Inseminación – Ovinos Mejorados

One of the major institutions in my town is the “Unidad de Producción Comunal,” which is basically a livestock farming cooperative. Early June, I watched the insemination process firsthand as they inseminated a total of 17 sheep. One lady who has studied the process in university is in charge of the procedure working with other young university students to genetically breed better quality community sheep. Starting 5 or so years ago, they have selected the best community sheep (various traits signifying health and the quantity/quality of wool production) and isolate these male and female sheep to prevent mating. They collect semen of the high quality male sheep and then using microscope determine which samples will have a high success rate (choosing healthy sperm by their movement speed). Starting May 24 this year, the insemination lasted for 20 days; the timing is important as the birth of the offspring will be the end of the year during rainy season when the pasture is the healthiest (green and rapidly growing with the abundance of rain). This community of shepherds is quite advanced!

Hasta luego,
Lauren

Photos:
1. Equipment for genetic insemination, 2. Cleaning the light probe, 3. Extracting semen with the pipet, 4. Sheep lined up for genetic insemination