You all know that we try to breed Ankoles from top genetics at Fire Sky. You all know we focus on sexed semen in order to expand our as well as the national herd’s number of females available for existing and new farmers. We set out to produce 200 females in 4 years and we boldly set out to do that, from start to finish on our farm 60km away from Polokwane. This created logistical and cost challenges that threatened the viability of this project.
So that is why this young bull calf (a Maximus son!) makes us happy and proud. We are celebrating a journey of over 3 years, culminating in the first birth on our farm where the OPU was done in our facility, the embryos were cultivated in our fully equipped lab by our newly trained lab technicians, the fresh embryo transfers were done on our farm into recipients prepared by us, and here we are: our first truly home grown Fire Sky Ankole.
Yes it’s a bull calf, because we are not yet allowed to use sexed semen in our lab, but we have clearly demonstrated what is possible if you put your mind (and some serious money) to a problem. We are hopeful that we will achieve the expected 50% heifer ratio and that in time we will get permission to use the sexed semen we have in stock.
Like so many demonstration projects, this will in time enable us to do a full and proper cost comparison between this independent self help option and the very viable options available via both Brits and Bloemfontein.
In the meantime, please celebrate with the Fire Sky team this amazing achievement. We are committed to the amazing Ankole breed and are always prepared to share our learnings with other serious farmers.
My late brother André would have been very proud of Annemie, Stephen Marias and the team of young people that achieved this.