Why Embryo Transfer?
Stuart Knox, Taree Veterinary Hospital.
The reproduction potential of each normal unborn calf is enormous. There are an estimated 150,000 potential “eggs or ova” in the female. By natural breeding, only a fraction of the reproductive potential of an outstanding individual female could be realized, as she will produce an average of 8 to 10 calves in her lifetime under normal management programmes. Artificial insemination (A.I.) allows a bull to sire hundreds, or even thousands of offspring in its lifetime. In a similar manner, embryo transfer (E.T.) greatly increases the number of offspring that a genetically superior cow can produce.
The use of embryo transfer, has meant that the majority of animals in our herd are crossbred dairy recipient cows. Our Devon cattle are a highly selected group of genetically superior donor females and sires. This approach has greatly improved the performance of our breeding program.
Dairy cross recipient cows