LOVELOCK - Surprisingly, no students were kicked as they took turns exploring the inside of a cow's rear end at a local ranch. Locating the animal's fertility zone was more challenging than it sounded in the classroom description of artificial insemination.
The art of artificial insemination requires an intimate knowledge of the female bovine reproductive system, sensitive hands, good timing and a high tolerance for manure. Frozen bull semen must be thawed and delivered to the cow at the right time, place and temperature for successful conception and a calf to be born around 285 days later.
With one hand inserted deep into the cow's rectum, a student used his other hand to maneuver the AI "gun" through a labyrinth of flesh to the cow's sweet spot. It was just practice and no semen was released but instructor Ron Torell celebrated anyway.
"Give that man a cigar," Torell proclaimed. "He's a daddy!"
Elko County resident Torell and his wife Jackie own Torell Livestock & Custom A.I. The couple owns high-end bulls and provides artificial insemination services and training for ambitious, do-it-yourself ranchers willing to learn the complexities of hormone synchronization, heat detection, calving intervals and other AI management programs.
"Reproductive physiology has always been a passion of mine," Torell said. "I was 16 years old when I first learned how to AI cows and I've been hooked ever since."
Artificial insemination allows customers to select high-quality genetics without buying high-dollar bulls but is management and labor intensive, Torell said. AI costs about $40 per cow or about $70 per live calf at a good conception rate of 70 percent, he said.
For Anthony Moura, the AI process has eased his heifers' first calving and should improve the overall quality of his herd of 200 Angus and Angus-Hereford cattle.
"We just wanted access to the genetics that are available and the accuracy of getting an easy calving," Moura said. "I've been using it on the first-calf heifers to make sure that they have an easy time the first time around. You can pick bulls that are known for their calving ease. As the cows age-out, they'll just be with the bull."
Years ago, cattlemen used long, plastic straws to blow bull semen into their cows' uteruses, according to long-time rancher Bing Wesner.
The technique is time-consuming but worthwhile for owners of large livestock herds, he said.
"You can use better bulls through AI than you can afford to buy," he said. "Some of these bulls that they're getting the semen from are probably worth $35,000 or $40,000. My bulls are worth about $2,000 to $5,000."
After presenting the complex reproductive system and hormones of cows and a catalogue of high-end bulls, Torell demonstrated artificial insemination using an AI "gun" and a reproductive system removed from the carcass of a pregnant cow. Students could see the anatomy they could only feel for later as they attempted to inseminate a living cow.
Ranchers need good herd management skills, proper tools, reliable help and a hydraulic chute or cattle holding box for successful artificial insemination programs, Torell said.
"The restraining facilities don't have to be fancy," he said. "Our first AI facility was jury-rigged together. It was just a handmade deal on wheels we called our bovine bordello."
Torell told ranchers to shop for the best in bull semen that's rated according to calving ease, cow milk production, carcass size and other factors compared to breed averages.
"Don't go to all the work to go to AI and then cheapen up and buy a low-accuracy bull," Torell said. "Wait until the cream rises to the top."
The frozen semen and genetics of both living and dead bulls is used to artificially breed thousands of cows. Some ranchers questioned the long term effects of AI on the industry.
"How much bad do you get with the good?" Anthony Moura asked. "Like Holsteins, they've necked down the genetic pool and they're probably doing the same thing with the Angus. How much did you lose along the way? What are the negative side-effects when one bull has 200,000 offspring?"
Torell said artificial insemination, bull cloning and in-breeding is prevalent in the dairy industry for single trait selection to maximize milk and butter fat production. AI is increasingly important in the beef industry for improved meat quality and quantity.
"We're going down the same road as the dairy industry with so much in-breeding but we've got a long ways to go," he said. "We've still got a good pool of bulls. You've got to be careful with in-breeding but that's best left to the geneticists not to us cowboys."
Traditional breeding with live bulls remains important in Nevada, where many cattle herds are out on the range and away from holding facilities used for AI, Torell said.
For the latest information on artificial insemination research and strategies, Torell recommended the Beef Reproduction Task Force at www.beefrepro.unl.edu.
[[In-content Ad]]
