Almost since the advent of A.I. breeding, producers and researchers alike have anticipated the development of the ability to sort or select semen in order to produce more female offspring. This technology is now a commercial reality thanks to technological developments in recent years that have improved cell sorting capabilities.

Each dairy operation has its own set of unique challenges, but most dairy producers have a common concern: reproduction. When cows don’t maintain healthy pregnancies, money spent on animal health products, veterinarian visits and artificial insemination (A.I.) is wasted.

IPS releases No. 1 Red Holstein and much more As the result of the January 2008 sire summaries, International Protein Sires (IPS) added five highly qualified sires to their proven lineup, announced recently by Ron Sersland, President and CEO.

In late November, American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA) officials tallied up their registrations for 2007 and determined to make an extra push at the end of the year to reach 80,000 registrations. By midnight on Dec. 31, the association reached a year-end total of 79,535 registered animals and recorded the third-highest annual total for Jersey registrations ever.

Last month Brandon Covey interviewed Randy Carpenter with the Holstein Association to get his view on the future of registered cattle. In this issue, we talk with Jason Goff, a producer with Goff Dairy in Hobbs, New Mexico, to get another perspective.

Observing the dairy industry’s recent changes, one might think registered animals are becoming a thing of the past. We asked Randy Carpenter, regional representative for Holstein Association USA, a few questions about where registrations are heading.

Genes in diploid organisms operate singly, in pairs and in conjunction with genes at other locations throughout the nuclear DNA. Inbreeding depression and heterosis arise from the effects of gene combinations; that is, the effects of pairs of genes. Gene pairs are unique characteristics of individuals that are broken down and reformed each generation. This basic biological fact, introduced to many of us in high school biology, is the foundation of everything there is to say about this topic. Very few topics are so well rooted in a simple process.

Estrus is monitored in dairy cattle so that artificial insemination (A.I.) is performed at the appropriate time relative to ovulation. The emphasis that has been historically placed on estrous detection has diminished because of the development of systems for timed A.I.

Getting cows pregnant is one of the most important functions on a progressive dairy, perhaps the most important one. The degree of profitability is highly correlated with the velocity of pregnancy creation on a given dairy. This is mainly because a pregnancy is the source of a new lactation and a genetically superior heifer replacement.

Crossbreeding is an old technology; however, when used in today’s dairy systems, crossbreeding can produce profitable results for dairy producers. Interest in crossbreeding of dairy cattle has become a topic of great interest in the last five years and has developed in response to concerns dairy producers have about fertility, calving difficulty and stillbirths in today’s genetically improved Holstein cows.