Conventional vs. Ivf flushing

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shortii

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Aug 8, 2010
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I am going to be flushing one of my cows soon. I don't plan on selling any embryo packages from this, I only would be selling the calves that are born from the embryos. I was wondering what everyone thinks works better? Conventional or Ivf flushing?

I will also be using sexed heifer semen if that makes a difference

Thanks in advance
 

Doc

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Apr 13, 2007
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Cottontown, Tennessee
If you are using sexed semen, then I would flush conventional. The biggest reasons to use IVF is 1- you want to reverse sort the semen, 2- she is unable to flush conventional, 3- she is in her first 70 days of pregnancy and you want to flush her, 4- you have expensive or rare semen and want to split between 2 cows.
Definitely get better conception with conventional but even if you get less pregnancies with IVF, but they're all heifers because you reverse sorted the semen then it's a hard decision.
 

Tyler

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Jun 6, 2012
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Mitchell, SD
If you are using sexed semen I would go conventional.  IVF is either a home run or really bad in my experience and quite a bit more expensive.  You should get more embryos going conventional with slightly better conception rates and less cost. 
 

WRS

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Sep 28, 2009
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Nebraska
To me, the cost and availability of the sexed semen is the determining factor to your question.  If you IVF, you only need one straw of pre-sorted semen.  If you go the conventional route, you typically need 4-6 straws.  Although we have seen fewer embryos from IVF than conventional flushing, we typically don't get busts from IVF....can't say that about using sexed semen with conventional flushing.  Just my 2 cents.
 

HGC

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Jun 30, 2008
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Minnesota
Are you using 2 or 5 million sexed semen in IVF?

Have you used 2 million sexed semen in conventional flushing?  If so, how many units?
 

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