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The Rural Voice, 1981-01, Page 6sow to release hormones into her system which will activate her uterus so that when the inseminating rod is inserted (gently) into her cervix, she will actually draw the semen out of the bottle and up into her uterus. The semen will then "swim" up to the horns of her uterus (this takes about three minutes if the sow has been properly stimulated) to meet the eggs being released by her ovaries. Inseminating the sow a second time with. in 12 hours will ensure that enough viable sperm will reach the eggs in time to fertilize them. The advantages of using A.1. in a swine herd are enormous. First, you have access to boars of all breeds with superior physical traits and production figures without having to buy a single expensive boar. By using A.I., you do not need to keep as many boars in your herd. Secondly, you can close your barn to the entry of any more pigs, thereby increas- ing your control of transmittable diseas- es. Thirdly, the semen is only a telephone call away and is there when you need it. Doug Filsinger, a Huron County pork producer who farms near Wroxeter, has been using A.I. in his herd for over three years. "We went into this program so that we could bring in new blood lines and develop our own replacement gilts without bringing in any outside stock." Doug explained. "We have about a 75% conception rate and 1 am very pleased with the litter sizes, even on gilts. Also, it has been most gratifying to see the steady increase in our indexing over the last few years." The ability to freeze boar semen was developed by the Swine A.I. Association in 1974 (after one year of field trials). Now the genetic input from a superior boar can continue for years after he is dead. "Another advantage of A.I., says Bev Wilkins from the Ontario Swine A.I. Association. "is that superior boars in the stud unit (at Woodstock) can continue to work even after they would have become too heavy for use in a herd. Some of our boars are five to seven years old, but they still produce viable semen which can allow longer use of a specific blood line." Bev also told Rural Voice there are some swine herds in Ontario which operate without any boar in the barn. They use 100 per cent A.I. and use "Boar -Mate," a synthetic boar aerosol, to stimulate the sows. ALSO GOATS, HORSES, SHEEP AND TURKEYS Research has developed methods of using artificial insemination with many different animals. Although the Canadian goat population is small, it has been growing consistently over the last five years and the dairy goat is now consider- ed to be a profitable entity in livestock production. The A.I. program, which was originated at Bainebrook Farm in Mill - grove, Ontario in 1975, will provide a rapid and economical method to improve the genetic potential for profit in dairy goats. Methods of buck semen collection, evaluation and storage are similar to those employed with the bull. One exception is that 125 million live sperm cells are used per insemination. Artificial insemination is being used to a limited degree in Canada for horses and sheep. And how many people know that without A.I. they would no longer be eating turkey? Turkeys have been bred to produce meat, especially large amounts of breast meat, and they are no longer able to breed naturally. Many dog breeders have turned to A.I. in order to overcome breeding problems. Dr. Bill Bosu, O.V.C., University of Guelph explained: "Sometimes a bitch will have a very narrow vagina and cannot be bred naturally. Or a bitch may take a dislike to the stud dog and will not stand for him. In these cases we can draw semen from the male and immediately inseminate the bitch, without diluting the semen. Although we will lose some of the semen in the vaginal canal, the sperm which we deposit into the uterus will live for one to six days. So if our timing was right, the bitch will conceive. We have inseminated every kind of dog from miniatures to St. Bernards, with almost 100 per cent success." Dr. Bosu also told Rural Voice that the technique for using A.I. with cats is Don't be discouraged, new Perth AI user says Bill MacDougald, a pork producer at Fullarton in Perth County, graduated'from the University of Guelph in 1974 --- not in Agriculture, but in Kinetics (the'study of man in motion as he interacts with his environment). N"vertheless, Bill returned to farming and took over an existing operation of feeder pigs. Then in 1977 his brother graduated from Guelph as a veterinarian and went to work as a swine specialist. Bill was soon persuaded that the most efficient swine operation was farrow -to -finish. so in 1979 he emptied and de -contaminated the finishing barn and built a new farrowing barn. He stocked the barn with first cross York-Landrace gilts. all from one breeder, and then closed the barn to any other pigs. Right from the beginning he made the decision to operate a minimal disease herd and he confessed that "I had an enormous advantage as I was able to consult with my brother on every detail involving the health of the herd." In order to maintain a closed barn, Bill knew he would hay a to get into artificial insemination so in March, 1980 he went to Woodstock to take the one -day course put on by the Ontario Swine A.I. Association and he immediately became a member. He began to use A.I. right away, but he decided to breed only the sows which returned to heat within six days of weaning. All of the others went to the boar. "At first we were getting the semen delivered on the bus fr n. Woodstock," Bill told us, "but as the summer came „r r u PG. 6 THE RURAL VOICE/JANUARY 1981 oueeptton rate went doNo anu we quickly aectaed that the semen was getting too heated during the bus ride (ideal temperature is 50 degrees F.). We switched to a courier service and now we can phone the A.I. Unit at 7 a.m. and have the fresh semen at the farm by 9:30 a.m. Con se ..uently our conception rate has risen dramatically. We recently bred twelve sows and caught eleven of them. The one we missed was probably my fault because I miscalculated her timing." Bill said it was a management decision to go into A.I. based on his desire to maintain his health standards and the access to superior boars without a large outlay of money. "We decided that we were going into A.I. and that we were going to make it work," Bill stated. "You have to keep at it and not be discouraged by initial failures. And you have to learn what will work best in your operation. The timing of the insemination is most important and you have to know your sows very well in order to know when they first come into heat " Bill is running a 95 -sow herd and Fie weans eight sows every two weeks. He starts checking these for heat on the fourth day after weaning and he does his checking between 8 and 9 a.m., about an hour and a half after they have eaten. He checks them again in the evening. "We are very pleased with the results of our A.I. work," he said, "and we are looking forward to improving our indexing as a result of using these excellent boars."