specialists from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, genetic experts and Angus breeders.
"If you had told me when we bought this farm that I would be where we are today, I would have looked at you and said you were crazy," Wilk said with a smile.
Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991
bjespersen@centralmaine.com
Reader comments
There are not yet any comments. Post your comment and it will appear here.
You must be a registered user of MaineToday.com to post a comment. Register or log in.