0:03
I want to thank everyone for joining us today for this month's University of Wisconsin-Division of Extension, Badger Dairy Insight, which is a monthly webinar series offered on the third Tuesday of each month.

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Badger Dairy Insight provides the latest research based dairy information to improve animal welfare, breeding and genetic selection, automation and modernization, and nutritional decisions for producers, dairy workers and managers, and agriculture professionals.

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My name is Jackie McCarville, I am a regional dairy educator for Grant, Green, Iowa and Lafayette counties and we hope to provide this opportunity as an informal discussion on today's topic.

0:55
Apparently, my slides are acting up.

0:58
Today's presenters are going to be Heather Schlesser and Ryan Sterry, who are regional Ag educators for the University of Wisconsin Madison-Division of Extension.

1:12
Heather is an agriculture educator for Marathon and Clark Counties.

1:17
Heather's research and outreach have included colostrum management, milk quality, and the use of current technology to enhance farm profitability and sustainability.

1:28
Over the last 10 years, Heather has taught a bi-annual artificial insemination course for beef and dairy producers.

1:37
Heather holds a master's degree in Animal Breeding and Genetics and a PhD in Reproductive Physiology.

1:45
Ryan is a regional livestock educator for Chippewa, Dunn and Eau Claire counties.

1:51
His educational programming and research include beef and dairy genetics and reproduction, as well as beef on dairy genetics and management.

2:02
Ryan holds a master's degree in dairy cattle reproduction from UW Madison.

2:07
Heather and Ryan are going to walk us through managing liquid nitrogen tanks and AI use. AI gun preparations to protect, protect semen viability and enhance reproductive success.

2:24
If you have questions or comments, please put them in the Q&A box or the chat function at the bottom of your screen.

2:31
And this webinar is going to be recorded and you can find it on our dairy website within one to two weeks.

2:37
And it will also be featured in our monthly dairy newsletter if you subscribe to that.

2:43
So take it away, Heather and Ryan.

2:47
All right.

2:47
Thanks, Jackie.

2:48
And I know Angie's on helping us today too, and we really appreciate that.

2:51
We do want to preference this that we are on farm today.

2:54
We're currently in the utility room, so our surroundings are just a little bit different.

2:59
The cows outside our door are not mooing at the moment and behaving.

3:02
So hopefully we can keep this up for a few more minutes.

3:05
That'd be great.

3:05
That'd be great.

3:06
Yeah.

3:06
But definitely we want to do a little bit more of a show and tell on this Badger Dairy Insight.

3:11
So Heather's going to walk us through some things.

3:12
We're going to talk about a few questions as we're doing some semen handling and this is just some good reminders, some good production practices that we haven't been able to show you before.

3:21
Right so, so let's get started.

3:23
The first thing we wanted to go over with you guys was what should you have in your AI tool kit?

3:30
All right, so here on the table I hope you can see it.

3:32
We have a toolbox.

3:34
It's just one I bought at Menards.

3:35
You can get a more expensive one.

3:37
The breeding company sells some, but basically it has a top shelf that you can lift out and a bottom bigger compartment, to put the bigger things in.

3:45
So in the bottom, Ryan, we'll just get started with talking

3:49
Yeah.

3:50
So on the bottom here, we have the long AI sleeves.

3:53
All right, These are going to be the long ones.

3:55
They're, you know, the palpation sleeves.

3:57
They go all the way up to your shoulder, really important so that you can get your hand in the rectum without getting manure all over your sleeve.

4:05
We also have a box of nitrile gloves.

4:08
All right, you don't have to have nitriles.

4:11
You could use latex, whatever honestly is your preference.

4:16
I have nitriles because that's what I prefer.

4:19
These are great to put on your bare hand so that you know if you're touching the rump of the animal, you're not getting manure on it.

4:26
It also just helps, you know, some people like to have two gloves on starting at the process of getting the semen out of the tank so that the liquid nitrogen isn't coming in contact with their hand.

4:36
So put the nitriles on 1st and then slide one of the palpation sleeves over the top when it comes time to breed.

4:42
Again, personal preference if you want to have two of these on or just one.

