It may be years before people like Jack Reeb renew the search for an affordable way to use beef cows and embryo transfers as a way to provide more dairy heifers for Canadian and foreign markets.
Reeb heads Central Canadian Genetics Ltd., a Manitoba company that specializes in livestock reproduction and nutrition. A little more than a year ago, he was in Brandon outlining the possibility of transferring dairy embryos into beef cows, a measure that could potentially help satisfy what he saw as an increasing North American demand for dairy replacement heifers.
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Reeb told beef producers the opportunities were worth examining, but he emphasized more work was needed to understand the risks and to lower the costs of embryo transfers.
However, in a recent interview, he said plans to research the idea are on hold, describing it as another casualty of the fallout from bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The discovery of BSE in an Alberta cow last May halted exports of Canadian cattle and a U.S. case worsened the problem.
Reeb said dairy replacement exports dropped to nil from 100,000 a year before the BSE discovery.
Before the announcement of a BSE case in Washington state, there had been speculation that exports of live Canadian cattle younger than 30 months would resume within the first three months of this year. Reeb said the idea of transferring dairy embryos into beef cows will be revisited after the border reopens, whenever that may be.
Rick McRonald, executive director of the Canadian Livestock Genetics Association, said there is a surplus of dairy replacement heifers in Canada and prices have suffered.
Exports of dairy semen and embryos continue, although some countries have kept their borders closed to those products since the BSE discovery.
China and Argentina do not allow imports of semen and embryos from Canada, while Brazil does not accept embryos.
