JERSEY BULL'S PERFORMANCE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 8

JERSEY BULL'S PERFORMANCE

One Jersey bull used by the artificial breeding centre at Awahuri had, in the last spring mating, supplied sufficient semen for a total of 24,033 inseminations, the centre’s superintendent (Mr D. W. Caldwell), told the annual meeting of the South Island Herd Improvement Association this week. This one bull had provided sufficient material to cover one per cent of the national dairy herd. “This is a very remarkable achievement,” Mr Caldwell said.

In the last spring mating. Mr Caldwell said the conception rate had materially improved. The South Island conception rate on first inseminations had increased by four per cent to 69.3 per cent. The Dominion average for first inseminations was 67.5 per cent. It was hoped that an even better conception rate would be achieved in the forthcoming spring mating period, he said. Mr Caldwell said that in the South Island last year, the percentage of Ayrshire inseminations made showed a slight reduction. However, Friesians stowed a two per cent rise and Jerseys a one

per cent increase on the previous season. Polled Hereford inseminations dropped by two per cent in comparison with the previous season, while Milking Shorthorns also showed a slight drop. Dr. J. P. James, director of artificial breeding for New Zealand for the Dairy Production and Marketing Board, who recently toured many overseas countries, studying artificial breeding and other aspects of dairy herd improvement, said he did not know of any other country in the world that offered the percentage of high rating, proven bulls that New Zealand had

available for artificial breeding. During his tour, which included visits to the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, Italy and Russia. Dr. James noted that the mechanical aspects of artificial breeding were very much standardised. In North America, virtually all the artificial breeding work was done with deep frozen semen, while in the United Kingdom consideration was being given to whether chilled semen usage should be continued or a change to deep frozen semen should be made, Dr James said.