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Embryo Transfer-What is the Key to Success?

10/30/2016

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We put in some embryos over the weekend, and it got me thinking about what makes an embryo transfer program work. After thinking and talking about it some over coffee on Sunday morning, we came to the conclusion that the success, or failure, of an embryo transfer program begins at the selection of the recipient cows.

Embryo transfer can be a great way to improve the genetics of your herd. Whether
 you have your own donor cow that you flush, or if you purchase embryos, embryo transfer allows you to produce more offspring from a cow than is possible naturally. Embryo transfer requires a substantial financial and time investment to be successful. To get the most out of an embryo transfer program, it is important to “stack the deck” in your favor by ensuring that you have a good nutritional program, good donor management, and a great embryologist. We’ve been using embryo transfer in our program for a few years now, including flushing donors on our own farm, and have learned a lot along the way (and made our share of mistakes). Throughout this process, we have found that the easiest way to improve the success of our embryo transfer program is to focus on the recipient cows. We spend a lot of time, feed, and yes, money, on our recipient cows. 

We believe that the success, or failure, of an embryo transfer program begins at the selection of the recipient cows. Fertility is very important in a recipient cow. You do not want to go to the sale barn and just buy a bunch of open cows for recipients-there is a reason why someone else got rid of them! Also do not pick your open cows at the end of the breeding season to be your recipients-if the bull couldn’t breed her, then an embryo most likely will not stick! Docility is also important for a recipient, as they will be handled more than just a commercial cow out on pasture. 

When we pick recipient cows, we want to make sure that they are above average milkers, to ensure that they can provide proper nutrition for their embryo calves. While we do use heifers to put in embryos, we have had better success in our herd using cows. When using heifers for recipient cows, we make sure that the embryo we put in is sired by a calving ease sire. 

Nutrition of recipients is also critical. They should be at a body condition score of 5 at the time of breeding. Recipients that are too thin will be less likely to be cycling and will be harder to get bred. Recipients that are too fat are even harder to get bred. Nutrition of the recipient matters at more than just breeding time though. The recent research on fetal programming shows that there are lifelong effects on the calf based on the nutritional status of the dam during pregnancy. As these embryo calves are your most valuable, it makes sense to invest a little extra into your recipient cows to ensure that they are on a good nutritional program and can provide the best for their calves. And don’t forget minerals-we feed a breeding mineral year-round to our herd. We’ve noticed a significant boost in our embryo transfer success rates by using Multimin USA, Inc. Multimin90 injectable mineral 30 days before breeding, and again 30 days before calving, in our recipient cows.

By paying attention to these little details, you can improve the success of your embryo transfer program, and get the best possible genetics in your herd. Do you use embryo transfer in your program? Do you have any tips and advice on improving the success of embryo transfer? We'd love to hear from you-leave us a comment!

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  • Home
  • About Us
  • Breeding Program
    • Breeding Program
    • Cow Herd
    • Donor Dams
  • Sires
    • Reference Sires
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  • Links
    • Tip Sheets