US researchers announces sexed semen for cattle operations

Semen that has been separated into male and female sperm is now available for the beef and dairy industries, a bovine specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences announced.

The use of artificial insemination in cattle helps to improve genetic progress and improve access to higher-quality genetics for producers, according to Chad Dechow, associate professor of dairy genetics.

However, the 50/50 ratio of male and female calves that results may not be optimum for some breeders, he said, noting that the cost and conception rate using sexed semen is a compromise that must be addressed.

Sexed semen in beef cattle breeding programmes can assist breeders in providing high-quality replacement heifers, providing a larger percentage of a calf crop that can be marketed as breeding bulls, or producing male calves that can be marketed as steers for junior steer projects.

The downside is that there is a higher cost for the semen and the success rate will be lower, Dechow noted. Semen costs generally will be 50% to 100% higher, and studies have shown conception rates will be about 15% lower with sexed semen compared to traditional programmes, he said.

"Since the total number of sperm in a dose of sexed semen will be lower, it is not recommended for use in embryo-transfer programs. In addition, there are individual bull differences in the success rate for sexing the semen. Even given these deficiencies, sexing semen can have a huge impact for individual farms that have the ability to gain a premium for cattle of a particular sex," he said.