% of bulls vs heifers from ET

[gizmom]

For those of you that do ET work do you find a higher % of bulls? The reason I ask is we have always found that we get mor bulls than heifers......until 9057 we purchased her a couple of years ago as a donor so far we have 10 calves on the ground and 9 are heifers. The one bull calf is now a long yearling out of Raindance and he is sure nuff a stud. We are going to use him on one group of cows this year, makes me hope for a few more males from this cow before she is done.

 

[southernultrablack]

Limited ET work here, but so far 100% bulls.

 

[Dixie2542]

Same here. Wanted heifers and all we got were eight bulls and two heifers. Was definitely disappointed.

 

[sstterry]

You can sex those embryos: Embryo Sexing in Cattle (it does drive the cost up)

Also, if you know the person fertilizing the embryos, you could ask that they use sexed semen.

 

[Hpacres440p]

How many embryos are implanted each time? I wonder if there is something in the embryo processing that "selects" for bull embryos due to physiologic tolerances.

 

[Buck Randall]

You can sex those embryos: Embryo Sexing in Cattle (it does drive the cost up)

Also, if you know the person fertilizing the embryos, you could ask that they use sexed semen.

Sexed semen tends not to work very well on traditional flushes. There's some variation between bulls, but from what I've seen the reduced fertility just isn't worth it.

If you want to use sexed semen, you'll have better luck with IVF than flushing.

 

[sstterry]

Sexed semen tends not to work very well on traditional flushes. There's some variation between bulls, but from what I've seen the reduced fertility just isn't worth it.

If you want to use sexed semen, you'll have better luck with IVF than flushing.

Then listen to Buck, I will defer to the expert.

 

[gizmom]

We tried sexed semen once and it was a bust. The embryologist did recommend against using sexed semen on a traditional flush but being a stubborn old woman I had to at least try once. But I will admit when I am wrong I should have listened to the expert! Flushing isn't cheap so my hard head cost us for sure. I think sexed semen works great IVF just not traditional and we only do traditional flushing. We have done ET work for many years we use to operate as a cooperative herd for another angus breeder putting their embryos into our commercial herd, we did that for three or four years while we were growing our registered herd. I think that was back around 2000 so we have dealt with quite a few ET's over the years. The 9057 just blows my mind with the number of heifers she has given us. I am not complaining trust me I love this old cow and want as many progeny as I can get no matter what the sex. I started this thread because I have never seen this happen. We flushed her last year to SAV Extension we only got one fertilized egg but it resulted in a heifer calf this year. The problem we have with her is getting her bred at the right time she just doesn't show much heat. We have bred her numerous times trying to correct this but just can't seem to get it right. This year instead of AI when we set her up I am just putting her in with a bull. The bull is mighty darn good he is A SAV Regard son our of our SAV Abigale 913 donor cow. His registration # is 18869714 1701 is a picture perfect bull big footed deep with a ton of muscle he isn't as well known as AI stud bulls but I think he is as good as any AI bull I have ever seen and by golly I just want babies out of this cow. She has a natural calf on her side out of the bull that is as good as we have ever made. The first photo is the dam of the 1701 bull the second is the 9057 cow.

 

[WinterSpringsFarm]

Higher percentage heifers here, which is kinda nice because most of my AI calves are bulls. I can't figure why I have so many AI bull calves.

 

[Franke]

2019 we had 13 out of 19 bulls 30 embryos inserted..2020 only 3 out of 16 were bulls, 30 embryos inserted, 5 #2's gave 3 heifers. I used sexed insight on a flush and the cow had an infection so we got 0 eggs. Next 2 times did IVF with sexed Epic and sexed Oracle and got 10 and 11 eggs out of 20 and 21 ocytes.

 

[WinterSpringsFarm]

2019 we had 13 out of 19 bulls 30 embryos inserted..2020 only 3 out of 16 were bulls, 30 embryos inserted, 5 #2's gave 3 heifers. I used sexed insight on a flush and the cow had an infection so we got 0 eggs. Next 2 times did IVF with sexed Epic and sexed Oracle and got 10 and 11 eggs out of 20 and 21 ocytes.

From my readings Grade 2 embryos will more often then not result in heifers. The reason they are grade 2s is because of their development or lack there of. And typically that is because of female sperm being slower to reach the egg, so its development is delayed.

I will not flush with sexed semen, and I will not IVF with sexed semen. Honestly I am not a fan of reverse sort during IVF either. I have had great luck that is well above average with IVF and getting them to stick. I attribute that to using conventional semen, and fertilizing without using reverse sort. I am running 66% conception on my IVF frozen embryos.