4:47
All right, the other thing that is in here are our paper towels, right?

4:52
We're going to want to wipe that vulva off so that we're not inserting the gun through a poopy vulva so wiping it off ahead of time.

5:01
So that way you're not inserting any manure into the vagina and getting that dirty cervix to cause any infection.

5:08
The other thing that's really important to keep in your AI box is going to be lube.

5:13
Manure is not lube.

5:16
So make sure that you are using lube.

5:18
Lube is your friend.

5:19
It will help you get into the rectum more smoothly.

5:22
The animal will appreciate you better.

5:24
So make sure that you have lube in your box.

5:27
The other thing that we have on the top shelf is going to be our AI guns.

5:33
All right, we have different kinds here.

5:36
So whichever ones you want are up to you.

5:38
Just keep in mind that your semen straws can come in half or quarter cc's, so you're going to want to get a gun that will fit that.

5:46
The two that I have in my hand here are kombi guns, meaning that they can handle both the half or the quarter cc straw.

5:53
So I don't have to worry if I'm picking up the quarter cc gun or the half cc gun.

5:58
I can pick up either one.

6:00
The main thing that you want to note is that on the end of each one of your guns, there's a little flange.

6:06
And this flange is important because when you put the sheath over, you want to make sure that the sheath slides all the way over this.

6:13
And we'll talk about that later when we get into actually opening up the semen tank and pulling out a few straws to thaw for you and showing you how to put the gun together.

6:23
And as Heather has the sheath out.

6:24
There's a few different styles.

6:25
You might see where they're showing one as an example today, but there's a style that's maybe not quite as rigid.

6:32
But just shop around and find out what you're most comfortable with.

6:35
Right.

6:35
Good point, Ryan.

6:36
Yeah.

6:37
Anytime in this video, we are not, you know, promoting any certain product, just the use of something.

6:44
We also have two different size tweezers.

6:48
The longer tweezers allow us to get deeper into the tank in order to pull out the cane.

6:55
And these are examples of empty canes here.

6:58
So these canes are what your semen straws are going to be in.

7:02
So we have 1/4 cc cane and a half cc cane.

7:05
So the blue one again is the 1/4 cc and the white one is 1/2 cc.

7:10
And on your cane you're going to have two goblets, so a top goblet and a bottom goblet.

7:15
Those are just going to hold your semen straws.

7:17
And what longer tweezer allows us to do is reach deeper down into that tank so we're not lifting up the canister that's in there into the neck, and we can just pull the 1 cane that we are working with up into the neck.

7:30
And then because these are really cumbersome to work with, you don't want to try and grab a semen straw out of that cane.

7:37
So that's when you're going to switch to the smaller set of tweezers.

7:41
These are actually designed to pull out the semen straw.

7:45
They're grooved.

7:46
They got a nice little groove system in there so that they fit that semen straw reach in there and pull that out.

7:53
So Heather, while you have the canes out, how many units do they hold?

7:56
So it depends, right?

7:57
Because one's half and one's quarter, but you're going to get between about 10 units in each one.

8:03
So typically it's five in each goblet, 5 in each goblet.

8:08
Yes, thank you for clarifying that.

8:12
And then once you have your semen straws out and you have them thawed, we're going to show you the thaw units that we have here in a minute because they're currently hid behind the toolbox.

8:22
You have to open those straws so that the semen can get out.

8:25
And there's two different ways to do that.

8:27
We have the Cito cutter here, which is a blue one.

8:29
It's sort of like guillotine type cutter.

8:32
You slide the end of the straw right into this hole and then you push this little lever and it cuts off the head of the straw.

8:40
So we're cutting the crimped end off.

8:42
In order to get that to open up.

8:45
You don't have to use the Cito unit.

8:47
You can just use a pair of scissors.

8:50
The one thing you want to make sure is that you are cutting it at a 90° angle.

8:54
So you want it flat so that it fits into this little blue tip right in here.

9:01
If you cut it at too much of an angle, it doesn't like to sit very well in that tip.

9:05
So if you use the scissors, making sure you're going perpendicular to the straw, if you use a Cito unit, you don't have to worry about that because it cuts it right off.

