People.Passion.Purpose- Driving Agriculture: A.I. School

This past week, I had the awesome opportunity to attend A.I. School through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a student and work with ABS Global. A.I. stands for artificial insemination "is the deliberate introduction of semen in a female for the purpose of fertilization, by means other than ejaculation directly into the vagina or oviduct," as defined by Wikipedia.

A.I. is utilized in several livestock industries. On my families cattle operation J&J Hanson Herefords we utilize A.I. to improve our genetics and use calving ease bulls on our heifers so the birthing process of their first calf can be easier.

There were 11 of us UNL students who attended A.I. School in the Animal Science building Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 6-10 pm and Saturday morning from 7-11 am; so as you can see it was brief but also made for long evenings and an early morning for a group of college students. We enjoyed it though and had a lot of fun by learning a skill that several of us will take back and use in our own operations while others may utilize the skill as future veterinarians.

A.I. is more than just getting the syringe through the cervix and depositing the semen in the uterus. The way you manage your heard has a lot to do with whether or not the female we conceive a calf. Nutrition plays a huge role as well as sanitation. We also learned about synchronization protocols which is a practice used to artificially bring a female into "heat" in order to have a uniform/shortened calving season. There is a lot more than I could go into detail on but if you are more interested in learning the steps of A.I. and so forth check out Reproduction Management and ABS Global.

My family and friends were very proud of me to take the initiative to get certified. My mother also now thinks that she can retire from A.I.ing and I don't think so! I'll need to keep practicing obviously as it is a skill that continually develops with practice, practice, practice!