It has been almost two years since the United States relaxed its protocols around the import of Australian cattle semen, and a central Queensland veterinarian says there has been an impact.
Graham Stabler runs Beef Breeding Services, an artificial breeding service centre, just north of Rockhampton.
“I have five bulls here that we are collecting for export to the States that we wouldn’t have otherwise,” he said.
He and his partners took over the business a few years ago and have seen a steady increase in semen collection, and the protocol relaxation has certainly contributed.
“We have done more straws in the first five months of last year than we did for the whole of 2014, and we did three times as much that year than we did in our first year,” Dr Stabler said.
“We have had seven bulls for export to the States and that would represent over 10,000 straws and we still have the five here now that we are continually collecting from.”
Dr Stabler does offer a word of warning, however.
He has seen many a buyer burnt after paying a high price for a bull, only to find its semen is not suitable for artificial insemination, let alone export.
To avoid this, have the semen evaluated before buying the bull with a morphology test, rather than just a motility test.
Most sale previews will outline semen motility, but this does not give enough information as to whether the bull will produce semen that can be processed, which includes freezing.
Recently, Dr Stabler had two bulls that didn’t produce semen suitable for processing, so they were sent home to wait out the rain and green grass and to work with the cows.
Then they will come back to try again - and often that can be all that’s needed. Other times, the semen is just not suitable.
“It is a really frustrating business because you have a bull, and the owner has put their eggs in one basket with buying one bull, and they they find out the semen doesn’t quite work.”
AI was an important tool for the beef industry, but it was important to realise that while a bull might be able to get a cow in calf in the paddock, it might not have suitable semen for processing.
Dr Stabler said he was often contacted after an unsuccessful program.
“An AI program is expensive to run, it’s time consuming, and it’s expensive with drugs if you synchronise and it’s frustrating if you don’t get results.”
One failed program will see a producer lose four to five months of season. Done properly, however, it could see genetic gains spread over a herd in a much shorter period.
“There is a bull here now who went for $70,000 in a sale. Now, to get their money back, the owners need to AI 200 heifers this year when it rains rather than putting the bull out with 30 cows and getting 25 calves.
“That is going to improve the genetic gain, provided they have chosen the right bull.”
Many producers are now using fixed-term AI, where implants and injections cause the cows to cycle simultaneously, and the success rate is 50-60 per cent in terms of cows calving on the first AI.
Dr Stabler said most countries did this and Australia was still lagging behind the rest of the world.
“When you think you are putting a bull out at a 3 per cent return - that’s one bull to 30 cows - whereas with AI you can put them to 200-300 cows.”
A Wagyu bull currently at Beef Breeding Services has produced 1600 straws of semen in the past three weeks, and each one has been used.
“That is spreading the genetics far more widely than one bull servicing 30 cows.”
It does not spell the end of bulls, though.
“Because of the size of the Australian herd and the size of enterprises, producers will really need bulls in paddocks.
“What they need to do is better improve their genetics and they need to use top-quality semen over their pick of females.”