9:14
So like you said, it's personal preference.

9:18
Sometimes you don't have to.

9:20
Maybe they cut it at the same spot each time.

9:22
So maybe if you're a little less experienced and not familiar with it, it's maybe a little bit easier way to start.

9:28
Both absolutely work.

9:30
I think the key thing you said is cut the right end off.

9:32
I've heard stories of people that as they're learning to do AI for the first time, they cut the plug off.

9:37
And yeah, not so good.

9:40
Yeah, let's get these out of there.

9:43
We're just going to grab one thing we didn't talk about.

9:46
Ryan, do you want to talk about the sheath covers?

9:50
I'll let you just because you're a little more familiar with that.

9:52
But yes, we did pull those out.

9:54
OK, so one thing that we have in here are two different styles of sheath covers.

9:59
So these go over the actual sheath once it's on the gun.

10:05
So this one here is more of a hard, rigid plastic, which is actually kind of nice because it's not as flimsy like the one with these.

10:16
They're a little bit more flimsy, and it takes a little more dexterity to pull them back.

10:21
And the whole point of these is that you would have the sheath cover on as the gun goes through the vagina.

10:27
And then as you're entering into the cervix, you push the gun through the sheath cover so that you or any bacteria or debris that is on the sheath cover is not getting inserted into the cervix.

10:41
And then where you would be inseminating in the uterine body.

10:44
So do you want to pull one of those out?

10:46
As I say, yeah.

10:47
And I think this is again, where what you have available personal preference.

10:51
When I learned AI, we couldn't get these.

10:54
So then I had to learn on these.

10:55
And now that's what feels more comfortable, not better or worse, just a comfort thing.

11:00
Exactly.

11:01
So.

11:01
So, yeah, I can.

11:03
And I tear this off here.

11:05
I mean, that's what it looks like.

11:08
Yeah.

11:08
And then you just insert your gun in there.

11:10
One end's closed, and then the other end is open.

11:13
So you just insert it right in.

11:15
And then as you're getting ready to breed through the cervix again, you just pull this back with your fingers and the gun pops through.

11:23
Cool.

11:24
All right, let's close this up.

11:25
Ryan

11:27
So as we're getting re situated, I think 1 common theme that we wanted to emphasize through this is being clean, being sanitary.

11:34
These are some of the tools to do that.

11:35
But again, we're going to keep reminding you as we're going throughout this, just keep it as clean as you can.

11:41
It's going to help your AI success rate, right?

11:44
Cleanliness is your friend.

11:45
When we do it.

11:47
Once you take your semen straw out of your tank, you're going to have to thaw that semen.

11:52
So we have two different types of thaw units here.

11:54
So this one is just a thermos style.

11:58
It's got a screw top lid.

11:59
You take it off and then on the top of it.

12:02
I'll switch closer here so you guys can see it.

12:04
Hopefully there's a nice little thermometer and it's got the green zone.

12:09
That green zone means basically that you're good to go, right?

12:12
You want to make sure that your lever is in the green zone.

12:14
Don't look too close.

12:15
Ours is on the top edge of that green zone.

12:19
So the way these work, you just put your water in, make sure it's hot enough, put it in, then your thermometer will tell you how hot it is.

12:30
Ryan, do you want to talk about the electric one?

12:32
Yeah, so there's also an electric version.

12:35
That's what's plugged into our outlet up here.

12:37
So a little bit more automated.

12:39
If you're doing this more frequently, thawing more units, this may be a little more convenient and a little more consistent, but both absolutely do work.

12:47
But even with this, we do have a little card in here.

12:51
So there's a couple different styles of thermometers you can use Heather to show the dial.

12:55
There's these kind of to move this closer so you can see it.

12:59
But this style thermometer as well, just to keep double checking this.

13:02
So.

13:05
So even with the electric ones, it's probably a good practice to still make sure it's calibrated.

13:10
Don't plug it in and forget about it type of thing.

13:13
Yeah, question for you guys.

13:16
When you're talking about thermometers and needing to keep our water in a certain temperature, how often should we be checking the thermometers in our thawing units to make sure that it is reading accurately?

