Ms fermoy's embryo

[genebo]

We finally got everything together to have one of the two remaining embryos from Wee Gaelic Ms Fermoy transferred into a recipient cow.

RP Short's Justice was open and cycling. Her owners are very experienced in AI with horses and kept good records on when Justice was in heat. I got a call that she was in heat on Tuesday Oct 24, 2017. I immediately set up an appointment to have the embryo transferred into Justice the following Tuesday. I went and got Justice and brought her here to wait for her time.

We made the trip and were greeted by Dr. Fulper, the best embryo transfer doctor in the east. He palpated Justice and declared her to be in perfect time for the transfer. He implanted the embryo and we were back on the road. She went back to Fireman's Run Farm to await the results of the transfer.

Our fingers are crossed, not only hoping that the transfer takes, but that it results in a bull calf to complement Legacy Eve of Paradise.

If you remember, Eve is also an embryo from Wee Gaelic Ms Fermoy. She was implanted in my cow, Bambi, back in 2009 and has had 6 calves so far. Four of them have inherited American red, but they were all sired by a Traditional bull, either Brenn or McBrenn. The only calf by a Legacy bull did not inherit the red.

Legacy American red is extinct. The last cow, Ms Fermoy, died a few years ago and there are no Legacy red bulls. Nor are there any Legacy bulls that carry red. The only remaining sources of Legacy American red is Eve, who carries it, and the two embryos of Ms Fermoy.

Dr. Fulper has an outstanding success rate with embryo transfers. Of the seven embryos that he flushed from Ms Fermoy, five were implanted and resulted in 5 calves. Now we are hoping that his successes include this latest effort.

Of the earlier calves from embryo transfers, only Eve remains as a breeding animal. If we get a bull calf from this current embryo, it will carry Legacy American red. We will breed it to Eve until we get a legacy red cow and a Legacy red bull. Then we can say that Legacy American red has been restored. With proper care in breeding, it should only be a matter of time before such Dexters are more readily available than they were in the early years of American Dexters.

[dexterfarm]

We are currently working on collecting a cow. In an attempt to get chondro back in a Legacy line that it was lost from without going outside that line to get it.

[wvdexters]

This is exciting news! 2 important historical parts of the breed - all but lost.

Turn the clock back a few decades, and it would have been unthought of that such a thing could take place. Looking back in the photos obvious shorty/ obvious shorty! Over and over. If people would take the time to look at the historical photos, watch the Grinstead video..... They would see the Dexter breed as it was and is intended to be. 2 body types

I hope this works for you both! It is going to be great fun keeping up with your stories on here.

[dexterfarm]

Gene,
hope you have better luck than we did. Ours was a complete failure. Will try again next year but this time using IVF.

[genebo]

We may have lost the embryo. Justice exhibited some heat-like behavior two weeks after transferring the embryo. There was a nother cow in with her that was definitely in heat and they were mounting each other.

That was 22 days ago. We are watching Justice very closely for new signs of coming into heat. We are hoping that there will be none.

Dr. Fulper is the best AI and embryo transfer vet in the area. His success rate from direct transfe3rs of an embryo is 98%. His success rate from frozen embryos is 85%. Many embryo transfer vets have a 40% success rate.

Ms Fermoy had her first six embryos frozen. To date, they have produced 4 calves out of 4 transfers. Justice got the 5th frozen transfer.

I took Bambi to Dr. Fulper on the day that he flushed Ms Fermoy the second time. He only got 1 good embryo from that flush and he transferred it directly into Bambi on the spot. Bambi had no hormonal prep. She was naturally synchronized with Ms Fermoy. Bambi had been in standing heat the same day that Ms Fermoy was AI'd. The result was Legacy Eve of Paradise.

We have one more embryo in Dr. Fulper's tank.

We will have Justice pregnancy tested soon. I have asked for the vet to draw blood and use the BioPryn test. It is fine with me if the vet also palpates for a pregnancy, but that isn't said to be reliable until after 45 days, while the BioPryn test can be trusted after 28 days.

I hope that she is pregnant. I hope, I hope, I hope.

[wvdexters]

Sorry to hear that Mike. I know it is such a disappointment.

Hoping with you Gene.

[dexterfarm]

Gene,
Do not have her palpated it can cause the cow to abort. I would just do the blood test. much more accurate anyway.

[genebo]

Thanks. I didn't know that.