Artificial Insemination (AI) needs no introduction. It is a ubiquitous technique of Animal Husbandry across millions of farms around the world today. As the technology is making a progression into the dairy industry, more and more dairy farmers are gradually accepting the advancement by envisioning the benefits. For every dairy farmer, having as many numbers of cows is a dream; for each reaps enough farm produce and profits if well-nurtured. Breeding is a significant aspect of dairy farming. While it’s no easy job to find a suitable, healthy sire for breeding especially in a country like India, one can certainly leverage AI for the purpose and continue deriving the same benefits as would yield when bred naturally.
AI is a modern reproduction technique wherein a semen sample of a sire is collected, frozen and later introduced into the oviduct or uterus of a cow or female buffalo for impregnation. The technique utilizes semen from superior sires to produce a genetically improved breed of calves which are nurtured to become dairy cattle. It is one of the productive and profitable tools in dairy farming apart from modern cattle software, dairy equipment, and milk collection software being equally famous. However, there’re also certain demerits of this process. Nonetheless, the technique comes with added advantages, and if implemented as recommended, the shortcomings too could be turned around.
A few good points on AI have been compiled beneath-
• • Economic: Since you don’t have to keep the bulls at your farm, the cost of arranging space and feed is primarily cut down. Hence, you’re benefitted with minor investment.
• • Improved Productivity: While mating naturally, a sire discharges much more semen than is required to impregnate the cow. Whereas, an equal or less amount of the semen sample could be divided into portions and be used for multiple pregnancies.
• • Free of Infection: The semen is collected from a superior quality sire and regularly examined to keep a check on the quality, thereby, minimizing the chances of transmission of any disease that are generally high in natural mating.
• • Breeding Efficiency: Frequent tests on semen allow to identify which samples are inappropriate or from a weak sire. It results in segregating the active sires and collect and utilize only their semen samples for fertilization.
• • Potential Sire: Sample from a sire can be used even after its death, thereby, not limiting the use of the semen for conception. Also, a sire that has grown old, or is injured holds enough potential to donate semen. So, such sire can be used to collect semen samples in the case a young sire isn’t available.
• • More Opportunities: Artificial Insemination improves the rate of conception, resulting in more number of farm animals and profit.
• • Independent of Body Size: AI is especially helpful for animals with varying body size without causing any internal or external injury. Such is the flexibility provided by the technique.
Wrap-up
The process of natural mating amongst the animals is preferred by most of the farmers for its being followed by ages. However, AI is undoubtedly opening new doors for consistent growth of dairy farms. In no time, the advanced technologies will replace nearly all the manual operations, and the dairy industry will flourish as it has never been.
