Focus on
Reproduction IVF Roundtable
The Holstein industry is home to many different farm sizes and breeding philosophies. Along with this, different tools have different benefits and applications for every operation. This month, we asked four Registered Holstein breeders to give us some background on their use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and what they’ve experienced with the technology. Thank you to those that participated in our roundtable. 1. Tell us a little about your operation. Greg Rickert, Rickert Bros. LLC, Eldorado: We are a third and fourth generation family farm. We have 1000 cows, mostly all registered that average 95 pounds of milk with a 3.8% fat and 3.1% protein. We do all our own cropping which entails 2000 acres. We pride ourselves on deep cow families that have functional type along with high milk and protein. We have had several bulls that have entered A.I. and had a few make the active line-up. Currently there is a Jedi son, Rickland Jackpot 922, over +2800 GTPI and currently available from Select Sires from the former number one protein cow in the breed, Salvatore 5026. We have been blessed with having three different top 10 GTPI heifers in the country the last three years. Currently, we have the number 11 heifer, Rickland Bandarus 6507 at +2917 GTPI from a VG-86 Montross dam. We have used ET work for the last 35 years and will continue our genomic advancement in the future. The industry has changed a lot the last couple of years and the opportunities to stay near the top is getting tougher with other farms calving 10 to 20 times the amount of ETs per year than we are and the genomic advancement is going up over 100 GTPI points per year. Mitch Breunig, Mystic Valley Dairy, Sauk City: We milk 400 cows and farm 1050 acres. I am the sole owner of the farm having transitioned out of a family partnership with my parents as they retired. We are using higher genomics all the time trying to breed for a more marketable animal as we sell 130 plus per year for dairy. Kelli Cull, Budjon Farms, Lomira: My husband Tom and I are partners with Tom’s father, John, in Budjon Farms. While the farm has always been home to a small tiestall Holstein & Jersey milking herd (65 total), it’s the Budjon Boarding business that has truly flourished over the course of a decade. In July of 2014, we completed an overall farm face lift, with the addition of a new office building, maternity pens, milkhouse & hospitality/employee areas. Finally, in the summer of 2015, we completed a much needed update to the calf area, adding another 60 individual hutches and 25 more super hutches. Budjon Farms is also a satellite center for Trans Ova Genetics. Erica Lundberg, Bert-Mar Farms, Osseo: I farm with my dad and boyfriend at Bert-Mar Farms. Dad is the fourth generation at Bert-Mar, making me the fifth. We milk 100 cows in a tiestall barn and farm around 600 acres. We went through a brutal 20 year struggle with stray voltage and lost all our genetics. Since finding it and correcting the problem in 2010, we have bought into key cow families and through IVF have been able to rapidly improve our herd. 2. How long have you been using IVF? How many animals do you typically flush, both IVF and conventionally, each year? Rickert: We have been using IVF for about six years, starting with pregnancies in beef recips and calved them at the farm during nonwinter weather. Now we have transitioned into IVF on open heifers also and implant fresh embryos on the farm via a shipped incubator to Sunshine Genetics. We currently have been doing IVF on 5 to 6 animals per year and convention flushing on 10 to 15 heifers and cows through Malin Embryo which has been with us for over 40 years. We would like to thank him for helping us chase down recipients over the years now that he’s decided to semi-retire. 20–wisconsin HOLSTEIN news/May 2017
Breunig: We have been using IVF for nine years. We flush about 3540 animals annually. Cull: We began using IVF in January of 2009 and average about 10 donors per year. Lundberg: We have been using IVF for about four years. Typically each year we IVF two or sometimes three animals regularly with maybe one or two conventional flushes a year. 3. What factors do you consider when deciding to do IVF? Rickert: Higher genomic young heifers as early as nine months of age out of strong cow families out of the right sires. We also do pregnant animals we have not filled all of our contracts on or have not created enough pregnancies from. Also, if A.I. companies have a demand for our genetic lines, we usually have been using all prerelease semen trying to breed the next high one like everyone else. My fear is that most A.I. companies will have over 50 percent of their own bred genetics and will not need our producer programs, so there may be a switch to more sexed semen in the future for our own needs. Breunig: We consider pregnancy status of donor and conventional track record of the donor. We also consider being able to sell embryos. Our China embryo contract only allows conventional, so that plays a part as well. We also consider timing of embryos - making show calves in October and November doesn’t make sense. Cull: We feel the positives of IVF are being able to work with pregnant animals and that it can be done every two weeks. We also consider stage of lactaion and whether it is cost effective as the IVF investment is higher. The market for the embryos is also considered as some countries only take conventional. Lundberg: When deciding to do IVF on an animal we first consider her pedigree. Deep, proven cow families are important to us. We also look at marketability and genetic superiority. Typically, we focus on high type with a few high GTPI animals as well. 4. How many fertilized eggs do you typically see with your IVF flushes versus conventional flushes? And how do the pregnancy rates compare? Rickert: My experiences are somewhat limited, but we have had some very good donors that were IVFd when pregnant and would produce 20 oocytes and have 10 to 12 transfers. We’ve also have had some donors not respond well on conventional flushes and usually those animals don’t produce high numbers of oocytes either. Recently we had a pair of full sisters over +2800 GTPI with one heifer having three flushes over 40 oocytes and transferring 20 to 25 embryos, where the full sister averaged 10 to 15 with only a few transfers. Conventional flushes usually average 12 to 15 embryos with fertilized egg rate much higher at 80 percent compared to 35 percent; and pregnancy rates average higher on conventional with pregnancy rates at 70 percent compared to 40 to 50 percent with IVF. Breunig: Depends on the donor. Some poor conventional flush cows make IVF embryos efficiently so it is great for them. We usually get 6-7 conventional; IVF is lower but very donor dependent. Pregnancy rates vary. Implants of #1’s from either are very similar. With IVF we tend to implant lower quality embryos trying to make a pregnancy which will affect this. We do find the same when freezing #1’s for sale; lower quality means lower pregnancy rate. Cull: With Trans Ova, they can typically expect to collect about