USING SEXED SEMEN

[HomePlaceAngus]

All that I hear or read says to use sexed semen on vergin heifers only. I just can't accept that without giving it some thought. I understand that sexed semen comes in smaller straws and also that vergin heifers have a higher conception rate. BUT?????? What about using more straws? Has anyone used sexed semen on cows? I would appreciate your thoughts on this subject.

 

[cow pollinater]

I use tons of the stuff on dairy cattle both lactating and virgins... specifically on Jerseys.
Far and away your biggest bang for the buck is on heifers but it will also work on cows if you're willing to accept the lower fertility rate with the same cost per straw.
You have to be willing to have a longer calving season as more cows will fall through the cracks and get bred a third and fourth time. You also have to be willing to accept that it's a 90+% chance for each individual animal... That's not the same as a promise of 90% of your cattle having a calf of the desired sex... Some people lose games of chance over and over again no matter the odds :roll: . It does work but it isn't for everyone.

 

[cow pollinater]

What about using more straws? .

Forgot to answer that one above.
We've found that it would take somewhere around ten times the amount of semen in a sorted straw to improve conception rates and that's why the cell count is what it is.
Alot of bulls don't sort well so it's a struggle to figure out which bulls will provide viable sorted semen... If, once those bulls were found, they were collected at the same density as conventional semen, the resulting straw would be astronomically expensive.

 

[HomePlaceAngus]

cow pollinater, when you are AIing lactating cows do you still only use one straw? Because we are in the building stages of putting our herd togeather I think it might be worth all the trouble of breeding some of them the second and third time with sexed semen before putting them in with the clean-up bull. I also realize that our breeding season will be longer. I might add that our clean up bull is no sloutch. He is a son of GAR New Design 5050 with Objective on the bottom side and in the top 1% in most EPDs. He is better then most of the AI sires that I see. The only thing that he does not have is the name reconization, which is worth a lot in the Reg. Angus business.

 

[diana55]

Against everything I've read, I took a chance and flushed a 5 year old cow with sexed semen (Peak Dot Resolute). Used 2 straws sexed (female) semen about 11 hrs after standing heat and one conventional straw at 20 hrs after. Flushed 6 grade 1 embryos but not implanted yet so don't know if they are all heifers or not. Cow usually flushes between 7 and 15 grade 1's.

 

[HomePlaceAngus]

dianna55, very interesting. Please let me know how they turn out after you implant them. I appreciate the information.

 

[cow pollinater]

cow pollinater, when you are AIing lactating cows do you still only use one straw?

Yes. I put the multiple straw theory to the test myself and found no significant increase in conception. I have also found that two services is the point where you'll have the best results for the money. Normally you'd see the most fertile cattle concieving on first service and results would drop from there but with the poorer conception rates of sorted, there are enough fertile cattle left to make the second service conception almost as good as the first service but it's a rapid drop after that.

 

[hereford]

Recommendations of only using it on heifers is for Dairy ONLY. Beef cows are fair game. One straw per insemination is enough. There are 2 kinds of straws produced. One for AI and another for Flushing. The straw for AI is packed with 2.1 million cells and the straws for Flushing are packed with 5.0 million. As of now, the only way to get a straw for Flushing purposes is to have it custom produced. All the straws sold by Select, ABS, Genex, etc are the 2.1 million dose and are for AI only.

When we Flush with sexed semen, we use 4 straws of the 5.0 million dose units. 2 the first breeding and then 2 the next. The key in a Sexed Semen flush is to breed her a few hours later than with conventional semen. Rather than breeding at 12 and 24 hours, we breed at 16 and 28 hours. These were the guidelines recommended to us by Sexing Technologies, who owns the technology, and it has worked well so far.

 

[Dimitar]

I tried using Sexed semen on cows 2 years ago. My conception rate was 30%. I normaly get 70%.Also one of the calves born to sexed semen was missing 1/3 of its hair. I would have been far better off using conventional semen but I wanted to give it a try.

 

[hereford]

I tried using Sexed semen on cows 2 years ago. My conception rate was 30%. I normaly get 70%.Also one of the calves born to sexed semen was missing 1/3 of its hair. I would have been far better off using conventional semen but I wanted to give it a try.

Was it only the semen's fault?