The DMM prefix of the Miller Wilson herd is a familiar one to most Angus breeders in Ireland. From its Canadian base, the genetics from this famous herd can now be seen worldwide.

The Miller Wilson herd is owned by Lee and Dawn Wilson, and is located near Bashaw, Alberta, where they raise both black and red Angus cattle. No strangers to Ireland, both Lee and Dawn have judged at Tullamore Show in recent years.

The Wilson family.

Both come from strong cattle backgrounds, and the Wilsons have been rearing Angus animals on their farm for over 50 years.

Describing their setup, Lee says: “This was Dawn’s homeplace. She moved here when she was 11 or so. I come from an hour away. We originally had Hereford and Shorthorn and I bought my first Angus in 1980. I actually got two heifers as my wages from the Skillymarno herd I worked with at the time. My own family [the Wilsons] has had purebreds for over 120 years.”

Following his “living wages”, Lee’s parents later purchased a significant part of the remaining Skillymarno herd and a new 55-head herd was born.

Not far away, Dawn was playing a big hand in the development of the DMM herd, with 1983 seeing the birth of the still influential sire DMM Essoteric 67R.

That bull was the genesis of a strong line of super females that remain at the core of the Miller Wilson herd to this day.

Both Dawn and Lee share the philosophy that it’s the strength of the cow that makes the bull, with Dawn saying: “If you build a great cow herd, everything else will fall into place.”

Shows

The Miller Wilson herd is renowned on the show circuit, having produced generation after generation of champions. It’s only fitting that the show ring was where Dawn and Lee would first meet, before marriage and a combined herd followed.

In 1989, Lee moved his cows to the Miller ranch and, so, Miller Wilson Angus was formed. They went from strength to strength, with the DMM prefix in the back breeding of many great Angus cattle.

One of the great cows produced in the early years was DMM Miss Essence 22B. This cow stood as Canadian show female of the year on two occasions, as well as producing a number of high sellers both in Canada and further afield.

One to shine was The Moss Mr Eshton sold to the UK for 36,000gns in 2007, while a granddaughter, Netherton Missie A114 hit 30,000gns.

We have a set of young ones coming that should hopefully give us a lot to pick from in the coming years

Shows still remain the cornerstone of the herd’s success and marketability. Since 2005, Farmfair show in Edmonton has given the owner of the supreme male and supreme female champion a brand new truck to drive home in – Dawn and Lee have amassed seven such trucks.

“We’ve being lucky. We’ve always had cows come [along at the right time]. We didn’t have a pair this year because some of the donors were open but we’ll flush them and put them in calf. We have a set of young ones coming that should hopefully give us a lot to pick from in the coming years,” says Dawn.

The cows that delivered new trucks to the ranch are now household names for most breeders – DMM Miss Essence 21R, Miss Essence 147H and DMM Miss Essence 90K to name a few.

In more recent times, DMM Miss Essence 61W has been their go-to cow, with the majority of the herd’s 2019 show calves of her descent.

Looking ahead though, it is DMM Blackbird 105A that is set to take the torch as the head of the stable.

“DMM Blackbird 105A was female champion of the world. She’s as good a cow as we can produce. We can’t make them any better than her. Her bull DMM International was supreme champion of the world 2019. She won the supreme at Agribition when International was at her side and he won it then himself. He also won the supreme at Farmfair the same year,” says Dawn.

“As much as I love this calf crop of international calves, I’m more excited because of her. If they udder down like she did and everything, then it’s going to be really good.”

The herd

This year, the herd will calve down 170 cows, of which about 60 are the result of embryo transfer.

Summarising the herd’s calving philosophy, Lee says: “There will always be 15 to 20 cows in the barn ready to calf. If you got a calf of 80lbs to 90lbs with some hair, just dry them off and they’re good to go. A calf of 60lbs to 70lbs just doesn’t have the vigour and body mass to keep in the heat.

Donor cow and dam of DMM International DMM, Blackbird A105.

“Birthweights and calving ease are very important. A lot of the bull customers I sell to have 1,000 or 2,000 cows, with only two or three guys calving them. They’re out there and they can’t have calving problems.”

