Our Artificial Breeding Programs aim is to get influential bulls and cow families to breed more calves per year. Using artificial insemination and IVF it has helped improve our stud and commercial herds out of sight.
We first started breeding artificially due to the small size of our herd and bank account available to a 16 year old that wanted to use top genetics. It allowed us to improve the quality of our herd at a significantly quicker rate. We are able to match specific bulls to specific cows to maximize their strengths.
We aim to AI our cow herd, both stud & commercial, once per year before the are exposed to bulls for 3 months. This gives us a chance to match a cow to a bull that will suit her characteristics. It also allows us to use a wider range of genetics without having to own and maintain that bull yourself.
For 3 years now we have been using IVF technologies. This process lets us produce more calves out of our top cows. We are able to collect eggs out of our pregnant donors, so they are still having their own natural calf annually and no drugs are required for this process either. 1 straw of semen is capable of producing 100 progeny through IVF which is quite a surreal thought.