Bovine Romance Chapter 2

WARNING – it’s a 2-cuppa post today! Prepare before you settle in..

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One day I promise to share some of the HUMAN romance here at Granite Glen – but first I have to finish what I started a few days ago here on the blog.  Last week, I shared with you the basic steps of doing AI – or as it is romantically known to the world: Artificial Insemination. *deep sigh*

AI is an important part of the work of most stud operations for many kinds of animal – not just beef cattle.  We use it to infuse the best of bull genetics available in the marketplace into our herd – it’s a cost-effective way of using a bull we might not be able to afford to buy entirely, or who may not even live in this country.  A step on from from AI is embryo work.  This allows the stud to make the most of their best cow genetics – even to sell on some of the embryos produced to other producers.  Which sounds kinda clinical and awful, but can result in very exciting things. Like this little dude..

Remember this birthing story – my pajamas have recovered and I MUST revisit this little bull – he is DIVINE! And now HUGE. He was an embryo – implanted into a cow that was not his genetic mother, but who mothered him beautifully (once we’d helped her get him on the ground).

But back to the beginning process of embyro work.  For this you really need an expert – messing with embryos is NOT a job for a DIYer.  In fact, the whole thing kinda amazes and freaks me at the same time.  We have only just started to get involved in trialling embryo work here at Granite Glen – and I admit to having my heart in my mouth for a great deal of it.

Firstly, my hard-working husband has to spend time observing the cows we have chosen to ‘donate’ the eggs for the program.  We have two cows in our herd who have very special status – consistently producing fabulous calves for our stud operation. Here is one of them – we call her K234 – suits her doesn’t it?

Heh.  This little bull (F400) is darling and typical of her calves…

As they are getting older (around ten) we decided it was time to see is we could get a little ‘extra’ from their superior genetics.  This is done by encouraging the cow to super-ovulate (not unlike the procedure in IVF in humans).

Over the course of a few weeks, Mr Incredible gives the cows some special hormones to encourage eggs to be released.  He observes when the cows cycle, and will AI them with the straws of semen from the bull we think will produce the very best type of calf.  It seems highly technical, but sometimes Mother Nature reminds us all who we are messing with…

Lovely. Bird poop.  A natural exclamation mark!

When the time arrives, around a week after the eggs are fertilised, a bloke called Ced Wise arrives.  Ced is a lovely bloke – a little bit Marlboro-Man-ish (not in a PW kind of way, in a cigarette ad kind of way – although I should note that I didn’t see him smoke!).  And he knows his stuff – being the bovine fertility specialist that he is.

(This is the MM ad image – I must get a photo of Ced with his black Akubra hat on next time!)

Anyway, Ced arrives in a massive rig (and home-and-lab on wheels) which draws enormous interest from the kids and horses alike. (Note Dash-the-animal-lover feeding the birds – container in foreground – and Cherokee set to tippy-toe up to investigate).

Ced brings his lovely partner Rowena, and his very fat blue heeler too… who likes sunbaking.

Naturally, Dash and the dog soon became fast friends.  Which meant he was nicely distracted from this activity…

Ced sets up his gear and gets to work, ‘flushing’ the embryos from the cow.  (Did you just cross your legs? I did!)

To reassure everyone, the cows are pretty contented throughout the procedure and walk out to start eating immediately they are finished.  They honestly don’t seem stressed at all by the process.  Ced then takes the strained material and investigates it under the microscope.

He’s a-hunting for embryos and gets quite excited when he spies one.  (Not as excited as I did though! I might have squealed a little.)

You need MORE than one to make it worthwhile…

And despite the fact that K234 is notoriously hard to AI…

Ced managed to harvest five embryos from this flush.  An enormous sigh of relief is heaved by all concerned.

If I had a super-dooper camera, I would show you the embryos – I don’t, so instead I will show you the straws in which they were frozen.

To ‘sleep’ until we implant them into ‘recipient’ cows.  But that’s a WHOLE ‘nother story.

And another visit from Ced. And his dog…

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Stay tuned for … something pretty. And short.