Researchers have shelved an innovative effort that was to improve breeding soundness evaluations of bulls.
The Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute began research three years ago on the use of infrared thermography to help sort the studs from the duds.
The idea was to take temperature readings from various places on a bull’s scrotum and then look for irregularities that could point to fertility problems.
The research ended last year because there was not enough consistency in the results. Scrotal temperatures were affected by a range of things as basic as whether the bull was tested on a warm day or a cold day. Those factors made it impossible to establish reliable patterns in relation to a bull’s fertility.
Read Also
Calf hormone implants can give environmental, financial wins
Hormone implants can lead to bigger calves — reducing greenhouse gas intensity, land use intensity and giving the beef farmer more profit, Manitoba-based model suggests.
“We aren’t pursuing it any further as a result of the data that we collected,” said Harvey Chorney, vice-president of PAMI’s Manitoba operations. “We thought it would be effective, but it turned out the data didn’t support that thesis.”
The study followed up on work done at Agriculture Canada’s research centre in Lethbridge. The researchers at Lethbridge found that most bulls with abnormal thermographs had poorer quality semen, although not every bull with poorer quality semen had abnormal thermographs.
The equipment used at Lethbridge cost about $50,000 per unit, making it too expensive for a typical vet clinic to use for bull evaluations.
In its research, PAMI used a hand-held infrared thermometer to take temperature readings off the scrotum. The device looked like a handgun and cost $1,500, making it more affordable for rural veterinarians. The hope was that infrared thermography would complement the methods already used in breeding soundness evaluations.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way,” Chorney said.
“We played the spreadsheets a whole bunch of different ways, but it didn’t have a factor of comfort that we were willing to promote it with.”
