EMBRYO TRANSFER CAN MAXIMIZE BEST GENETICS

A growing number of breeders now use advanced reproductive techniques such as embryo transfer (ET) to maximize the genetics of their best cows. This is a way to produce many more calves from an outstanding cow than she could ever raise in her lifetime. This is also a way to get more calves from a pair of animals that are a good match together. A good cow may have only 10 to 14 calves during her life, but with ET you can raise dozens of calves from her. With this sort of cutting edge technology we can sell rights to flushes, embryos, and confirmed sexed pregnancies (in recip cows) from a flush.

What ET has done for the Bucking Stock Industry is allowed us to take the best cows and raise 5 to 15 calves a year from those top cows, rather than just 1 calf per year. Approximately 500,000 embryos are collected and transferred annually, worldwide, and more producers in this country are now using the advanced technology.

THE PROCESS -- The procedure can be done on the donor cow any time after about 60 days past calving. Best results are usually obtained using cows that have already calved once. A common practice is to use FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) to super-ovulate the cow and get multiple eggs/embryos instead of just one. The cow must have come into heat at least once after calving and be cycling normally. With the correct use of FSH a cow can average about seven to eight good embryos per flush. These embryos are then collected about seven days after the breeding and placed in the recip cow.

RECIP COWS -- If you transfer embryos fresh (rather than freezing and saving them for future use), the recip cows must also be about 60 days out from calving, and the cycles of the recips and the donor cow must be timed the same; the reproductive tract of the recip cow must be at the same stage as the donor cow, to receive the embryo. Of course it is important when doing ET to have good recip cows. Good management, especially on the recips, is 75 percent of this game. A good recip cow is a healthy, docile animal that is fertile and milks well enough to raise a good calf. The ideal recip is a cow that's already had a calf or two and has a calf at her side, or that we know for a fact has carried an embryo before. This increases the odds that the cow has a normal, healthy reproductive tract and that she'll carry a successful pregnancy.

Bucks By Design is committed to living up to its name and designing a lot of BUCK$. By using ET we can truly Design our Bucks!