Right from the beginning, Ennerdale Highland Cattle have known and applied the benefits of Artificial Insemination (AI).

If you have the time and patience, you will certainly improve a fold.  By locating, inspecting and choosing to use genetics from the UK we are not only helping our fold but also helping the entire Highland Cattle herd in Australia, by injecting the best available new blood lines into the country.

After our first purchase of a highland cow in calf arriving back in the year 2000, we started the AI process (after she had calved). Our very first AI calf is 18 years old next week. She was the Supreme Exhibit at the AHCS National Championship and then returned as a veteran years later to win Senior Champion Female, pipped at the post for another Supreme National Championship Title by our own bull, which is also an AI calf.

We are fully aware that AI is not for everyone. A lot of time and commitment is required. Finding a reliable, proficient, and successful AI technician is certainly handy. There can be significant costs for the genetics as well as the technician.  The success rate in our experience is never 100% and can vary with seasons, the weather, as well as the odd cow that will just never take. It certainly is a labour of love, but it is Ennerdale’s aim and commitment to have the best calves hitting the ground each time we calve.

In the early days, the Ennerdale partnership went and attended an AI course. The benefits certainly helped in our understanding of the process. We also teamed up with a local and well-respected AI Business.

We acquired a semen tank of the best quality.  Semen can be stored forever and our oldest straws are now over 30 years old. If the tank is topped up regularly and treated carefully, this semen will still be as useable as the day it was first stored.  

To be successful in AI full commitment is required when working with the cattle, moving through the detection of Oestrus, The AI Procedure itself, with the required result being an in calf female.   Following this, the genetics must be carefully stored and maintained at home.  There are examples of tanks going dry and Highland breeders losing all their genetics, so we are very mindful and tank maintenance and top ups are of the highest priority. Tank failure is also possible, it is not common and we always have our tank checked and have it stored properly, with the LN2 usage rate graphed and future loss predicted. We reduce the risk of loss by having genetics stored in two geographically separate locations.

Having gone through the long involved and expensive process of leasing a Scottish bull and then collecting and importing the genetics, we know the value of these straws and how important they for our own use and for improving the genetics of the Australian herd. Remember if you do take on AI, do your homework as you would with any breeding program, be it natural or AI. Research the sire and dam of the bull you are about to use and check for issues which could appear in your offspring which are not desirable.

Recently, after many years, the Ennerdale tank inventory was completed.  This is important to ensure the right genetics are marked down to the right location, as it is difficult to quickly rummage through the tank when doing an AI.  The tank neck is narrow, the liquid nitrogen is at minus 196 Celsius so dropping straws, incorrectly handling them, and inadvertently thawing the wrong straw when under pressure is something to be avoided.

Housekeeping of the AI tank is not for the enthusiastic amateur!   For the latest inventory, we had the professionals come in to help.

Depending on the amount of AI you do, it is easy to lose a straw into the body of the tank or misplace a canister.  The inventory process will reset records back to reality.  In this case, we found some incorrectly located straws.   A three instead of a five was recorded in the log sheet, a simple but understandable mistake, which is not easy to rectify when you can only have the semen out of the tank for a short while, the straws ice over with water vapour over making it hard to read the minute text with the name of the bull. Hence, the importance of having an inventory and knowing your recording is completely accurate.

A large polystyrene container was filled with liquid nitrogen, each canister was removed, and then individual straws were counted and recorded.

We were happy to report not many problems, there was the occasional straw that had been used and not recorded, but that is minor issue and easily rectified.

As of today the Ennerdale Highland genetics are all accounted for, secure and ready to go for the next AI.