Embryo transplant question

willow_girl · #1 10/07/04, 03:46 PM

Is there a higher calf mortality rate associated with this procedure?

Seems we lose a lot of the ET babies on the farm where I work.

OD · #2 10/07/04, 04:20 PM

We have a friend that used to work on a ranch that did transplants & we would go over & help him teach the babies to suck, because most didn't know they were supposed to. They had a high mortality rate.

willow_girl · #3 10/07/04, 07:22 PM

Thanks OD.

Some calves do seem to have a harder time than others getting started on the bottle, I never noticed a correlation though, will have to keep an eye on that.

It's so frustrating when we lose the ET babies (or they turn out to be bulls

) because the hopes are higher for them.

I am trying to get my boss to change our calf plan, keep the heifers on our side of the road for a couple days and feed them colostrum more than 1x. IMO it's silly to dump out good colostrum for 3 days and feed the babies that powdered crap!

(Right now they get 1 bottle of colostrum, that's it. :no: )