Cattle Embryo Transplants, In-Vivo, IVF and International Embryo Sales
SEMEN PRODUCTION
Bova-Tech Ltd. is pleased to add Owners Use Only (OWS) semen collection and freezing either on-farm or in-clinic.
Collecting semen on hot new or proven prospects is now as easy as booking an appointment with BTL with our brand new state-of-the-art semen collection equipment.
This value-added service is ideal for incorporating artificial insemination into your program and is like having an insurance plan preserving the genetics of that bull for future usage in the event he is sold, dies, becomes incapable of natural service, or his testicles degenerate.
Owner's use semen collection does not require the bull to have health tests. The animal can attend our collection centre in the morning and leave later the same day or the BTL mobile lab can collect on-farm.
Only the owner of the bull can access the semen for their own herd only. The collected semen cannot be sold or traded. BTL can store it at our collection facility or the semen can be stored on-farm.
​
There are a myriad of things making a bull incapable of breeding. So semen in the tank is breeding insurance if the bull’s genetics are important to maintain your breeding program. However, you still may want to insure a valuable bull through the normal channels so he can be replaced in the event some unforeseen event happens.
THE PROCESS
BTL will use an electro-ejaculator like we do for normal fertility testing, but the object is to stimulate longer to get the maximum amount. The sample is checked by CASA computer assisted semen analysis for motility and concentration (number of sperm per millilitre). Based on the volume collected, a final calculation gives us the number of straws to put up. The goal is to strive for 10 million live sperm per straw, taking into account the freezing and thawing process will kill up to half of the live sperm (some are dead to start with). Most times 30 million to 40 million sperm are put up in each straw. More is not always better as too many sperm can lead to detrimental results. The semen is extended (diluted) to the proper concentration using a commercially made product.
IN-CLINIC COLLECTION
The commercial stud operations is a day service whereby the bull is transported to the BTL facility, its semen collected and the bull can then return home.
.png)
ON-FARM COLLECTION
On-farm collection resembles a semen evaluation but there are many further steps taken. A breeding soundness evaluation will be done shortly before collection. This ensures the semen is fresh, very low in defects ensuring producers get adequate volume to make collection worthwhile.
SEXED SEMEN FOR DONOR INSEMINATION OR FRESH SEMEN FREEZING
Most producers are looking for economic ways to produce more heifer or bull calves, depending on their operation. The Bova-Tech team has listened and are pleased to offer a value-added service that can produce more bull calves/steers for the fall beef auction, or more heifer calves to grow your herd or provide more milk producing females.
How does sexed semen work? Sperm cells that result in a heifer calf (XX) have more DNA than sperm cells that result in a bull calf (XY). Of the several attempts to find ways to sort XX and XY sperm cells, the only method available in the past was flow cytometry, which is costly, and can decrease pregnancy rates.
The other option is adding a spermagenic agent for sexing bull semen. Packaged in kit form, each dose is sealed in a vial to maintain potency during storage. These agents can be added to the straw during donor artificial insemination or to the freshly collected semen batch prior to freezing, choosing either the male or female producing agent. We are happy to now offer this option to you for donor Artificial Insemination or after collection of fresh semen and prior to freezing.
