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Best Practice - Thawing, Loading and Insemination Tips
Article by Carlos Carpio & Jill Middour; Alta District Sales Managers
Tips for semen handling
A thorough understanding of semen handling and thawing protocols will insure high quality semen; here are some tips to help you obtain high quality thawed semen.
Whenever handling frozen semen straws, utilize a set of forceps. Direct contact with your hands will affect the final quality of the thawed semen.
Maintain the water bath lid closed at all times, even if you dont have straws in it. This will keep the water at the adequate thawing temperature of 95°F. If you leave the lid open, the water bath equipment will repeatedly warm the water to compensate the transfer of heat from the water to the air. This will ruin the heating mechanism of the water bath.
Routinely check the temperature of the thawing water bath with a mercury thermometer. Keep a log of the measurements and dates. If it fails to keep the appropriate temperature, replace it immediately. This is a critical step in the thawing process and should not be taken lightly as it will affect the final quality of the thawed semen.
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Thaw a straw... With the forceps, quickly remove the straw from the goblet and place it into the water bath for at least 45 seconds. Remember to close the lid of the water bath. Do not thaw more than three straws in the water bath at a time. It will affect the appropriate thawing temperature and therefore compromise the quality of the thawing process. After thawing the straw, dry it thoroughly. Water is a spermicide!! |
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Avoid exposing the semen to cold shock. Make sure the gun has been warmed before loading. After loading the gun, place underneath your shirt, in your pocket or in a gun warmer to maintain desired temperature on the way to the cow.
When breeding more than 1 cow, use individually wrapped sheaths or keep guns in separate breeding sleeves. Semen could leak out of the tip of the gun and mix with the other breeding gun. You could accidentally breed her to the wrong bull!
Aim to have the cow bred within 15 minutes after thawing. Beyond this you will begin losing some sperm viability.
Be extra careful if there is a chance the cow is pregnant. Enter the cervix slowly, and if it is sticky like peanut butter or bubblegum, do not go any further and withdraw the gun. This indicates the cow is pregnant and has formed a cervical plug. Damage to the cervical plug could cause her to lose the pregnancy.
If vaginal infections are a big problem on your dairy, consider sheath protectors or using individually wrapped sheaths. This will protect the part of the gun that will enter in the cervix. When the gun reaches the cervix, push through the protector or pull back the plastic wrapping so that the gun enters the cervix and uterine body clean. This will prevent you from spreading any bacteria or manure into the uterus.
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Posted Oct 15th
