Just curious what the conception rate is with embryos out of sexed semen ? I know that generally when you flush with the sexed semen you will get less freezable embryos but what about the ones you do freeze and then put in ? Is the conception rate in the recips lower due to the sexed semen ? I flushed a cow using sexed Grandmaster semen and we got 4 good embryos but there were 8 that weren't freezable.
Embryos collected using sexed semen ?
- Thread starter jd720
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shortybreeder
Well-known member
I don't think the sexed semen would affect the conception rate, because the hard part of getting enough "healthy" sperm cells to the egg is already taken care of. I think that as long as the embryo grades high enough, it should be just as likely to stick as one with conventional semen. just my :2cents:
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
I would agree with Shorty. For the unfreezables, did you have recips set up to take those? What stage where they? I have seen breeders freeze stage 3 embryos and get along with conceptions still, just a bit lower. There is a theory, but not sure how true it is; the stage 1 embryos tend to be bulls, and the stage two embryos tend to be heifers, almost like the heifer embryos do not develop as fast? I know we only put in number 1's, and have about a 90% bull ratio on our embryos! So there may be some truth to that!
cow pollinater
Well-known member
I don't have much experience with embryos from sorted semen but there is a noticeable increase in early embryonic death with AI pregnancies from sorted semen so I wouldn't be very shocked if embryos were a struggle with it.
toughntender
Well-known member
Hey Fire Sweep-
What kind of conception rate are you getting with your frozen embryos? Do you implant any fresh ones, if so how the success rate compare to your frozens? I hadn't heard the theory on the #1's vs #2's being more male than female, but I tend to think that there is some truth to it. We ended up getting all bull calves out of 3 different flushes. Maybe the bull calves implant and maintain the pregnancy better. Has anyone ever sexed embryos before? Or split them?
What kind of conception rate are you getting with your frozen embryos? Do you implant any fresh ones, if so how the success rate compare to your frozens? I hadn't heard the theory on the #1's vs #2's being more male than female, but I tend to think that there is some truth to it. We ended up getting all bull calves out of 3 different flushes. Maybe the bull calves implant and maintain the pregnancy better. Has anyone ever sexed embryos before? Or split them?
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
toughntender":1f8iyxlf said:
Typically, we get about 60% conception on our frozen embryos. This fall, we switched to Vitaferm Conceptaide, and had 100% conception on the embryos! We will see how spring goes. We have only implanted fresh once, and we just put in two, and only one stuck (the bull I have pictured on here that everyone likes). BUT, I am told that the conception rate on fresh is around 75%. Friends of ours that flush a bunch always set up 10 to 12 recips to be ready when they flush. That was when we put in our two (of there embryos- traded for semen, and I got two number 1 embryos), and they had 4 unfreezable embryos (all number 3). Three of those stuck and two were heifers. The rest of the recips had frozen eggs put in, that way there is no waste. I think when you have a valuable recip, you do not want to take the chance of losing embryos because they are not mature enough to freeze but can be put in fresh if you have the cows to put them in. They do a lot of that, and get more heifers than bulls it seems. Also, they have had two separate instances where they put in one embryo and it split and they had twins.
We have tried sexed semen on a flush, but got 12 unfertilized eggs from that. Expensive experiment. I know IVF is a good way to use sexed semen, however once again it is very expensive.
shadyhollownj
Well-known member
Does anyone use Multimin or is the vitaferm that much better?
shadyhollownj
Well-known member
I actually dug up an old post about Multimin. A few guys swear by it including Knersie. I didn't realize that the vitaferm was a loose mineral.
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
BryanM":1j2jucfz said:
We did use Multimin on the recips and donor cows in October, but I do not feel like our flush was any better because of it. I am not planning on using it this spring, and see how we get along with just the vita ferm. We feed the vita ferm free choice, in a big wooden mineral feeder. We also put out loose white stock salt on the other end of the mineral feeder. Our cows eat there recommended amount for the most part. We put them on it in September, and have not (nor do we plan to) pulled them off. I just ordered my next load, and I am getting the high mag and IGR version since we are coming into that season soon. Our cows are on winter hay right now, and will switch to grass when we warm up and start growing again. No special feed. I really feel like the Vitaferm helped us this fall. I am all for doing things as cheaply as I can (we even mix our own show feed for the heifers to keep the cost down), but when I can get more conceptions, on the first heat, and great pregnancy rates with frozen embryos, then the cost of the Vitaferm is worth it to me... And they eat less of it than the old mineral I used prior to it.
shortybreeder
Well-known member
I just had a thought this morning as I was looking at my cow that is due to calve on Friday (pg checked carrying bull calf) that if this theory about bull embryos developing faster is true (I'm not saying it is or is not) then how come bull calves tend to be born later than the due date and heifer calves tend to be born earlier than the due date? Out of the 3 cows I have at home right now, one was pg checked carrying a heifer calf and the other two were pg checked carrying bull calves, the heifer calf was born 2 weeks early to the day and the two bull calves (both of which were due before the heifer calf) still have not shown up! One cow is bagging up nicely, but the other one hasn't bagged up much yet. It's just something I thought about, and is some food for thought.Fire Sweep Ranch":vq4amurz said:
Grades 1,2, and 3 have nothing to do with stage of development. Those numbers describe the morphology/quality of the embryo for a given stage (eg, 4 through 8; Modula through expanded or hatched blastocyst).
I agree with using the concept aid mineral I have used it in the past with good results. I flushed a cow when we were using it and got 29 # 1 embryos and I feel like the concept aid had something to do with it. I couldn`t get it locally for a couple of years and switched to a coop breeder mineral but now that it`s available I have switched back and will use it year round. For the number of cows I have I figure it will only cost me about $450 a year more and since some of the embryos will be close to that amount each if we just get one more to stick it will be well worth it. I recently went through the Master Beef producer classes here in Tennessee and one of the things they stressed was you are not going to starve a profit out of your cows and mineral was not the place to try and use lesser quality and save to try and save money.
shadyhollownj
Well-known member
I was thinking the same same thing JD about the one more embryo sticking. I actually just got the multimin and vitamin AD&E to give them 4 weeks prior. They dont list anyone remotely close to me so I may have to stick with the two shots.
