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Dave and Brandy Jensen are the fourth generation to be involved in running Hawkeye Breeders. Their family is pictured here at a wedding. From left to right are Brandy, Dave, Carley, Carter and James Jensen.

ADEL — Based in Adel, Hawkeye Breeders began in 1969 as the brainchild of Lloyd Jungmann, a legend in his own right as a herdsman.

In fact, people used to refer to him as the bull whisperer before his passing in 2009. He and his wife Doris ran the business together and today, with his grandson at the helm, Hawkeye Breeders has become a global leader in bull reproduction services, specifically collection and storage.

“He was a herdsman for 20 years for Iowa Breeders Co-op and we lived right there on a bull stud right in the backyard. We had an electric fence and I joked it kept the boys away,” Gloria Jensen, the Jungmanns’ daughter, said.

When World War II ended, Lloyd Jungmann had the option to attend veterinary school or obtain his pilot’s license. He chose the latter.

“He should’ve been a vet. He was very good with problematic bulls and he grew up farming with his folks in Van Meter. My mom was from Dexter,” Jensen said. “He was so good that after the first year or so of being in business for himself, people wanted him to start collecting bigger volumes and from other states, so we partnered with a farmer in Ankeny and had him house the straws for us. Then a few years down the road, they bought the Adel farm.”

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Hawkeye Breeders became the first bull semen collector to ship internationally, with customers starting out in Canada and South America. The business also became the first custom stud approved for Australia and for Europe. Custom means privately owned in this line of business. “We have clients around the world who like U.S. genetics. Our artificial insemination center works with clients in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and Australia, both large and small clients,” Gloria Jensen said.

Hawkeye Breeders became the first bull semen collector to ship internationally, with customers starting out in Canada and South America. The business also became the first custom stud approved for Australia and for Europe. Custom means privately owned in this line of business, and they were able to earn that honor simply because customers wanted their services overseas, too.

“We have clients around the world who like U.S. genetics. Our artificial insemination center works with clients in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and Australia, both large and small clients. We’ve definitely been blessed,” Jensen said. “We take our business seriously, but with a good sense of humor. My dad always said that anyone can do what we do, but it all comes down to the personal relationships we’ve built over the years and customer service. Our customers appreciate all that we do and how far we go with testing and exporting.”

The business also started out with many more beef clients than dairy, but Jensen said her parents realized that with artificial insemination, there would be a huge need for a variety of cattle lines.

“We used to be 90 percent beef and now we’re probably 70 percent dairy and 30 percent beef,” Jensen said. “When you offer sexing, that changes the tide, especially for customers, especially the international ones.”

The business did expand into Montana and opened Hawkeye West as well as a site in South Dakota, but both were sold to Genex. Now Hawkeye Breeders has a satellite business in Wisconsin.

There seems to be more competition now than in the past, Jensen said, but not from businesses with four generations and a global customer base.

“Dad made it look like too much fun. He always said there were no secrets in our industry,” she said. “But it seems the others seem to specialize, like one specializes in club bulls and another in just Canadian cattle.”

Hawkeye Breeders not only extracts semen and stores it, as well as ships it, but also has partnered with ABS for sexing, which has proven to be 90 percent accurate.

“You can imagine how that affects the dairy industry where more cows are needed,” Jensen said.

All bulls in Hawkeye Breeders’ lineup are collected twice per week. Collections also can be done by appointment on bulls who aren’t on the property.

Hawkeye Breeders not only stores straws of semen on site and ships to customers, they also offer nitrogen refills on tanks, artificial insemination supplies and nitrogen.

But it’s not just about the collections, storage and shipping.

At Hawkeye Breeders, a reproduction plan will be worked up based upon each bull’s evaluation and a customer’s needs. The best-suited equipment, housing and semen buffer options will be customized to fit each bull’s potency for optimal results.

They not only follow industry-approved (CSS) guidelines for proper housing and handling of bulls, but they feed premium hay from Kansas along with a nutritional special feed mix for the bulls.

Hawkeye Breeders also specializes in “special needs” animals that exhibit reproductive or physical challenges that prohibit them from breeding naturally or semen cannot be collected through traditional methods.

Embryo transfers have become a big deal now.

Jensen said Hawkeye Breeders has received “very valuable” semen at their Dallas County farm from Wagu breeders in other countries, as well as other types of breeders. If there isn’t much semen left on a bull, an embryo transfer can be done where multiple eggs can be fertilized with one straw.

“We can fertilize eight or even 20 eggs with one straw instead of one straw for one cow. It’s cutting edge in our business,” Jensen shared.

Hawkeye Breeders also has been involved in a couple of projects with drug companies who are testing the possibilities of using medications and treatments in cattle first before moving to humans.

Looking back over the years, Jensen said her family is honored to have collected some of the most amazing foundation bulls in the country for all breeds.

They’re also thrilled that the fourth generation is involved in the business now, something she knows her dad would be happy to see.

“My son, Dave, and his wife, Brandy, run the company right now. My husband and I were next in line but he passed away unexpectedly and much too young, so now my son’s sons are working for us,” Jensen said. “One is a student in high school and the other at Iowa State. My grandson and son-in-law work for us, too. We also hire cousins’ kids and local high school kids.

“It’s awesome to be a family operation, and while we don’t know what the future holds, as we get bigger and bigger and focus on sexing, it’ll be interesting to see.”

David Jensen has been following his grandfather, Lloyd Jungmann, around since he was 10 years old and came into the business after attending Iowa State University.

Brandy (Fleenor) Jensen, his wife, grew up on a large cattle farming operation near Ida Grove.