ARTIFICIAL BREEDING

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30188, 20 July 1963, Page 19

ARTIFICIAL BREEDING

Cost Reduction Possible

A reduction in the cost of semen for artificial breeding might be possible within three or four years, the director of herd improvement for the New Zealand Dairy Production and Marketing Board (Mr. J. Stichbury) told the annual meeting of the South Island Heard Improvement Association.

At present enough semen for each cow cost the association 6s 3d.

If the present circumstances prevailed the board should be able to reduce the cost in the near future. A great deal depended on the expansion of the artificial breeding service, said Mr Stichbury. More extensive use could now be made of bulls at the two artificial breeding centres, near Hamilton and Palmerston North. In the 1961 season the top bulls provided semen for 4000 inseminations. while in 1962 the figure rose to 7000. said Mr Stichbury.

Although the number of bulls for the two seasons did not increase, the percentage of inseminations provided in '961 was 47 per cent, of the total, while in 1962 it was 60 per cent.

! In the last 10 years, which j represented the first decade of artificial breeding, the bulls used were mainly naturally proven sires. In the forthcoming decade. Mr Stichbury forecast a steadily increasing tendency to artificial-breeding proven sires.

Officers elected unopposed to the management committee were:—

Convener's representatives. Messrs J. G. Macartney (Tai Tapui. R. C. Nalder (Golden Bay); artificial breeding service representative for the Marlborough-Nelson area. Mr R. G Thomson; dairy companies' representative for the Canterbury-Westland area. Mr F. G. Harris (Okains Bay).