How to earn the status of super-cow may be one of the best kept secrets in the beef industry.
In the cattle business, some cows qualify because of their ability to produce more than the usual number of calves in a lifetime. It’s possible with reproductive technology involving the retrieval of dozens of eggs from a single cow. It not only extends her breeding life, but replicates offspring from what is deemed a superior animal.
Embryo transfers and artificial insemination are common practices throughout the beef and dairy industries. The newest technology, in vitro fertilization, starts an embryo in a petrie dish.
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“Instead of the cow doing all the work, we’ve done exactly the same thing in the laboratory,” said Ric Ross of Alta Genetics.
Commonly used by Holstein breeders, the new year saw the birth of Canada’s first Charolais calf conceived in the lab.
Ross, who owns the calf, works at Alta Genetics as an in vitro fertilization specialist. He said the heifer designated as “704G” was born unassisted Jan. 3 and weighed 100 pounds.
Her mother is a 10-year-old Charolais that has produced numerous offspring through this technique. The recipient cow, a black baldie mother, welcomed 704G as her own baby at White Heather Charolais ranch at Crossfield, Alta. owned by Ross, along with his brother and father. They have about 35 purebred Charolais cows.
While there is already a large national beef cow herd, not all of them are good cows, said Ross. This technique helps multiply the better performing animals.
A cow is born with thousands of eggs but releases only a few naturally during its lifetime. With Ross’s technique, more eggs are taken from a cow more often without superovulation drugs that cause release of many ripe eggs at one time.
The process starts by taking eggs from the cow’s ovary. These are then matured in a special hormone bath that allows fertilization by sperm to take place over about 18 hours.
Beginning as a single cell, the embryo grows in the lab for another five days. It multiplies at the rate of two, four, eight, 16 cells, up to about 100 cells on the fifth day when it’s transferred to a recipient cow.
Eggs can be collected from a pregnant cow until three months of gestation. Young heifers not ready for breeding can also yield viable eggs.
Save a life
The technique could be a life saver for an infertile cow. It may be infertile because its fallopian tubes are blocked. Such cows are usually slaughtered. With in vitro fertilization, it can continue to produce calves because scientists bypass the tubes.
“We see a lot of valuable cows in the dairy industry. They have grown older and their fallopian tubes may be damaged,” said Ross.
“This is a way of maximizing her fertility.”
But calf registration presents problems.
Pedigrees for animals that started as embryo transfers receive the designation “ET” as part of their official names.
