August 20, 2026 Country Life, Top Headlines
By Don ‘Doc’ Sanders
Now I know this will read like I am crazy, but I want to share with you about an exciting frontier in animals, agriculture, and the companion animal world (cows, horses, pigs, sheep, dogs, goats, and zebras). I will also report on how a famous football star and a star actress enlisted genetic scientists to provide solace over the loss of a pet.
A major development in the 1940s was to collect sperm (termed semen) from a high-pedigree bull to inseminate a cow for a pregnancy. This became a very useful and profitable technique in the bovine industry. Most dairy herds today use artificial insemination now to breed their cows (AI).
It was easy in those early years for a dairy farmer to call an AI technician to his dairy and get each cow bred while in heat. Eventually, as herds grew larger, a farmer could receive training to do it. Not only that, but you now can also order either male or female sexed sperm to obtain either a bull or a heifer calf.
An interesting side note is that the leading source of bovine semen in 27 states and Mexico is Select Sires Cooperative with national headquarters in Plain City, Ohio. They are recognized as Ohio’s largest exporter by dollar value.
Gradually, artificial insemination was incorporated into other species. Each species required its own specifications for processing sperm cells. For instance, while cows can be inseminated with 20 million sperm in a milliliter dose of semen to achieve a pregnancy, swine require up to a 250-milliliter volume containing two to three billion sperm to achieve a full pregnancy.
There are a few extraordinarily high-genetic-merit dairy bulls that have been dead for 50 years. Yet, their semen was frozen at -273 degrees F. and, for a price, can still be purchased for artificial insemination. One of those bulls has more than 88,000 daughters.
Mares are different than other species. They are usually in heat for five days, with some continuing to exhibit signs of heat for up to two weeks. Not all breed associations of horses will approve registration of foals conceived from artificial insemination. Quarter horses are the major species exception to the ban on AI.
Sows are also artificially inseminated to obtain a pregnancy. While very popular in the swine industry, they have a different estrous cycle. They will come into heat about five to seven days after weaning their litter at 20-25 days. They are relatively predictable.
I have been on an alligator farm that grows and harvests gator meat for sale as a delicacy. The alligator’s skin is used to make boots that are sold for a fancy price. Alligators are artificially inseminated, but the male’s sperm is obtained from a male alligator at the processing plant. The alligator farm I visited had a three-sided hog finishing barn with several young alligators in each pen and slatted floors for feces removal in this retrofitted hog finishing facility.
Later, after the development of artificial insemination, scientists developed methods of ovarian stimulation in cows to superovulate, producing multiple ovum (egg) production. A few cows don’t respond to these treatments, but most mature cows treated will ovulate from three eggs, sometimes up to eight, ten, or more. Seven days after ovulation, the embryos are recovered with a sterile flush system through the cervix and vagina.
A more recent development is in vitro fertilization. The undeveloped eggs are aspirated from the cow’s ovary and cultured in a Petri dish until they are mature. Sperm is used for fertilization of the ovum in a Petri dish, cultured to develop into a seven- or eight-day blastocyst (embryo), frozen, then sent to a dairy and, after thawing, into the uterine horn of a cow that is seven days post-ovulation.
Whether frozen as sperm, embryo, ova, or blastocyst, they are shipped around the world for insertion into the uterus of cows to obtain a high-pedigree pregnancy.
Cloning is the new game in town. This is a process that collects a few epithelial cells from an animal’s body. These cells, through a lengthy culture process, are developed into the molecular structure of the species they were collected from. I know this sounds like a Frankenstein saga, but just hold on because there is a very beneficial purpose to it. In essence, there are also indications that the process can restore animals that are already extinct. Readers may be aware of the researcher who cloned Dolly, the sheep, in 1996.
ViaGen is a company with a 20-year history of developing the cloning process. It took 10 years for this company to clone its first animal. They have now cloned calves, foals, pigs, sheep, and are currently working on zebras. Yes, that is correct, zebras! They have also cloned a dog for Paris Hilton and, most recently, one for Tom Brady. Before you decide you need to replicate your pet, you should be aware that cloning is readily available if you can ante up $150 grand.
August 19, 2026
August 19, 2026
August 17, 2026
By Wyatt Morrow, OCJ Field Reporter For nearly seven decades, Young’s Jersey Dairy has been …
August 21, 2026 — A good deal of sunshine today with a very pleasant afternoon. However, we are not done with moisture yet…
August 21, 2026 — A good deal of sunshine today with a very pleasant afternoon. However, we are not done with moisture yet…