13:31
Or do you have any some best practices to make sure that that temperature really is the correct temperature?

13:38
So yeah, I think we can tag team this one.

13:40
I don't have a specific number of how frequently, but I was always encouraged to either work with someone.

13:47
to calibrate for you.

13:48
I think their suggestion earlier maybe the milk hauler might be able to do that.

13:53
I know some farms, they just put 2 thermometers in there and make sure they match relative to some of the units of semen that we're dealing with today.

14:00
Thermometers are not that expensive, have more than one.

14:03
When they start to mismatch, it is time to check something out, especially when you start talking about $100 unit of semen.

14:09
Having the right thermometer and checking it frequently is real cheap insurance.

14:14
Yeah, I think, you know Ryan said it, check it frequently.

14:17
So make sure that you are checking that thermometer on a regular basis.

14:21
The milk haulers have to have their thermometers calibrated on a regular basis.

14:25
So if you compare your thermometer to their thermometer, that is a great way to make sure that what you're reading is accurate.

14:32
Does that answer your question, Jackie?

14:35
Yes, thank you.

14:37
And maybe there's one last thing.

14:38
I didn't want to create a blooper reel and spill water here, but on the electric, I'm not going to move it closer to the camera, but I did want to show the backside.

14:46
There's a red light and green light tell show you when it's warm enough.

14:50
They do take a little bit of time to heat up.

14:51
So just the green light is on before you start thawing.

14:57
So the other thing that we have on the table here, actually, we have a couple other things, but do you want to hold up the no, the thaw, the semen straw gun warmer.

15:06
I can talk.

15:07
All right, so the other thing that we have here is a semen gun warmer.

15:12
This is something that if you're going to be breeding a lot of animals at one time, is probably worth investing in.

15:18
So what it does is once you take that semen gun, as you can see, like right now, it's got empty semen guns.

15:25
And the reason for this is because it's pre warming them.

15:28
So think about, you know, the cold winter days that we get here in Wisconsin.

15:31
If we were to take that cold metal semen gun and put a nice warmed straw from the water bath directly into that cold gun, we're going to shock that sperm.

15:43
So we can either warm it in our shirt and make sure it's up to body temperature or we can warm it in the gun.

15:49
And then once we have that semen loaded in there, we want to make sure that that gun doesn't get cooled and the semen temperature drop while we're carrying to the animal.

15:58
So if we use the semen gun warmer, it's going to keep it warm.

16:02
The other option again is to keep it in your shirt.

16:05
But if you have multiples that you're doing at one time, it's definitely they're, they're pricey.

16:10
Don't get me wrong, you're looking at about $250 for a semen gun warmer.

16:14
But if you are doing multiple animals at one time, then it's probably worth investing in.

16:19
If you're doing one or two, you know, you can keep those in your shirt and keep them warm that way and you don't have to worry about it.

16:24
So kind of think about your operation and how many animals you're going to be doing at one time and if that's an investment for you or not.

16:31
But we wanted to show it to you since we had access to one here on the farm.

16:36
It's not one that we have.

16:37
It's just one that the farm had.

16:39
So we thought, well, why not?

16:40
We'll just show it to you guys.

16:41
Yeah.

16:42
So I'm, it's, I'm not going to take it out, but there's a rechargeable battery pack in the front here.

16:46
That's how it keeps it warm.

16:47
I think the key that Heather said is we don't want to see you after you're loading AI gun and walking outside with it just in your hand, flowing out in the air.

16:56
That's the best thing you can do to start killing sperm cells in that straw.

16:59
So like Heather said, tuck it in the vest, tuck it down your shirt.

17:03
Yeah.

17:03
OK.

17:07
All right, Ryan, Are you ready to jump into the tank?

17:10
I think so.

17:10
Yeah.

17:11
All right, Let's do this.

17:12
So in your tank, why don't we talk before we get into it about where to store your tank?

17:19
So, Ryan, where?

17:20
How?

17:20
Like right now, we're standing on a concrete floor.

