The ability to breed multiple heifer replacements from the top cow in a herd in just a few seasons is reason enough to consider using embryo transfers, Raeden Jackson says.
The Waihou farmer has sold his pedigree herd three times during his farming life, quickly rebuilding a quality herd using the latest in reproductive technology.
Embryo technology is an investment that benefits any farmer and not just those producing pedigree stock, he says.
Spending a few thousand dollars every year to get a line of top heifers into the herd is of huge benefit to any farmer’s bottom line.
Animal Breeding Services (ABS) charges between $700 a pregnancy, using a farmers’ recipient cow, to $2150 for a live calf, reared to weaning, using ABS recipient cows.
Raeden opts to pay the higher fee for live calves and spends on average $6000 a year, which is paid back in stock sales and bull royalties.
“It’s a hobby that is associated with the work I do but it’s definitely had financial payback.”
Raeden has kept up with the latest in embryo technology since he met ABS managing director John Hepburn.
He sold his original Topeka Stud in 1988 and bought three top pedigree Holstein- Friesians, including a cow with the highest breeding index in the country at the time.
He paid $8000, $9000 and $10,000 respectively for the animals and rather than continue to buy cows at high prices, he embarked with embryo transfer (ET) technology.
“You can get animals cheaper from ET, it’s cheaper to multiply.”
He started using conventional embryo flushing technology but one of the cows had fertility problems with eggs not travelling out of the ovaries so John and Raeden tried a new technology at the time called trans-vaginal recovery (TVR).
TVR is a non-surgical, ultrasound-guided method of collecting eggs from the ovaries of donor cows.
The process uses no drugs so cows can be flushed more often, which is a bonus, Raeden says.
“If you’re not greedy you can get a flush or two before she’s due to be put in-calf.”
He built up his Valden pedigree herd and sold it between 2010 and 2012. The cows averaged 103 Breeding Worth and 111 Production Worth and sold for $3300/cow.
‘I have enjoyed the friendships of some awesome people who love their animals. Most
dairy farmers are special people.’
Raeden kept his top BW cow and her rising one-year-old daughter Valden Ovation Dixie and bought a mixture of replacement cows for between $800 and $3000.
He has flushed Ovation Dixie twice to improve the mismatched herd at a quicker rate.
He now has five of her daughters on the ground, which in the updated February animal evaluations have an average BW of 231.
Raeden has been offered contracts on all of them from animal breeding (AB) companies.
Next year there will be another potential six heifer calves born from Ovation Dixie embryos, with an expected 284 BW average.
Two Ovation Dixie’s bulls were picked up by AB companies from her first flush, with another three bulls sold to separate AB companies this year.
With embryo transfer work, farmers will generally make their money back on heifers but the bulls can be worth nothing if they are not contracted, apart from the side benefit of natural mating, Raeden says.
He believes the power sits too much with the AB companies and farmers need to have good relationships with them to make any profit.
With inductions no longer an option and farmers shortening artificial breeding periods there should be an opportunity to use rejected bulls from the sire selection process, he says.
“AB companies should drop the intellectual property once they’ve rejected the bulls. The bulls could still be beneficial for industry good. At the moment those bulls cannot be used for artificial matings or sold to other AB companies.”
Making money from embryo transfers isn’t straightforward. There is always a lottery involved with genetics, even when using the best cows in the herd.
Every animal is made of unique genes and farmers have to be realistic about the results they get, Raeden says.
For every 10 animals on the ground he expects only one heifer and one bull to significantly stand out above the rest.
“One plus one doesn’t always equal two. It doesn’t work like that with genetics. Genomics has been a big lesson in how complex genetics is. If you succeed you’re blessed.”
In that respect, Raeden has been reasonably blessed during the years.
Currently 22 of the top 50 bulls on the New Zealand ranking of active sires are descendents of his Valden-Hi Applause or Valden Curious Paladium families.
Through embryo transfers, Valden Ovation Dixie has produced 11 heifers in two years and five bulls that have been picked up by animal breeding companies.
He has sold 100 bull calves in total to various NZ animal breeding companies, counting just the calves that have received sire codes.
For his most successful bull, Paladium, he received a 15% royalty and profited more than $200,000 from one-year semen collection.
Unfortunately, Paladium was kept in an air-conditioned barn at the AB centre and in an electrical storm the air-conditioning unit stopped. He overheated and died when he was just five years old.
Applause’s full sister also met a tragic end, getting pushed into a water trough which had an electric wire over it. She still has sons and grandsons with AB companies, including one bull in the top 50 ranked sires.
“It was a tragedy. It broke my heart. I felt she was better than Applause and her progeny are still coming through and showing huge promise.”
When it comes to breeding a star bull or dam, a lot of it comes down to a lot of luck and it’s not for everybody. People have to have the three “Ps” – passion, prudence and perseverance.
“You’ve got to have passion to keep going when things go wrong, prudence because you can lose a lot of money if you don’t do things right and perseverance to get the high income bull reward.”
Farmers need to have a good eye to make good breeding decisions. The key is not to try to change too many traits at once, but pick one or two traits that need the most improvement.
Functional udders are always Raeden’s first priority. He looks for udders that are easy to milk, with good suspension ligaments.
“I believe udder texture is also important. That’s not tested and it should be, especially in high-fed herds. You need to see the udder before and after it’s milked.
“Even when the shape isn’t right, they can have a nice silky udder which collapses well and there is a benefit for less mastitis and long herd life, well above the expectations of the shape of the udder.”
Farmers have to be wary of buying overseas genetics out of catalogues too. American photos of cows are frequently side-on and it wasn’t until he visited the United States he realised how narrow some cows were.
“I look for strength from front-on, width between their front legs so they have the ability to compete.”
Everything has to add up and besides breeding good animals, farmers have to grow their young stock well to give them a fair chance, he says.
Raeden broke his leg last year and had to employ a farm assistant but is back milking by himself.
He has been milking cows since he was eight years old and is contemplating selling up in the near future or putting a farm manager on but he will always take an interest in breeding cows.
“I will look for a partnership and keep investing while it interests me. There are always ups and downs but I‘ve enjoyed the things I’ve learnt, especially regarding life in general and creation.
“I have enjoyed the friendships of some awesome people who love their animals. Most dairy farmers are special people, they have to work hard to make money and show a lot of initiative. It’s a great industry to be a part of.”
Genetic gain from embryo transfers
Increased use of embryo transfers could double the value of genetic gain for farmers and the overall dairy industry, David Hayman says.
The managing director of Hayman GD Consulting, he wrote a research paper three years ago on the potential impact of embryo transfers to breed superior sires for the dairy industry.
He found wider application of embryo transfers could deliver strong gains for the whole industry.
Embryo transfers produce 20% of the 500 bulls selected for sire proving and/or immediate semen marketing in NZ. And 25% of the final bulls proven are embryo transfer progeny.
In the NZ ranking of active sires, four of the top 10 bulls are bred from embryo transfer.
That over-representation is a reflection on how vital embryo transfer technology can be to the industry.
The potential gains justify significant investment in improving embryo transfer efficiency and reliability, he says.
The industry still has to maintain a good balance with embryo transfer work, however, to ensure the genetic pool doesn’t become too narrow.
Key points
Owners: Raeden and Lyn Jackson
Location: Waihou, Waikato
Area: 40ha
Herd: Valden Holstein Friesian Stud, 88 cows, BW 119, PW 145
Production: 43,666kg milksolids (MS), 496kg MS/cow
Breeding expenses: $6000/year on embryo transfers
Farm dairy: 8-aside double-up herringbone
Bought supplement: 40 tonnes dried distillers’ grain, 50 bales hay
