A two-seat folding top surrey, one carriage consignment sale held by
of the carriages offered at the annual Paul Z. Martin, Gordonville.
Transplant Calf
(Continued from Race 1|
coat resembling a bleached- in {£
out Hereford. Conrad feels
this is the breed that’s going
to become a dominant factor S^rp? 1 breeding stock m
in the business because of ,'•,. .... mnt ...
superior growth rate, «'*», is a tremendous boost in
marbling and milking
ability. He pointed out that in 9°?fad ®
the last two International
Livestock Expositions at
Chicago, grand champion “S e
ribbons went to Simmentals J^^5 ar 'j^ ld n th^
both years. are probably only a few
There are precious few “f*
purebred Simmentals in the
U.S., and virtually all of breeders like Conrad are
those are females The especially interested in
American Simmental n^TL°iq
Association considers a '
seven-eighths female
purebred, but a bull must be a year
fifteen-sixteenths before it m^ ead °t i us * : °? e * ,
can join the purebred ranks Agrowing number of firms.
Strict laws against the im- imhim
portation of foreign animals £™jL arfiS
keeps purebred European The transplants
bulbs out of the U.S., but mu !f presently be done
there are some purebreds in ®wSh if
Canada. Semen from these
~ aras's
FARM *
We Can’t Get Our Hands Out of The Soil Either!
W *>. v vv
donor cow, whose calves
should be potentially
valuable enough to Justify
the cost of the operation. Her
heat cycle is timed ac
curately, and synchronized
with a group of potential
recipient cows. Exactly five
days before the donor cow is
expected-to ovulate, a fer
tility drug, such as pregnant
mare serum, is ad
ministered. This drug causes
the donor to super-ovulate,
releasing as many as a dozen
eggs,-rather than the usual
one.
When the cow comes into
heat on the fifth day, she is
artificially inseminated with
semen from a superior bull.
Five days after that she,
along with a dozen or so
donors, are prepared for
surgery. In the antiseptic
operating room, the donors
reproductive organs are
exposed and slit open, and
the fertilized dggs are
flushed out of the cow and
into a ceramic dish. The
eggs, which are actually not
eggs anymore since cellular
division has begun, are
examined by microsqppc to
determine their suitability
for transplanting. Those
which are suitable are then
placed surgically into a
recipient cow. This
411 W. ROSEVILLE RD.,
LANCASTER
PH. 393:3921
VI
Although she doesn't know it, this
three-quarter Simmental cow is
mother to the calf by her side. The
calf is the product of an egg which
had been fertilized in the’'mother’s
body. After fertilization, the egg was
recipient, which was a
Jersey in Conrad’s instance,
then bears the fertilized egg
for a full term' pregnancy.
If the operation is entirely
successful, there will be as
many as a dozen live births
of genetically superior
animals. These calves will
have all the genetic material
of the AI buu and the donor
mother, but none of the
genes of the recipient cow
which actually gave birth to
the animal. The recipient
mother serves only as an
incubator for the last nine
months and ten days of the
calf’s pre-natal existence.
The operation’s price
keeps it out of the ballpark
for the average cow-calf or
dairy operation, but
breeders of top-flight
animals are seriously in
terested. One firm, In
ternational Cryo-Biological
Service, Inc., of Min
neapolis, said that they have
booked 60 percent of (heir
* CREDIT
At Farm Credit we know people who wouldn’t give up
farming for anything.
They farm part time, and hold down a city job too.
We make loans to these people, the same as we do to full-'
time farmers. Loans on anything to make farming easier, and
pay better.
Our interest rates are the lowest possible, our terms the
longest around, and we’ll go out of our way to help you.
You see, we know how farming can get in your blood.
Because we grew up on farms ourselves.
AGWAY BUILDING.
LEBANON.’
PH. 273-4506
Lancartar Farming, Saturday, May 25 ,1974—
1973 capacity of 200
operations. As this and other
firms gain more experience
with transfer techniques,
costs are expected to come
down. Transfer won’t likely
become a viable tool for
commercial dairy or beef
fanners until non-surgical
techniques are perfected
both for the removal of
fertilized eggs and their
implantation in donor cows.
Another technique that’s
being worked on is the
storage of fertilized eggs. If
this were perfected, it would .
eliminate the need for estrus
synchronization.
Is there much risk to the
life of a prize cow that un
dergoes the transplant
operation? “The real risk
isn’t to the cow,” Conrad
said, “it’s financial. You
first of all don’t know how
many fertilized eggs you’re
going to get from a donor
cow. You could get none and
you could get 20. No matter
FARM CREDIT
We’re your kind of people.
removed and placed in the uterus of a
Jersey, which actually bore the calf
for nine months and 10 days. Both
animals are owned by Dr. Thomas
Conrad. Bird-in-Hand.
how many you get. It still
costs $lO,OOO. Right now,
embryo transplants aren’t
really a money-making
proposition, at least not
always. I do know a man in
the midwest who put a prize
cow through the operation
and had 10 pregnant
recipient cows. He sold the
recipients and the donor cow
for $161,000, with an in
surance policy guaranteeing
live births and six months of
age. I think he made a good
investment.”
ICBS, the Minneapolis
firm mentioned earlier, says
its success so far has been 3.7
live births for each
operation.
Conrad said he has no
financial interest in embryo
transplants, and that his real
business is raising purebred
Simmentals. He added that
he’d be glad to discuss the
technique, though, with
anyone who might be in
terested.
25