The Beginning of the Legacy Project

 For Dan Oberschlake, DVM, the Legacy Project is more than a breeding program—it represents a lifetime of experience with cattle, veterinary medicine, genetics, and a desire to leave behind something meaningful for future generations.

Dan's appreciation for Jersey cattle began early in life. Years later, his experience as a veterinarian, including work with reproduction and embryo transfer, gave him the opportunity to look at those genetics from a different perspective. He began asking a simple but important question: What could Jersey genetics contribute when thoughtfully combined with Piedmontese cattle?

 That question became the foundation of the Legacy Project. 

The goal was never simply to cross two breeds. Dan wanted to identify and preserve characteristics from each that could complement one another.

Jersey cattle brought maternal qualities, milk production, fertility, and the characteristics Dan had appreciated throughout his life. Piedmontese cattle offered their distinctive genetics for muscling, tenderness, calving ease, and carcass performance.

Through careful selection, artificial insemination, embryo transfer, and successive generations of breeding, the project began developing cattle that carried varying percentages of Jersey and Piedmontese influence.

Foundation Piedmontese sires including Hugo, Rocky, and Cage played an important role in establishing the early generations of the program. Those matings produced females that could then become the foundation for the generations that followed.

As the program progressed, Dan continued selecting cattle based on more than appearance alone. Maternal ability, fertility, calving ease, structural soundness, growth, muscling, tenderness, and carcass performance all became pieces of the larger genetic picture.

Each generation provided new information.

Some females became important building blocks for the next generation.

 New Piedmontese genetics could be introduced while retaining the Jersey influence Dan wanted to preserve. Over time, this created a breeding program in which individual animals could be evaluated not only for what they displayed themselves, but for what they could contribute to future offspring.

That philosophy continues today.

The Legacy Project is ultimately about creating functional cattle from calving to carcass.

Rather than chasing a single trait, the program seeks balance: females capable of functioning as productive mothers combined with genetics designed to produce efficient, muscular cattle and high-quality beef.

The results of those decisions can now be followed through multiple generations of Jersey × Piedmontese cattle, including animals such as GJP Bruno 37J and the offspring being produced from the program today.

And the work isn't finished.

Each new calf represents another opportunity to evaluate what worked, make the next breeding decision, and continue refining the genetics for the generation that follows.

 That is what makes this a Legacy Project: preserving the lessons and genetics of the past while building cattle for the future. 

Frank and I were raising grass fed/finished beef cattle on my family's fifth generation farm located in central Illinois, and had been selling farm-direct to customers for several years. But, year after year, I was frustrated with the tenderness of the beef cuts and wanted to improve the overall quality for our customers as well as our family.  

So, I began researching and found the North American Piedmontese Association (NAPA) and discovered what made the Piedmontese cattle breed and crosses ideal for our American niche market beef producers and buyers. I was amazed at the Piedmontese's dual purpose for meat and milk - bred for centuries in the high Piedmontese mountain region of northern Italy. The Piedmontese not only produce life-giving milk foods for their owners and communities, but are grass foraging and produce succulent tender meat thanks to their naturally occurring tenderness  gene. 

The purebred Piedmontese was the beginning of my journey. The last piece of the puzzle was to find the perfect cross I wanted to use with this elusive Italian Piedmontese breed.  Enter the renowned high-fat milk dairy producer, the beloved Jersey cow! I had the opportunity to own, and milk several of my own Jersey cows while raising our children (including a dozen years of hosting high school-aged foreign exchange students from Europe). During those years, I sold my A2A2 milk to customers, made cheeses, yogurt, butter and loved having farm fresh cream and milk. I knew the superior milk quality our Jerseys girls produced, and how it made their calves bloom and fatten quickly. When I found Dr. Dan Oberschlake's advertisement and articles for his Jersey/Piedmontese crosses, I contacted him immediately. And the rest is history!

We purchased our first five Piedmontese/Jersey 50%/50% cross cows from Dr. Dan in 2022. He chose his five best cows that were confirmed AI bred to the well known Piedmontese bull "BERNI". When our first crop of calves arrived in the Spring of 2023, I knew we had found our destiny!

Why do we believe the best cross is Piedmontese/Jersey?

 Easy Calving, Excellent Mothers, Fast Weight Gain on Calves due to the abundance of high quality A2A2 Jersey milk, Quiet Dispositions, and above all, the naturally occurring Piedmontese Myostatin Muscle Tenderness Gene that every calf inherits!

Our Piedmontese/Jersey cross beef is the Wagu tenderness and flavor without the fuss!