17:22
You guys can't see that, But would I just want to store this tank straight on a concrete floor?

17:28
No.

17:29
So this is not where this tank is normally stored.

17:31
We want to preference that with this, but yeah, so concrete can be corrosive to the bottom of the tank when it's stored there for a long period of time.

17:38
So for the life of the tank, you want to get it off something that's going to get up and off the concrete.

17:44
So I've seen farms with a wood platform, carpet, something like that, just so it's not always on concrete.

17:51
And just be careful as you're moving these tanks around.

17:54
They're strong.

17:54
I don't want to say that they're fragile, but what we can't see, there's inside pieces of this.

17:59
We'll show you a picture in a second.

18:01
Just be careful as you're handling these things at the more you jostle it, the more you drop it, the more chance you introduce for something to happen to that tank.

18:10
Yeah, and, and you mentioned dropping it and breaking it.

18:12
And I think that's probably a good segue.

18:14
It's time to talk about how the tank is built.

18:17
Yeah, so these tanks are actually 2 tanks in one.

18:19
There's that inner tank that has liquid nitrogen and the canisters and has your semen.

18:24
And then there's the outside tank that is filled with a vacuum.

18:28
And if you think about your thermos for your coffee at home, it's a similar design with your liquid nitrogen tank.

18:34
So as Ryan mentioned, if you drop it, you can actually crack that inner tank and you can break that vacuum seal that's in there.

18:41
And once that vacuum seal breaks, your tank isn't good anymore.

18:45
I didn't take a picture, but we have seen things on farm where they do sit on concrete.

18:49
My favorite one was in it was sitting in the manger of a  tie stall barn and had corn silage packed up to it up to here.

18:55
I'm like, oh please.

18:58
And all I could do to keep from jumping in there.

19:00
But but yeah, I mean, if you're moving these around, because you do have to move these around occasionally, think about the size of the tank that's right for you.

19:08
Maybe you need a carrier tank if you're frequently moving semen, or you can have a main tank that stays more in place.

19:13
There's different strategies you can do with this.

19:16
Can you mention carrier tank?

19:17
Can you elaborate on that a little bit for our audience?

19:20
Yeah.

19:20
So we don't have one here today, but they're not made for long term storage.

19:25
But you can ship semen in them.

19:27
You can transport it a little bit shorter term storage, but it's a smaller, more portable units.

19:32
You're not always having to lug this around if you're frequently buying semen or selling semen or moving it from farm and farm.

19:41
Awesome.

19:41
Cool, thank you.

19:42
One thing that I have seen farms that I thought was pretty ingenious is that Rubbermaid garbage cans or a rubber garbage can, not necessarily the brand Rubbermaid, but they will put their semen tanks within there because it gives you a protection on all sides of the tank.

19:58
So as long as your tank fits in there, then it comes out and it's pretty easy.

20:02
If you bump it, you've got that little rubber lining, don't bump it, but if you were to actually bump it, you got a little bit of that rubber plastic in between.

20:10
So I thought that was pretty ingenious. 

20:14
Storage space, so like the type of room that I want to store.

20:16
Are there any special considerations that I want to have or?

20:20
Well, the first one I think of is put it someplace where people are going to see it.

20:24
Don't put it in a room that you're not going to see for a month or two.

20:28
Just in case if a tank does happen to start to fail, the telltale sign is you'll start to see frost on the outside of it, like around the neck area.

20:35
Yeah.

20:35
So you want to have it someplace where it's going to be observed so you can catch on to that right away and it doesn't progress too far.

20:41
Hopefully you can transfer it to a different tank if that were to happen.

20:45
So I think that's the top of mind first thing I would say on that.

20:47
I would add to that, when you when we open up the cork, you may or may not see some of the liquid nitrogen gas coming out.

20:55
It's like a white gas that isn't great for us to breathe in.

21:00
It can actually suffocate us.

21:01
So one thing you're going to want to make sure is that your room is well ventilated.

21:05
You don't want to fill the room up with the liquid nitrogen gas and then actually asphyiate yourself.

21:09
So I would add that.

21:12
All right.

21:12
I think that's another consideration.

