farmerjan
Herd Master
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- Aug 16, 2016
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Also, timing of the breeding. It has been the opinion of some vets, that the PH changes as the length of the cycle... so early in the heat the ph is more acidic which is supposed to favor the male carrying sperm... and the later in the heat it becomes more alkaline which is supposed to favor the female carrying sperm. Or vice versa... I can't remember which... Breeding at the beginning of the heat favors the male carrying sperm to reach the egg, and later favors the female carrying sperm... People have tried all sorts of different things to get the desired sex of the off spring. Now we have already sexed semen in cattle, so you have a much better chance of getting the sex you want... but it is not 100% guaranteed. We have certain drugs we can give to cause multiple eggs to reach maturation and get released at the same time...
Case in point. I had a cow that I desperately wanted a heifer calf out of. Used female sexed semen on her. Several different years..... In the sexed semen there is a great percentage of the sperm carrying the sex you want but not every single one... they say 90-95% accurate. She had a bull calf everytime......the only heifer calf she ever had was by an accidental breeding by the farmers bull (she was on a dairy farm) and it was the day after he had seen her heat and did not breed her.... it was really too soon after she had calved... not 40 days yet.....and the next morning the bull had gotten into the field with the milking cows....so she got bred late in her heat cycle....
Luck of the draw.
Case in point. I had a cow that I desperately wanted a heifer calf out of. Used female sexed semen on her. Several different years..... In the sexed semen there is a great percentage of the sperm carrying the sex you want but not every single one... they say 90-95% accurate. She had a bull calf everytime......the only heifer calf she ever had was by an accidental breeding by the farmers bull (she was on a dairy farm) and it was the day after he had seen her heat and did not breed her.... it was really too soon after she had calved... not 40 days yet.....and the next morning the bull had gotten into the field with the milking cows....so she got bred late in her heat cycle....
Luck of the draw.