Our results for the 12 months of July 23 to June 24.

Heifers prepared and presented for ET	1625
Actual heifers used for embryo transfers	727   (45%)
Total embryos transferred (including 96 doubles)	822
Confirmed pregnancies on 4-6 weeks	193   (26,5%)
Births or confirmed advanced pregnancies	135   (18,5%)

The embryos we used came from 3 sources:

• 103 bought as frozen unsexed embryos
• 433 fresh sexed embryos
• 286 frozen sexed embryos

The +700 sexed embryos were made for us by both Absolute Genetics and Embryo Plus at their labs with all the semen having been sexed by Ramsem.

All OPU’s and ET’s were done on Fire Sky. 

A total of 20 ET’s were done, spread roughly 3 weeks apart.

Our findings regarding pregnancy success rates:

• Similar results from both service providers
• No difference between sexed and unsexed embryos
• Significant differences between fresh and frozen embryos. Fresh embryos resulted in nearly double the birth rate as opposed to frozen embryos.
• No seasonal impact on either the recipients or the embryos’ success rate.

These results are very different to those quoted by others and in addition, conflict with widely held beliefs. Our intention is purely to share them as findings from a large and consistent data set, in which we have high confidence. These results are representative of our operating model and we make no claim as to how these may apply in other models.

How we interpret this information:

• Although a practical way to scale one’s herd, this is a very complex and expensive process. 
• The total cost of preparation of recipients is the most significant consideration. Only about 8% of recipients prepared go from first ET to calf.
• It takes FOUR fresh embryos to achieve a birth! 
• It takes EIGHT frozen embryos to achieve a birth.
• Cost per embryo transferred matters!
• The 30% of pregnancies that disappear between 4-6 weeks and birth is huge and regular pregnancy testing is required to not waste money on recipients without calves. (I didn’t see this coming at all!)

My 5 conclusions:

1. Unless you specifically want a bull calf, using unsexed semen via this process (embryos implanted into recipients) is not financially viable.
2. If you buy recipients impregnated with embryos, try and buy them as far along as possible and even then, there is still a risk of a failed pregnancy. We lose 30% of early confirmed pregnancies.
3. Buying embryos has so far been our most expensive (dumbest) way of breeding Ankole.
4. There was absolutely no improvement in pregnancy rates when we used double embryos for ET, either fresh, or frozen. We basically wasted 96 embryos experimenting with that.
5. My final conclusion is that we desperately need a price point (perhaps even a yearling auction) for young, weaned heifers, where although you still buy the potential of the sire and dam’s bloodlines, you can at least see the physical features of the young animal. That will be what we will attempt to do with our inaugural Fire Sky and Friends Female Ankole Auction on 1 Feb 2025.

Table of findings:

Embryo type	4-Week pregnancy rate	Birth rate	Range for birth rate
Fresh – sexed	30%	25%	22% – 33%
Frozen – sexed	17%	13%	10% – 16%
Frozen – unsexed	25%	15%	14% – 16%