When we did some genomic testing at Witter, and we found that two of our heifers, UM O-Style Nefertiti and UM Robust Rosemerta were considered to have ‘elite’ genes and are projected to be some of the best cows we will ever have. With this knowledge we decided to ‘flush’ them.
Flushing involves giving them hormones to cause them to super ovulate. Then we breed them with a superior bull! After this we wait a few days and call the vet. It’s time for an egg scavenger hunt! The device used for collecting eggs pretty much ‘flushes’ out these two girls’ fertilized eggs. This is a long process, but at the end we hope to have some usable eggs that we can put into other “less genetically desireable” girls in the herd. In the case of Rosemerta, we didn’t get any eggs, which was a bummer. This wasn’t a complete surprise because embryo transfer isn’t always successful. Nefertiti was a different case however! We “milked” her for all she was worth and got four usable embryos out of her! YAY!
[LIZZ here: what Sierra is describing is the "embryo-transfer process". It starts by us taking an excellent animal and using drugs to help her ovulate more times than she normally would. We breed her and hope her eggs become fertilized. If they do, she is then pregnant with several babies. Seven days after breeding, we call the vet, who uses a special technique with special equipment to "flush" all the tiny embryos out of the uterus. He catches them in a special cup and then manually searches for each embryo with a microscope. Once we have all the embryos found and sorted, he takes each of them and puts them into "low genetic quality" animals. These recipients have already had their cycles synchronized to be receptive to the new baby, and should be able to respond well, and stay pregnant. Voila, an embryo transfer!]
Now that we have the embryos, our vet put them into four other animals of lesser genetic quality. And we got great results 3 weeks later when we did our routine reproduction check-up! Three of our four girls are pregnant with little Nefertitis! Udderly fantastic!
Nefertiti herself has since been bred to have her own little one, and we are excited to see what the future holds for us as all these embryo-transfer-babies are born! Go genetics!
Hope you all had a great Easter and I’ll end with a little joke for y’all!
What happened to the lost cattle?
Nobody’s herd!