Twinning In Cattle :: essays research papers fc

Twinning in CattleDue to the continual fluctuation of the kine market oxen nominatershave been searching for ways to improve their production and increase theirprofits any way possible. For years genetic engineers have been working hard onimproving economic efficiency in cattle. It is their hope that through geneticresearch they can improve the yield and the income of cattle producers aroundthe world. Research has shown that check is star way that farmers can increasetheir yield . Twinning has a significant influence on producers as well aspeople who atomic number 18 involved in all realms of agriculture. The reason for this largeimpact at this time is the fact that the occurrences are limited. However, manyproducers have a vision that jibe can be more than a once in a blue moonoccurrence. These producers see twinning as a way to dramatically increase theiryield per calving season. Producers will increase their income due to moreweight per year per cow. It is necessary however , that the producer be welleducated on how to handle twinning, in order for it to be successful for them.Many agencies see twinning as an economic move upward. The AmericanBreeder Service has make efforts to produce semen as well as embryos with highpredicted breeding values available to producers. They have been recorded basedon twinning probabilities and ovulation grade. A large amount of work ontwinning has also been done by the Meat and Animal Research Center. Since theearly eighties, they have located cattle with a high frequency of twinning andbeen forming a breeding foundation based on this characteristic. We believe thetime has come to make some of these queer genetic resources available to thebeef industry through artificial insemination and embryo conveyancing (Gregory 23).An extensive amount of research has been done using embryo transfer in cattle.In one study recipients were implanted with either a single embryo, two embryoin one uterine horn, or one embryo in each u terine horn. It is also possible tosplit embryos using a micro manipulator and implant each half to produceidentical twins. On the average about 16% of the cows implanted with two embryosproduced twins. When two embryos were implanted, and one was placed in each horn,conception rates were comparable with the prior method, however the twinningrate was much higher when the embryos were in separate horns (73% vs. 45%). Forthe most part, when one embryo was split in an attempt to produce identicaltwins, only one of the offspring survived birth (Davis 302).Many producers see twinning as a possible advancement in