Select Sires

How A.I. Delivers Higher-Quality Semen Than a Herd Bull
Transcript of Select Sires' Reproductive Moment Program
on DairyLine Radio Which Aired Oct. 30, 2003

The profitability of any animal breeding enterprise pivots on the reproductive management program. In today’s large, high producing dairy herds, there are tremendous numbers of factors that influence reproductive efficiency and for many of these, the herd-owner has very limited if any control including, the weather, environment, feed quality, disease incidence. However, there is one area that has a major impact on reproductive efficiency and the herd-owner has basically 100 percent control over the end result. That is the area of semen quality. If you are buying frozen semen from a reputable supplier you can rest assured you have purchased a quality product. A.I. bulls on a regular collection schedule basically receive two or three breeding soundness exams each and every week. Semen that is less than optimal quality heads straight for a trash can and never has the opportunity to see a cow. Sure, your herd bull may have passed his breeding soundness exam with flying colors, but how long ago was that? Is he spreading any bugs or diseases he picked up since then? Is he still producing high quality semen today? Are you sure? The semen quality issue is particularly important to consider as we head into the warm summer months when many producers stop using A.I. and turn the breeding over to the herd bull. Bull’s are equally, if not more sensitive, to heat stress than are cows. A study at Virginia Tech in the late 1980s found that even a mild heat stress to bulls for as little as 48 hours, resulted in a decrease in percentage of normal sperm cells from greater than 70 percent to less than 30 percent within two to three weeks. Additionally, most of these bulls did not return to normal levels of semen quality for six to eight weeks. That was just 48 hours of stress, image what happens to your herd bull after several weeks of summer stress. If that’s not enough, the ability of herd bulls to keep accurate records is only slightly better than their average genetic merit. Next time we’ll discuss semen-handling procedures that ensure the cow sees the same high quality semen that was in the straw when you purchased it. In the meantime, if you’d like more information on how A.I. insures better quality semen than the herd bull, don’t hesitate to contact your local Select Sires Reproductive Solutions™ specialist.

™Reproductive Solutions is a trademark of Select Sires Inc.

Select Sires Inc., 11740 U.S. 42 North, Plain City, Ohio 43064 / Phone: (614) 873-4683 Fax: (614) 873-5751