With dairy heifer replacement values at historic highs due to tight inventory, keeping high-producing dairy cows in a herd, especially those beyond their first lactation, is economically significant. Some dairies are turning to beef embryo transfer (ET) to keep productive cows in their herds longer.

Enrolling heifers in an IVF program is extremely advantageous for genetic advancement in any operation. Even small numbers of viable pregnancies from a prepubertal heifer can give a producer the competitive genetic edge that every dairy farmer is aiming to achieve. 

Cloning allows you to produce an identical twin from a rockstar animal, just born at a later place and time. It allows a producer to reap the benefits of that “once in a lifetime” animal more than once in a lifetime.

Most dairy farmers labor under a strict routine they feel comfortable with. This comfort reaches well beyond daily milking parlor tasks and affects cattle breeding programs, likely touching on some variations of heat detection, estrus synchronization, artificial insemination (A.I.) and potentially in vitro fertilization (IVF), followed by embryo transfer (ET).