Artificial Insemination offers great advantages to beef producers with calving ease information, calf productivity for growth, carcass traits, and maternal traits for herd replacement heifers.  Unfortunately, many producers do not take advantage of this technology and limit their calf growth and future replacement potential.  

The Bracken County Extension Service along with Dr. Les Anderson worked with one of our Eastern KY IRM local herd to use two rounds of Artificial Insemination using sexed semen, Chute Side Pregnancy Test, and Ultra Sound to provide a second pregnancy test.   The result of this experiment was that 78% of the herd is bred to male sexed semen which will produce, high growth rate steers that will demand a higher price at the market.  

Even with the multiple trips through the chute, this producer has said that it will be well worth the extra effort.  Six of his best animals were bred with female sexed semen to produce heifers that will be his future herd replacements.  By targeting his best animals to produce the next generation of herd replacements with sexed semen, random selection is eliminated.