In August 2003, we attended the
Showstopper IV Seminar and Sale in West Monroe, LA.
This event was hosted by John & Jackie Edwards
of Stephenville, TX and Bill & Niki Ryals of Tylertown,
MS. One of the classes, conducted by Mr. Edward, involved
collecting semen, testing the semen for viability,
and artificially inseminating a doe.
In November 2003, we were fortunate
enough to be invited to attend a buck collection and
class, hosted by Alabama A&M University at the
home of Myrna & Marty Dutcher. The collection
and class were conducted by Geoff and Nancy Masterman
of Superior Semen Works, Milton, NH.
We learned first hand the value of
having your buck’s semen collected in November
2002. Our young herd sire managed to hook his horns
on a barbed wire fence while trying to go under it.
After what must have been a long, and unsuccessful,
fight with the fence, Enhancer (the buck) finally
gave up. We don’t know how long he laid on the
ground; but when we went down to check on the goats
around 10 p.m., he was firmly caught with a leaf frozen
in his mouth. We carried him to the barn and called
the vet. Enhancer spent 10 days at the Animal Clinic.
He had suffered from hypothermia which left him with
a swollen brain. We reluctantly consented to pull
the life support plug. Unfortunately, we had collected
no straws of semen on Enhancer I. When the six does
he had bred started kidding, we realized what a truly
great boer goat buck we had lost.
When Robert Spencer of Alabama A&M
University’s Small Farms Research Center told
us he was arranging a buck collection and AI seminar
for the fall, we jumped at the opportunity to participate
and have our two herd sires, Enhancer II and Hercules,
collected. Early Veteran’s Day morning we loaded
the bucks into the trailer and drove toward Fayetteville,
TN.
The first teaser doe didn’t
want to participate in the exercise and refused to
tease the bucks by wagging her tail, she was not in
standing heat. A second doe was put on the stand in
a head-catcher and seemed a little more interested
in male companionship. But the first buck to be collected
really wasn’t interested in her! Hercules was
brought to the scene to provide competition to the
other buck. Hercules’ whoop-whoop love chatter
did the trick, and the first buck, owned by Jimmy
and Jenna Martin of Cornersville, TN, was successfully
collected.
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Hercules
waiting |
Hercules
Being Collected |
Next was Hercules’ turn. Yes!!
(The yes is from Hercules’ point of view. We
often think an 8 month old buckling and an 18 year
old boy both have the same thing on their minds.)
Hercules wasted no time performing for the crowd watching
this process. The first try was good (approximately
27 straws), but we decided to give Hercules one more
chance.
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Weatherman
and the unnamed Doe |
Weatherman, a large buck owned by
Rudy and Lee Caudill of Section, AL, was the next
buck to be collected.
Finally it was Enhancer II’s
turn. After a few seconds worth of love-talk to the
doe (whose name he never bothered to learn), Enhancer
II performed on cue. After Geoff and Nancy checked
the semen for viability and density, Enhancer II got
his second chance. (All of the bucks were collected
twice.)
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Enhancer
Getting Ready |
Enhancer
Being Collected |
At the end of the collection process,
Hercules had produced 41 straws with an 85% post thaw
rate. Enhancer II had 48 straws with a 80% post thaw.
According to Nancy Masterman, they start with 150,000,000
sperm; therefore, an 80% post thaw would assure 120,000,000
viable sperm per straw. The industry “standard”
considers 60,000,000 sperm to be required to fertilize
an egg.
We were extremely pleased by the
behavior of our bucks. We now have 89 straws of semen
in the Spencers’ nitrogen tank. Some straws
may be for sale soon. Some straws we will use ourselves
to perfect our skill at AI.
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