Top sheep farmer bats for artificial insemination

DR GABRIELLE Young, National Sheep Farmer of the Year at the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show for 2023, hopes more Jamaicans, especially farmers, will grow into appreciating artificial insemination in livestock.

Artificial insemination consists of the medical or veterinary procedure of deliberately injecting semen into the reproductive tract or uterus of female animals for the purpose of achieving pregnancy, by other means than sexual intercourse.

The real aim of this process is to improve genetics in local animals and make them stronger. And it also comes with advantages, such as improved genetics, no bull is needed and cash is saved on feed, veterinary assistance and technical assistance.

However, there are items needed to facilitate the procedure. These are a thaw unit, a semen canister, an artificial insemination gun, an artificial insemination sheet, scissors, paper towel and a thermometer.

Additionally, the animal being injected with the semen has to also be “in heat” and after the semen is deposited, the uterus has to be massaged.

Pregnancy detection will take place between 36 to 60 days after the procedure is done.

Young, senior manager for the livestock support unit at Nutramix Jamaica, said that even with much public education from local groups, including Nutramix, the procedure is one which many farmers have not come to embrace.

Healthier meat

According to Young – a Tobago native who has been a practising veterinarian in Jamaica and the livestock business for the last 25 years (but doing artificial insemination in cattle for six years) – Jamaicans will gain much healthier meat from livestock in goats, cows and other animals when artificial insemination is fully embraced.

“Artificial insemination is not new to Jamaica [though]. The Government did a very good programme in the 1970s, which continued. But what we are doing is injecting new types of semen into the country from Select Sires, we’ve partnered with them because they have good quality semen,” Young told The Gleaner.

“Jamaica is a small island, so our population size of animals is not as big as let’s say the US or Europe, so what we are doing is not new, but we introduced a whole team that does artificial insemination in Jamaica. They do pigs, they do cattle, they do goats and we’re doing sheep also,” she said.

At the Denbigh Industrial Show, Young showed The Gleaner a line of strong and healthy red boer goats, nubian goats and saanen goats, which were all produced with artificial insemination done on local animals.

She said saanen goats have proven to be champion milking goats that can produce about three to four litres of milk daily.

“We are using a lot of imported semen of goats, imported semen of cattle and pigs and we’re just showing what artificial insemination can produce; the quality of the offspring that they grow better [and] they produce more milk,” Young said.

Young also wants Jamaicans to embrace embryo transfer, where cows bring forth different types of cows based on the transfer of eggs from and in the womb of other cows.

She said the process includes flushing embryos from one cow before placing it in cows with stronger genetics, of different breeds and different colours.

At Denbigh last year, Young had a whole steam cow which was produced from a red cow. She said this forms part of a research programme in which she is involved.

She also showed The Gleaner artificially inseminated pigs that are a cross between a yorkshire and a landrace, which are of superior quality and weighed over 300 pounds.

“They [pigs] have greater potential with artificial insemination for growth, for fertility and productive traits like milk quality also,” she said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com