--- title: Dairy Cows: How Researchers Are Assuring Their Future description: In an effort to provide food security to America, researchers are preserving genetic material from rare and important breeds of livestock canonical: https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/ author: Julia Lull article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-15T20:34:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:31:59.633Z article:section: Science og:title: How Researchers Are Ensuring the Future of Livestock og:description: "We are losing breeds at an estimated rate of one per month on a global scale" og:url: https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6aaa91ae72d215/698863b15f570f1a76b1d5e4/screen-shot-2015-09-15-at-3-48-55-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1916 og:image:height: 1078 og:image:alt: Dairy Cows og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Researchers Are Ensuring the Future of Livestock twitter:description: "We are losing breeds at an estimated rate of one per month on a global scale" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6aaa91ae72d215/698863b15f570f1a76b1d5e4/screen-shot-2015-09-15-at-3-48-55-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch How Researchers Are Ensuring the Future of America's Livestock > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=0b1022bd-3fa2-4b00-9077-3b3184907256&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch How These Researchers Are Ensuring Food Security In America [Watch (HLS stream): Watch How These Researchers Are Ensuring Food Security In America](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/grN5uxCF.m3u8) (3:49)  _Published 2015-09-15. In an effort to provide food security to America, a team of researchers, veterinarians, and farmers at the SVF Foundation are preserving genetic material from rare and important breeds of livestock, like the Holstein._  by [Julia Lull](https://time.com/author/julia-lull/)  ## Julia Lull Sep 15, 2015 8:34 PM UTC In an effort to provide food security to America, a team of researchers, veterinarians, and farmers at the SVF Foundation are preserving genetic material from rare and important breeds of livestock, like the Holstein.  by [Julia Lull](https://time.com/author/julia-lull/)  ## Julia Lull Sep 15, 2015 8:34 PM UTC About 95% of the dairy products in the U.S. are produced by the more than 8 million Holstein cattle spread throughout dairy farms in America. However, with only enough genetic diversity to produce 34 unique cows, the American Holstein population is at a serious risk. One disease could have the potential to wipe out the entire population, and decimate the dairy industry in the U.S. In an effort to provide food security to America, a team of researchers, veterinarians, and farmers at the [SVF Foundation](http://svffoundation.org/) are preserving genetic material from rare and important breeds of livestock, like the Holstein. “We are losing breeds at an estimated rate of one per month on a global scale. And once they are gone they are gone,” says Sarah Bowley, Program Director for the SVF Foundation. “It took 5,000 to 10,000 years to domesticate these species and we are losing them in the blink of an eye.” With 28 breeds preserved so far and about 10 more to go, the SVF Foundation is beginning to look towards the future. According to George Saperstein, Scientific Advisor to the SVF Foundation, “when that disastrous disease strikes the…Holstein cows, the answer to saving them is going to be in that library, in those freezers.” ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:03] Unfortunately we're losing breeds at an estimated rate [00:06] of one per month global scale. And once they're gone, [00:10] they're gone. It took 5, 000 to 10, 000 years to [00:13] domesticate these species and breeds and we're [00:15] losing them in the blink of an eye. Die. [ MUSIC ] [00:20] SVF Foundation is a unique non profit that was [00:22] established to protect our food security by establishing [00:26] a gene bank comprised of genetic samples from the [00:28] dangered breeds of cattle, sheep, and goats. In [00:32] collaboration with veterinarians from Coming School of [00:35] Veterinary. Veterinary medicine at Tufts University. We [00:37] collect semen, embryos, cells and blood on as many [00:41] donors as we can, to preserve them for the future, for [00:44] hundreds of years when these breeds might be [00:46] extinct, and we need to bring back their genetic [00:49] material. Many of today's commercially [00:53] important livestock breeds have a very narrow genetic [00:56] diversity base. For example, Holstein cattle produce [00:59] over 95 % of all of our dairy products here in the US. [01:02] So even though there's millions of Holsteins available, [01:05] when you shake out all those duplicate genetics, [01:07] there's only enough to make 34 individuals. So, if some [01:10] kind of disease were to hit that population, our dairy [01:14] industry would be in big trouble. The food Agriculture [01:18] Organization of the United Nations has recommended [01:20] that every country establish a program where they're [01:23] identifying their native breeds that are in need of [01:25] preservation. Unfortunately, it's a very expensive [01:28] undertaking and so, we are one of the very few [01:30] repositories that's actually established this type of [01:33] program in the world. [ MUSIC ] [01:38] Today the foundation has collected generic material [01:41] from 28 different breeds. We have over a 100, 000 [01:43] samples. When we target a population we do quite a [01:46] bit of health testing before they come on side both to [01:49] protect the livestock that' already here at SVF. And [01:52] make sure we're not preserving diseases. Into the [01:54] future, that may then be eradicated. Once animals are [01:57] here, they're in a standard quarantine period for about [02:00] 30 days, where they have an entrance and an exit [02:02] exam by one of our veterinarians. And then they [02:06] undergo six to eight months of genetic preservation. So [02:10] especially September through March, we're focusing on [02:12] semen and embryo collection. From sheep and goats, [02:15] and year round we do embryo collection on the cattle. [02:19] In reality it generally takes two years or more to bring [02:23] all the animals in that we need and do those collections [02:27] and freeze and then do the quality control. Make sure [02:30] that the germ plasm is viable in the freezer. Our goal [02:34] is always to find as much genetic diversity that's left in [02:38] the breed, and in many cases, there are only a few [02:41] hundred animals left in the world that we're looking at. [02:47] SVF started in 1998, wonderful lady by the name [02:51] of Dorrance Hamilton, not only restored our campus. [02:55] And I gifted the property to the foundation, but has [02:58] made a pledge to fund this project for 20 years, and [03:01] until we complete this. The goal of SDF is to make at [03:05] the end of 20 years we have banked as much genetic [03:08] material and as much diversity as possible to pass that [03:10] along for the next generation. The collection here [03:15] is an unbelievable. National treasure. It's an [03:18] unbelievable library of genetic material of our nation's [03:22] heritage. Animal health, human health, all the keys to [03:26] learning Reams of information to help people and [03:28] animals are in that bank. When that disastrous [03:32] disease strikes, the monoculture in Leghorn hens or [03:36] Holstein cows, the answer to saving them is gonna be [03:39] in that library in those freezers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/"},"headline":"Watch How Researchers Are Ensuring the Future of America's Livestock","datePublished":"2015-09-15T20:34:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:31:59.633Z","description":"\"We are losing breeds at an estimated rate of one per month on a global scale\"","url":"https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/","keywords":["Solutions That Matter","Tech","Farming","Dairy","America","sheep","cattle","Sustainability"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6aaa91ae72d215/698863b15f570f1a76b1d5e4/screen-shot-2015-09-15-at-3-48-55-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Lull","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-lull/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6aaa91ae72d215/698863b15f570f1a76b1d5e4/screen-shot-2015-09-15-at-3-48-55-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dairy Cows","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/solutions-that-matter/","name":"Solutions That Matter"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/","name":"Watch How Researchers Are Ensuring the Future of America's Livestock"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch How These Researchers Are Ensuring Food Security In America","description":"In an effort to provide food security to America, a team of researchers, veterinarians, and farmers at the SVF Foundation are preserving genetic material from rare and important breeds of livestock, like the Holstein.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/grN5uxCF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-15T20:07:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/grN5uxCF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/","duration":"PT3M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4035225/researchers-food-security/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```