Sperm in cows

There are many reasons why artificial cow insemination is preferred. First and foremost is that it makes it much easier, and less costly, to inseminate a large number of cows. Also, with the AI method, the farmer does not have to bring an actual bull to the farm, which saves both time and money. In order to keep the milk production at a high level, it is very important to conduct proper fertility management, Afimilk stands behind a world-leading automatic heat detection system, AfiAct.

Artificial insemination is used to improve the genetics of dairy cattle, like this bull. The goal is to spread genes for desirable traits, such as disease resistance or heat tolerance, through a population of animals in fewer generations than is possible with conventional breeding. If scientists can surmount lingering technical hurdles, the technique could prove invaluable for pigs, chickens and other livestock that are tricky to breed using artificial insemination. The technique could also aid efforts to conserve species for which semen storage is difficult, including many birds. In the US dairy industry, the practice of artificially inseminating cows with sperm collected from elite bulls, as well as careful genetic selection, has yielded cows that produce four times more milk than animals did in the s, before the practice was introduced.

Frozen bovine semen is a method of preserving bovine semen for future artificial insemination , even after the death of the donor. The early artificial insemination organizations were largely farmer-owned cooperatives. It began operations with members and 1, cows enrolled.

In the dairy and beef industry, artificial insemination AI is king. Rather than just standing back and let cows doing their thing, AI allows farmers to breed specific desirable traits in their livestock, while being much cheaper and simpler. But at the end of day someone has to actually go out and collect the bull semen.