21:14
How frequently you open this?

21:16
How long is it open?

21:17
And yeah, the longer, more frequently, the more liquid nitrogen you're going to go.

21:21
So having a nice little chart of when you fill out, how much to keep track of that.

21:25
If all of a sudden you're going through more, that might be a sign that your tank might have some issues.

21:31
But yes, you need to use it.

21:34
But that's not what you're saying.

21:35
You need to get in there.

21:36
We need to get in there.

21:36
But the more frequently you do that, just bear in mind we need to check that nitrogen level a little bit more frequently too.

21:42
Well, since you just brought it up, should we show them how to check it?

21:45
Yeah, we can do that quick before we start pulling the units out.

21:47
So this is we'll pick that up later.

21:54
So this is a specially made measuring stick for going into liquid nitrogen tanks.

22:00
I know it's hard to see on camera, one side in centimeters, the other is in inches on this particular stick, but we just want to insert it here, get it around the canister.

22:11
So we hit bottom and you see that?

22:13
Yeah, you see the gas coming out because he put in something that's at room temperature and he's trying to cool it off really quickly.

22:20
So that's when it off gases.

22:23
He's going to leave it in there long enough for it to get a frost on the ruler when he pulls it out.

22:29
And is there a a minimum amount of liquid nitrogen we want to keep in our tanks?

22:35
That is an awesome question, Jackie.

22:37
So there is actually, depending on what literature source you read, you want to have between like 3 and 10 inches of liquid nitrogen.

22:45
So I'd say minimum at least don't get below 3 inches.

22:48
So, so I think a lot depends on tank size too.

22:51
But yes, you don't want to let it get down to the last inch.

22:54
And yeah, so we have to you guys can see the frost line on there and that tells you where the tank is at.

23:04
We can see it.

23:05
OK, so it's about 11 inches.

23:06
So it's so it's good it's above the 10 inch.

23:09
So yeah.

23:13
Do you want to add more on that or I'll jump into I think we can jump in.

23:17
Yeah.

23:17
OK, so the different parts of your tank, this little guy that I pulled out is the cork.

23:22
This cork you want to make sure is taken care of because as you can see here, hopefully you can see there's little grooves and these grooves align with the handles of the canisters that are in there.

23:34
If we end up getting this damaged and having big gaps and everything, we get air gaps.

23:39
And as Ryan said, the more the tank is open, the more it's going to off gas.

23:43
So if this cork is starting to degrade or disintegrate, spend the money on getting a new one because otherwise you're going to have your liquid nitrogen vapors escaping around this cork.

23:55
The other thing is, is cleanliness is your friend, as Ryan mentioned earlier, that goes with what goes in your tank as well.

24:01
So never take your cork and put it on the floor or get it in hay or dust or anything like that.

24:06
So set it on the side of your of your tank so that it's off the ground and clean the this tank you're not going to be able to see it very well, but it is labeled with how many canisters are in here and we have 6 canisters.

24:21
We have practice semen in canister 3.

24:24
So I'm going to lift this up so you can see what a canister looks like.

24:28
But keep in mind I don't have any real semen in it.

24:31
If I had real semen in it, I would not be taking it out of this tank because I don't to start damaging it.

24:37
So as we said, there are two tanks in one.

24:41
If I try to pull those canisters straight up, it is not going to come up because the canister is sitting under the belly.

24:48
So there's the neck.

24:49
Do you want to show the picture of what the neck looks like?

24:52
Yeah, maybe that one there.

24:54
So you can see here how we've got the neck where it goes straight down and then it balloons out into the belly of the tank.

25:00
So in order to get this canister up, you need to slide it all the way back to the other side and then pull it up.

25:07
And this canister that has a stem on it, and it opens up and it's going to hold all your semen straws right in here.

25:13
All right.

25:14
And trust me, this one says practice semen.

25:16
We checked it out ahead of time, so you're not damaging anything.

25:19
So don't do that in real life.

25:21
All right.

25:21
Do you want to expand a little bit on that as you pull it up there?

25:24
Why?

25:24
You don't want to leave it up that long?

25:26
Yeah.

25:26
Do you?

