Embryo Transfer | Wagyu Cattle

Posted by Bradon and Rachael Wiens on Apr 12, 2016

Today was a big day at Wiens Wagyu. We have been preparing for a few weeks now to do an embryo transfer into our cows. This is how it works:

You must make sure your cows are in good condition, that means they are healthy and the bodies are ready to be pregnant.
- All summer our cows have had it really good, they all gave birth to healthy calves and all of them were able to nurse. We had one cow had twins! It is such a blessing to see them roaming around and chomping on our nutritious buffalo grass.
- A few days ago Bradon and Jerome put in CDRs which is a device that has medication on it to sync all the cows cycles. (So they all get ready to ovulate at the same time)
You must have Embryos. We have been saving embryos from our Fullblood Wagyu Cow as well as bought Embryos at an auction in WA. These embryos will be registered with with American Wagyu Association to prove that they are the genetics we claim. It is so important for our program to know our genetics so we keep careful documentation of them.
- You must decide which embryos will go into which Cow. We keep records of how our cows have bred in the past so we know which really good embryo we want to go in which cow. (It's actually quite the process)
You must get professional help! So what I mean is not any person can walk up to a Cow and stick in an embryo in it and have it work. You need an expert to tell you if the Cow’s Ovaries are fit for the job. We hire an excellent Embryologist to do the delicate work.
- They check each cow to see if it has developed a good corpus luteum and put the embryo in the appropriate spot.