Semen Fertility Ratings

Reference ID:1426

Whereas

Whereas of the 100 Brown Swiss bulls available in Canada, only 5 have a Semen Fertility value;

Whereas only 23 Brown Swiss bulls have a Semen Fertility value in the Lactanet genetics database;

Whereas it currently takes 100 first inseminations with convention semen by A.I. technicians over a period of 12 months to have a publishable Semen Fertility value;

Whereas all matings made outside the A.I. technician network are excluded when the bull has sexed semen available during the said 12-month period:

Whereas if the number of 100 conventional first inseminations is not maintained for the new 12-month period, the Semen Fertility value is no longer publishable;

Whereas the majority of Brown Swiss breeders store semen for future use;

Whereas there is a reasonable threshold for the percentage of reliability of this trait;

Whereas semen fertility has an impact on the pregnancy rate in the herd.

Therefore

Therefore, Lactanet is asked to look at what can be done to ensure that a greater number of bulls have a publishable Semen Fertility value and that the latter remains so