Embryo transfer of pedigree cattle

Hi guys,
I was wondering if any of you did any embryo work with pedigree cattle. I have pedigree blondes and am just coming up to calving my first batch of recipient heifers so i thought i would post my experiences so far.
About 10 years ago we had an outbreak of tb and most of the cattle where taken by department vets for incineration. The few cows we where left with we picked the best two and decided to 'flush' them. We picked the best semen would suit and flushed them both twice. Now these cows where both 12 years old, and we seen this as an experiment so if something went wrong and the cows didnt breed again after then it wasnt a disaster like a champion heifer. Well after the course of superovulation ***** to get the cows to release more eggs than normal on a cycle, the cows where AI'd twice, 12 hours apart about 8 hours after a standing heat.
Then a week later an ET technician came to the farm and 'flushed' the fertilized eggs out and graded and froze all the good ones. The first time we got 3 from each animal, the second time one animal had 3 and the other had none due to an infection.
We found it was best to work with 2 aminals as they are good company for eachother.
We didnt 'line up' recipient heifers as there can be a huge variation in the numbers of embryos produced in a single flush from 0 to well over 20. Both are rare but between 2 and 6 is average. So after they where froze, i basically left them. I bought a batch of 12 blue x fresian heifers just off milk. I know i only needed 9 but hedged my bets. In feburary this year as they where 18 months old i put a prid in andlined up their cycles ready for implanting by the ET tech. No problems he examined the best 9 and implanted the eggs from frozen. The typical conception rate is 50% from frozen and around 60-65% fresh. 4 heifers repeated at 6 weeks and pd confiemed they where not incalf. I ran them with the bull and recently sold them.
The incalf recipients are due mid November and I hope to calf them naturally.

I will let you know how I get on. Please feel free to ask any questions or comment.

Hi all,
Just an update as promised for anyone interested.
All the calving was done early December with the calves running to around 300 days gestation. I had 3 cesarians with 2 bull calves and one heifer, all around the 50kg mark. All the calves thrived and suckled straight away. I had 3 calved naturally, one was extremely tight (all heifers) and i damaged nerves in its back at the calving. I should have cesarianed it in hindsight.
You may have figured I now have 6 calves and the last post said I had 5 holding the embryo. The vet got a total of 3 pd'd wrong at 6-7 weeks after implant. Two that where not supposed to have held did and one that was pd in calf wasnt! Lesson there is to scan high value calves!
The calf that has nerve damage died after 4 days and i put a blue x fresian onto her to keep her milk right.
The pedigree calves are doing extremely well and stand very impressively against my regular batch of calves.

All in all a worthwhile experience but not one i want to repeat in a hurry, 3 cesarians in 3 days with 3 other calvings as well as some of my pedigree cows calving at the same time. The new calving shed came into its own at that time.

Hi all,
Just an update as promised for anyone interested.
All the calving was done early December with the calves running to around 300 days gestation. I had 3 cesarians with 2 bull calves and one heifer, all around the 50kg mark. All the calves thrived and suckled straight away. I had 3 calved naturally, one was extremely tight (all heifers) and i damaged nerves in its back at the calving. I should have cesarianed it in hindsight.
You may have figured I now have 6 calves and the last post said I had 5 holding the embryo. The vet got a total of 3 pd'd wrong at 6-7 weeks after implant. Two that where not supposed to have held did and one that was pd in calf wasnt! Lesson there is to scan high value calves!
The calf that has nerve damage died after 4 days and i put a blue x fresian onto her to keep her milk right.
The pedigree calves are doing extremely well and stand very impressively against my regular batch of calves.

All in all a worthwhile experience but not one i want to repeat in a hurry, 3 cesarians in 3 days with 3 other calvings as well as some of my pedigree cows calving at the same time. The new calving shed came into its own at that time.

Click to expand...

What did it cost to take the embryos out?

I like to say I read all these but I didn't but I know embryo transfer is expensive and only really for pedigree cattle

ya for heifers