Producer Results Using Sexed Semen
by Troy Smith, field editor, for Angus Journal®
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (June 12, 2013) — Developments in the use of sexed semen were discussed during the National Association of Animal Breeders Symposium (NAAB), hosted in conjunction with the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Research Symposium and Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City. Among the speakers was Kansas seedstock producer Galen Fink of Fink Beef Genetics, Randolph, Kan., who related results of using gender-sorted semen to produce both Angus and Charolais bulls through his family’s embryo-transfer (ET) program.
Galen Fink
In their experience, said Fink, resulting calf gender has been consistent with the “90% purity” promised for male-sorted semen. He shared results from year-round flushing of 121 donor females bred with gender-sorted semen from fall 2011 through fall 2012. Overall, he reported, 57.4% of embryos were transferable — an average of 6.7 per flush.
Discounting the “busts” resulting from fertility problems with one sire and two cows that wouldn’t flush, Fink called results from sexed semen comparable to those following use of conventional semen. Sixty-two percent of embryos recovered after breeding donors with sexed semen were transferable, or 7.2 per flush, compared to 69.8% and 7.7, respectively, for embryos resulting from insemination with conventional semen.
“That’s not much difference,” stated Fink. “Results with sexed semen weren’t much under conventional semen results.”
Return to the Newsroom for links to the PowerPoint presentation that accompanied this presentation. For more information about Fink Beef Genetics, visit www.finkbeefgenetics.com/home.html.
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