STOCK SEXED SEMEN
on luggage with couriers on flights from Hamilton and Auckland airports while sexed semen for naturally cycling cows went as freight with standard conventional liquid semen deliveries in the afternoon and early evening. “With freight, we have to have it at the airport more than an hour before the flight and that’s at every airport on the route. “As carry-on luggage with someone, it’s 20 minutes and as we only have the mornings to get it there for animals to be mated that afternoon, it works really well. “If we need to, if it’s a large synchro, the courier can also assist the technician with the inseminations.” All sexed semen for synchro inseminations was used in the afternoon of the delivery, he said. “With naturally cycling matings, which uses semen collected from bulls in the afternoon, it’s used in the morning as part of the daily scheduled AB run with the aim they are all done before lunchtime.” The tight timelines ensure the sexed semen is as viable as possible. Liquid sexed semen has a similar conception rate to non-sexed (conventional) liquid or frozen semen if used within 24 hours of processing. However, frozen sexed semen conception rates were about 13% less hence the importance of the liquid product.
Precious cargo Fresh liquid sexed semen is now a major part of artificial breeding. Story and photos by Karen Trebilcock.
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t’s early afternoon on Tuesday, October 20, and LIC Artificial Breeding (AB) technician assistant Chrissy Taylor-Claude is waiting at Dunedin Airport for flight NZ5749 from Christchurch. On it are 34 straws of liquid (fresh) sexed semen from bull Bagworth DM League, 34 straws of Lightburn Free Range and 33 straws of Busy Brook Convict. The semen was collected from the three Friesian bulls in the morning the day before at the LIC Newstead bull farm, delivered to Sexing Technologies next to Hamilton Airport at 1.30pm where it was spun and sorted, finishing in the early hours of the morning. It was back at Newstead by 4am to be put 68
into the straws and sealed and not much later on Tuesday morning the 101 straws were at the loading bay ready to be picked up by a LIC courier who carried it as hand luggage on to the flight from Hamilton to Christchurch and then onto Dunedin where Chrissy was waiting. By 4pm that day it was inseminated into 101 of Taurima Farms’ yearlings on the Taieri which had been synchronised. LIC national AB manager Dave Hale said it was a busy season this year with liquid sexed semen collections now a big part of the LIC AB product mix. Sexed semen collections started on September 20 and will finish on November 30. Sexed semen for synchronised yearlings and cows went out each morning as carry-
“Farmers have become acutely aware that if they are unable to milk more cows, they need to milk better ones. “ Rates of pregnancy and resulting days in milk are critical elements of farm profitability making the ‘fresh sexed advantage’ a game changer for New Zealand dairy farmers, LIC general manager NZ markets Malcolm Ellis said. LIC is the only provider of liquid sexed semen in New Zealand and this year sales of the product are triple that of last year. “With farmers proactively looking at
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2020
