Heat checking….

….as we get ready to implant our latest embryos from England.  We’re using our best cows for this project.  The CIDRs were pulled just last weekend and this was the first time we could detect heat.

Of the 16 cows we’re prepping, 10 came into heat today.  Eight days from that point we’ll be implanting the embryos and then a tense time as we await the results.

For our city friends: this is what we are looking for.  The 8-day clock starts running now.

The embryos are waiting in a canister a few miles away…eggs that were fertilized in a mating of cows and a bull we selected for their conformation and pure Devon genetics.  That was six months ago in a farm clinic near Cambridge, England.  The females were two cows that we purchased from Ashott-Barton farm; the bull (long dead) was from Cutcombe farm.  (He thoughtfully left behind a supply of semen.)

We’re using our own best cows as recips because experience has lead us to believe the recip is at least as important as the donor cow and bull.  The average success rate for this procedure is about 50%…but it can be as low as zero.  An expensive crap shoot.

But we love the results we’ve been getting!  (see home page)