After a moderately successful attempt at embryo transfer (ET) in 2015, and a very poor result in 2016, our program this year has been by far the most successful.
We programmed 6 Poll Dorset ewes for flushing this year and on Feb 6 flushed 46 embryos from those ewes. That’s 7.7 embryos per donor, easily our best result. Well worth the effort.
What did we do differently? Well the ewes were definitely on a rising plane of nutrition. They were fed a small amount of barley (400- 500 gms every second day) and had a large square bale of lucerne/clover hay that had had some rain on it before it was baled. They also had a slight green pick of some summer grasses. We also tried to stress them a little less. Their paddock was adjacent to the yards, but not one we moved through daily.
The best donor ewe was a 2015 drop ewe 150310 who had lambed in August 2016 and reared her single lamb. She produced 13 embryos.
Estimated progeny performance for the et matings:
| Dam | Join to | est bwt | est pwt | est pfat | est pemd | est pwec | est lmy | est imf | est shrf5 | est LEQ |
| 110215 | HF 130156 | 0.42 | 16.3 | -0.1 | 3.2 | -11 | 3.6 | -0.21 | -1.0 | 155.76 |
| 120856 | 140247 | 0.30 | 17.2 | -0.9 | 2.6 | -34 | 4.7 | -0.53 | 2.5 | 150.52 |
| 140254 | Marocara 150049 | 0.31 | 17.1 | -0.3 | 3.6 | -21 | 3.9 | -0.25 | -0.5 | 160.82 |
| 150310 | HF 130156 | 0.42 | 16.0 | -0.4 | 3.5 | -7 | 4.1 | -0.24 | -1.3 | 159.92 |
| 150369 | Marocara 150049 | 0.41 | 16.5 | -0.3 | 3.3 | -1 | 3.4 | -0.04 | -1.1 | 158.37 |
| 150375 | HF 130156 | 0.40 | 16.7 | -0.4 | 3.3 | -13 | 4.2 | -0.29 | -0.5 | 159.82 |
| Average | 0.38 | 16.6 | -0.4 | 3.3 | -14 | 4.0 | -0.26 | -0.3 | 157.53 |