25:27
Can you hold that one back up there for them so they can see the different temperatures?

25:31
So the main thing to keep in mind with this is this neck area right here is that critical zone where the sperm actually starts to thaw.

25:39
So it's -10 in the neck, but that is still, if you look down here in the belly, we're at -320 So by the time it hits -10 that sperm starts to thaw and then when we put it back in the tank, it starts to freeze again.

25:55
So we go through this thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze cycle, which isn't good for our semen and it'll actually start to bust the the sperm heads and kill it and cause damage.

26:05
And the bad thing is, is that once we have started to thaw that semen, even if we refreeze it immediately, the damage is done.

26:12
So we're not in that sperm back to its 100% pristine condition.

26:16
So that's why the more you can keep it in the belly of the tank, the better.

26:21
And that's where these big long tweezers come in again, because I don't know if you noticed when I pulled up the canister, we only had one cane of semen.

26:29
But if we had multiple canes of semen, we don't want to bring them all up into the neck, all right?

26:35
We only want to bring up the one that we're working with.

26:37
So the rest of them stay in the belly.

26:40
So what you're going to do when you start, you're going to get your tweezers.

26:43
And again, this would be the stage where if you wanted to put your gloves on, you can put your gloves on in order to keep your hands free of the liquid nitrogen.

26:50
I'm going to lift this up just as far as I need to in order to see the straw down in here or the cane. Excuse me.

26:59
Then I'm going to switch and again, keeping this as low as possible.

27:14
There we go.

27:15
Put it in there.

27:21
And then I want to make sure that I get that back in the canister.

27:25
So you're going to raise the canister up to the neckline so that you can drop your cane back in all right. Again, as quickly as possible as you can be in working in the tank, the better so that you are not getting any any more time in the neck than you need to.

27:42
Right.

27:43
So this was hard to show live on camera, but we have a picture.

27:47
So Heather can see looking top down, there's a frost line.

27:50
So when she was doing for real this last time, she was trying to keep everything below that frost line as much as she could.

27:56
Yeah.

27:57
And that's if you look at the temperature at the critical zone.

28:01
All right, this top part here that Ryan was showing you where it starts to drop.

28:05
This frost line is right here at about this -103 to -116.

28:10
So if you're pulling your semen straw above that frost line, you're going to be causing damage.

28:16
You always want to work with that semen straw below the frost line.

28:23
Just going to grab this quick as Heather keeps working there.

28:25
So when she said, I know this is practice semen, sorry, I'm just grabbing some paper towels, she knew because these canes are marked.

28:35
So if you look at the very top, I know this is small print, but each cane should be marked with a sire ID so you know which bull you're pulling up at any specific time.

28:46
So I need to make sure that my gun is warm.

28:49
So I'm going to go ahead and slide that in my chest or in my shirt here.

28:54
And then our semen tanks in the way,

28:58
So I'm going to move it.

29:04
So question, while you're prepping here, is there a certain amount of time our semen should be sitting in that water bath?

29:13
Like, is there a minimum and a maximum?

29:17
Yeah.

29:17
Do you want me to cover it?

29:19
All right.

29:19
So again, talk to your manufacturer because the different semen companies have different times that they recommend all sexed semen versus conventional semen.

29:30
One company has a pocket thaw method as well as we're talking to them.

29:34
But normally you can figure between 45 seconds to a minute, so 45 to 60 seconds within the water bath in order to get fully thawed again.

29:45
But double check that with the semen company that you're purchasing your semen from to see what their theirs are.

29:51
So like I said, one company has a pocket thaw method.

29:54
So you just take it, you pop it right into your thaw, your pocket.

29:57
It doesn't even see the water bath, right.

30:00
So I'm glad you answered that.

30:02
It really is and depends

30:04
We're not going to demonstrate it today.

30:07
If you're breeding a lot of cows, you may be trying to thaw multiple straws at once.

30:10
That might adjust that time a little bit too.

30:13
I think the biggest thing, if you're putting multiples in there, make sure they're not touching.

30:16
Make sure you can spread them out in that water bath.

30:18
Yeah, that's a good point.