Lee continued to say that although expected progeny differences (EPD) can be used as a tool, they tend not to due to the inconsistencies they can show.

“We don’t look at EPDs. We weigh calves and send them in but don’t look at them. If I want to build an EPD, I’ve got to keep them all or send in phoney data. I won’t do that. The EPDs don’t work. ”

When asked about what traits he looks for when picking stock, Lee has clear ideas of the type of cow and bulls he wants on the farm.

“We’re not testing, but I reckon we might have some myostatin in the herd. You get that extreme thickness and it’s tough not to.

“What am I looking for? The same as everyone else without the EPD. Start with the mother or grandmother, follow the cows you know you like and hopefully she has a son along the way that can work for you. It doesn’t matter what the rest looks like if the feet and udders aren’t good. We’re always looking for a new sire but it’s hard.”

Myostatin testing in Ireland is quickly becoming the norm across most breeds, especially with regard to the Angus breed, but Dawn emphasises that if used correctly it can be a benefit to the breed.

“We’re not testing, but I reckon we might have some myostatin in the herd. You get that extreme thickness and it’s tough not to. We don’t have a problem with it, we’ve worked forever to make cattle thick. As long as you know where it is, then you just keep using it right.”

Sales

A large majority of Canadian herds host on-farm sales each year to sell their bull crop and a select amount of heifers.

However, this isn’t so on the Miller Wilson ranch, with the majority of transactions being private sales.

Speaking about this method, Lee said: “Having a sale we’d make more money on the top end, but when a breeder walks into the yard he wants to buy today and with a sale I can’t do that. We only sell 40 to 45 bulls with the bottom end taken out.”

Dawn adds: “I don’t think there’s anyone whose cattle are good enough not to take out a bottom end. People don’t think they have a bottom end but they have a bottom end.”

Bulls sold at home generally make in the region of $5,000 to $12,000, with a “special” one going to a pedigree herd having the potential to make substantially more.

“The best bulls generally go to good customers that come back every year. Our commercial guys, in a lot of cases, will pay more than pedigree guys.

“I prefer the commercial buyers. They come every year and they take three or four bulls. They pay more and more every year because they want the better end of the bulls.

Our commercial guys, in a lot of cases, will pay more than pedigree guys

"We have quite a few buyers now that keep their own carcase data and records and they’re making up to $120 premium on their carcases for marbling,” says Lee.

The herd also does good business for its heifers, with prices ranging from $5,000 to $7,000 – though all the top animals are kept on farm for breeding.

“Anything that’s isn’t good enough we’ll sell at the market and anything above that we’ll try to sell at home. If we don’t, we’ll use that bottom end for recipients. They’re really good heifers but we’re only keeping the very, very top end. It’ll depend on the year and how much money we need,” says Dawn.

Tip of the iceberg

While on-farm livestock sales contribute massively to the farm’s income, this is only the tip of the iceberg, with semen and embryo sales another main stream of income.

Lee has noticed a reduction in semen sales in recent years but a growing embryo trade: “We don’t even pursue the semen so much anymore because it’s hard to compete with the semen companies.

"You got to pay them to ship it, and they’re already all over the world.

“I can buy semen here and put an embryo in Europe two years before he’s even available over there. Any bull that’s not available in Europe or anywhere else, I can use him in a flush and have embryos shipped in two weeks.

“We sell 400 to 500 embryos in a good year. Some years, we work through an association.

“For example, in Mexico, they’ll take them in volume, have an auction and make a fundraiser out of it, but they’re getting good genetics as well.

An in-calf heifer at Miller Wilson ranch.

“Our genetics have hit nearly all continents, I think. South Africa has been really good to us for the last couple of years. Australia has been a good market too. The UK would’ve been big for us at one time. William McLaren Sr [Netherton Angus] started buying here 30, 40 years ago.”

Dawn adds: “We were lucky off the bat. We had good cows that went around the world and worked for everybody. If they hadn’t worked so good we wouldn’t have even been heard of.”

It’s this success that keeps the demand for DMM genetics going, cementing Miller Wilson as one of the biggest brands in the Angus world.