Sexed semen now available in SA

Ramsem recently imported the technology to produce sexed semen straws for cattle, sheep and goats. Over the next two to three years, the company plans to expand this to include pigs and horses.

Sexing technology has an efficacy rate of at least 90%, which means that it will result in a 90% chance that a female animal will produce an offspring of the sex of choice.

According to Dr Fanie Steyn, managing director of Ramsem, sexing technology promised to generate a significant leap in genetic progress by enabling farmers to use the best breeding material, combined with double the number of replacement animals available for selection. It could also be used to produce male offspring in cases where top breeding beef cows were known to have produced top-ranking stud bulls.

Another advantage of the technology being available locally was that farmers would now have access to fresh sexed semen, whereas all imported semen was frozen. Steyn pointed out that conception rates were up to 15% higher when fresh semen was used. – Glenneis Kriel