Buying embryos

[cattletalk]

If you are looking to buy embryos, what are you looking for? (e.g. outcross, old genetics, new genetics.....?)
Or, what bulls would you buy embryos from right now?

 

[wbvs58]

I've never bought embryos but if I did I would be more interested in the cow. I would pay the money for embryos out of exceptional cow families. I can breed to a particular bull any day.

Ken

 

[midTN_Brangusman]

I would try to get some kind of conception guarantee. Some seedstock producers offer it, some don't. I bought a bunch of embryos in an online auction from several different producers a few years back. We put them all in on the same day. Averaged around 70 % conception except for one set we got 1 out of 10 to conceive.

 

[Boog337]

We just started the ET program this year.. we have bought from a few different auctions.. we have looked at epds from both sides and if they have a projected calf epd.. we have tried to stay with some good names but not all of ours are big name but all are projected to have great numbers which is where we are headed for..

 

[Dixie2542]

If you are looking to buy embryos, what are you looking for? (e.g. outcross, old genetics, new genetics.....?)
Or, what bulls would you buy embryos from right now?

Which breed? - I can only speak to Angus. Started down that road seven years ago and learned a lot along the way. I don't even look at embryo's unless they are from a proven cow (older cow, calving on time with many offspring to show) from a proven cow family that's been a proven successful donor herself (produces at least avg# embroys that are mostly 1 or 2 grade eggs) and has a high percentage rate of successful live births (high percentage of embryos sticking in recep cow). - As far as bulls, older proven genetics that have fertile, milking females is what we prefer. We now have our own donors, so we don't usually pull from other programs now, just the bulls, and we are not in the bull of the month club. We learned that lesson too (thankfully with just AI'ing) with a couple of traits we don't care for, so we culled hard and deep to remove those unwanted traits and now don't use brand new genetics... So for us solid quality genetics, structurally sound, with good maternal instincts (is the cow even a good mother?) combined with proven, fertile bulls in our breed is the only way we do ET now.

 

[TwoByrdsMG]

We have two different breeds so-

Charolais: proven cow families, consistent bull (not bull of the month either), a guarantee on conception and now PAF on donor and/or Sire. I have also been burned before on buying through an auction with no guarantee (0/5 resulted in calves on one flush I bought).

Murray Greys: proven cow families, outcross genetics, cost, free of myostatin, proven temperament, frame size 4-6, and all paperwork is complete (its pretty extensive for MGs). Very few if any MG embryos will come with a guarantee so I am being more careful about who I buy them from and try to have them shipped direct from the collection facility.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Cow is number 1 reason to buy embryos.
@boog numbers are a TOOL. You should NEVER base a breeding program on numbers. There are many tools in a beef producers tool box. Visual appraisal and fertility are your best TOOLS. Breeders keep looking at papers and forget to look for structure.
In my breed, all cows and bulls used to produce embryos must be DNA tested for genetic defects and parentage.