I’m behind in posting here, as per usual. We spent a week in October working with the USDA NAGP to collect and freeze semen from our rams. Some will be used later this year in our flock as part of their AI experiment. We’ll be using it to fine-tune the insemination timing of synchronized ewes using a trans-cervical procedure instead of a surgical one. Some will go into the national gene bank for the preservation of existing genetic diversity.
There are eight clusters (or bloodlines) of Black Welsh Mountain sheep in North America. Seven exist in the US. One exists only in Canada, and Canada shares two clusters with the US. Previous collections only resulted in donations from three of the US lines. With this year’s collections done, we now have gene bank semen from all but one of the US lines.
We still don’t have any from the Canadian bloodline. That won’t happen until changes allowing the importation of breeding sheep and semen are approved.
It was a very long week, but we ended up with nearly 500 doses of stored semen. Each one is over two surgical insemination doses, or one trans-cervical dose.