The future prospects for sexed semen use in Ireland got a boost recently with the news that Teagasc and AI companies are setting up a new sexing lab. While it won’t be ready for this spring, it should be ready for the 2022 breeding season.

Last year was probably the first time that dairy farmers in Ireland used sexed semen in good numbers. Figures from the ICBF suggest that upwards of 30,000 to 40,000 inseminations of sexed straws were used last year, which represents about 3-4% of all inseminations, so it is still relatively niche.

Feedback from farmers who used sexed semen has been mostly positive. It’s important to note that farmers who used sexed semen last spring did so with their eyes wide open. Previous research at Teagasc showed that sexed semen had inferior conception rate to conventional semen. On-farm research experiments showed that sexed semen had an average conception rate of 50%, while conventional semen had a conception rate of 60%.

However, in some of the herds that took part in the studies, sexed semen actually had better results than the conventional semen. An examination into possible reasons why came up with the fact that the AI technicians handled the straws exactly as per the correct protocol and the timing of AI was also that bit later than normal.

With this in mind, Teagasc came out with detailed protocols around the use of sexed semen on dairy farms. The Teagasc guidelines for sexed semen are as follows;

  • Only use in the first 10 days of the breeding season to limit the effect of potentially poor conception rates.
  • Only use on cows calved more than 50 days that have been seen cycling.
  • Only use on cows that had an easy calving and have no uterine infections.
  • Only use on cows with a body condition score greater than three.
  • Only use on young cows on no more than the fourth lactation.
  • Do not use on cows that are lame, have mastitis or other health issues.
  • Teagasc recommends that animals should be inseminated 14 to 20 hours after the onset of heat. This means that if using once-a-day AI or even twice-a-day AI, it will not be possible to serve all animals that come into heat with sexed semen, even if they fulfil the criteria outlined above.

    Furthermore, some farmers decide not to inseminate first lactation cows with sexed semen, as they feel they are under enough pressure to stay within the herd.

    There are two other factors to consider. The first is fundamental– why use sexed semen at all? If it is to generate more heifer calves, I would suggest you try some other method. In my opinion, the only reason to use sexed semen is to generate more beef calves.

    By using sexed semen on heifers and presuming a 20% replacement and 70% conception rate, it’s feasible that 12% of all replacements needed can come from heifers. That leaves just 8% of replacements to be sourced from cows, meaning around 16% of cows could be served with sexed semen and the rest can get high-DBI beef AI.

    The other factor to consider is the method of sexing. Sexing Technologies Sexed Ultra 4M has more viable sperm cells per straw than other sexing methods.

    Dovea, Eurogene and LIC use this method, while Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics primarily use ABS to sex their bulls.