The History of Janssen Farms

Brady Christopher Janssen, son of Chris and Dawn Janssen is the sixth generation of the Janssen family who have enjoyed the pleasures and faced the challenges of breeding purebred seed stock on the rich Iowa black soil. Brady’s great, great grandfather John Janssen, started the rich tradition of breeding Polled Hereford cattle in the early 1930s, taking over from his father who was a prominent area Horned Hereford breeder. John’s foresight in switching from Horned to Polled is well documented as he and his son, Harold, Brady’s great grandfather, grew the operation to around 100 Registered Polled Hereford cows by the 1960s. The Janssen Polled Herefords were bred with the same disciplined principals as the Simmental of today. They were performance tested and only the best stayed on the farm. When John retired in the early 1970s, Brady’s grandfather, David, teamed up with his father to build one of the most respected Polled Hereford herds in North America.

The Janssen bulls were sold in many states including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas and were highly revered by commercial cattlemen seeking performance animals in a time that was dominated by only "phenotype." One of the Polled Hereford sires that helped propel the 1970’s Janssen success was Banner 382J, a WSF Banner son who proved to be one of the best maternal bulls of his era in the breed.

In the mid-1970s David made the decision to add a second breed to offer his commercial bull customers some genetic diversity and heterosis. The "Exotic Boom" was resounding across the country and David teamed up with neighboring Simmental breeder, Golden Acres, to purchase several foundation Simmental herd sires. In 1986 the decision was made to privately disperse the 150-cow Polled Hereford herd and move in a different direction with the Simmental operation, black!

By the late 1980s and early 1990s Brady’s father, Chris, and his uncle, Jon, were actively involved with foundation cow purchases, and started the storied embryo transfer program that is the genetic backbone of the JF nucleus herd. Today, the JF program consists of 60 registered Simmental cows, 30 Angus recipients and 10 Registered Angus cows.

Chris, David and their partner, Dr. David Duitscher, also run a large scale embryo transfer business named Dutchland Embryo Services. The embryo company office and service is headquartered in the same barn as the sale will be held on November 24th.

Chris and Dawn, and Jon and Maradith own most of the donors and some of the registered cows while David and Kathy are the owners of the remainder of the registered cows and most of the recipients. David manages the day-to-day activities at Janssen Farms, and yes, Val, Chris and I know, he and Grandpa Harold are the ones that do all the work! If you can’t already tell, the team (family) at Janssen Farms is extremely close. We believe that family comes first. That value was instilled in us originally by our great grandfather, John to his son Harold then to his son David and will be passed on to Chris’s son Brady. Chris and I are very fortunate to have been raised as fifth generation Janssens by good parents that set such a demanding precedence.

We are also grateful to have an excellent cooperator herd near Bismarck, ND, Berg Ranch, where we transfer 80 to 100 embryos each year. All of the April-born calves in this offering were raised in North Dakota under the watchful eye of the Berg family. Special thanks to them for a job well done! Also, special thanks to Jeff Joyce, who helped break the 30+ open JF heifers and has been a great asset.

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