30:20
Because if they're touching, if you have more than one straw that is touching in the back, then that one area isn't going to thaw adequately.

30:28
I think one thing too, that I'll mention, since Ryan brought up the touching, you know, we use tweezers for all of it.

30:34
And when we teach our AI class, the students are like, well, my breeder doesn't do that.

30:39
He just uses his fingers.

30:41
And that's true.

30:42
But if we think about the temperature of our bodies versus the temperature of the tweezers, the tweezers really should have no temperature.

30:50
I mean, they're going to be at room temperature and they're touching a small surface.

30:54
And even our fingers, they're going to be touching the top of that semen straw.

30:58
And right away that top of the semen straw is going to be exposed to my body temperature.

31:02
So 98.5° at the top semen straw, but the bottom of that semen straw isn't getting that temperature.

31:09
So we have un uniform thawing going on at that point.

31:13
So that's why we use the tweezer so that we're never touching it, we're never transferring our body heat to that semen straw, and we're placing the entire thing into the thaw unit at one time so that the thaw unit is doing a uniform thawing across that semen straw.

31:30
So I think we've probably gone over a minute, so I'm going to go ahead and get it out.

31:34
A couple things to keep in mind with your semen straw.

31:37
They don't like water.

31:39
Your semen doesn't like water and it doesn't like sunlight.

31:42
So you notice I have a paper towel in my hand and I have my tweezers because again, I never want to touch my semen straw directly.

31:48
So I'm going to take my paper towel and we're in, we're not in a room where there's light shining directly in on this semen straw, but my paper towel is going to do two things.

32:00
First off, I'm going to put it in here with a loose grasp because I don't, again, I don't want to grab it tightly through the paper towel, but I'm going to dry it off and that's going to get rid of the water aspect of it.

32:12
And then I'm also keeping it protected.

32:15
So then I am going to make sure I'm going to put that down for a second so you guys can see.

32:21
So we have two ends.

32:22
Hopefully you can tell this is the plug end.

32:25
That's the end that the semen gun is going to push on.

32:29
And then we have this other end over here, which is the crimped end.

32:33
Jackie, you're going to have to tell me if this is coming through.

32:35
But this crimped end right here is the end we're going to want to cut off.

32:39
OK, Yeah, I can see that.

32:41
Perfect.

32:41
OK, so this end, the plug end, we want to keep so that the semen gun has something to push against the plunger.

32:48
And then the crimped end we're going to cut off so that we are able to let our semen get out.

32:55
I'll use the cito cutter so you guys can see it because most people haven't seen how this one works.

32:59
So again, we have a little hole on the end.

33:02
We insert the semen straw in as far as it'll go and depress the plunger.

33:07
And then we have a nice straight cut right across there.

33:11
OK, Then I'm going to insert it in my gun.

33:16
The order, I can insert it into my gun and then cut it or I can cut it and then insert it into my gun.

33:24
That order again is personal preference.

33:26
It doesn't matter.

33:28
So a question came in, do you guys recommend the gun warmers?

33:36
I think it's personal preference, honestly.

33:39
And it depends on your operation.

33:42
You know, if you think you're going to need it, if you're doing one or two, making sure they're thawed in your vest or in your shirt, you're not going to have any issues.

33:50
The other thing too is that when you are setting up your tank and you're pulling out your semen, maybe don't have the cow in the back 40 in a headlock.

33:59
You know, try and get her a little bit closer to where your semen is so that you're not having to drive a long distance.

34:05
Or if you do have to drive, load it up in the back, the pickup truck and then head out to where she's at so that you have a short walk between the thaw period 

34:12
And when you're breeding her.

34:15
So, yeah, so I haven't quite covered yet.

34:16
We're getting to a how much time you have from when to when you want that semen in the cow.

34:22
So there's some tips to cut down on that time.

34:24
When we mentioned thawing multiple straws, that's fine in some cases, but make sure you can breed that many cows that fast because of, because we're trying to shoot for less than 15 minutes from thawing to when that semen's inside the cow.

34:38
So like 10 minutes is optimal.

34:40
You can, you know, no more than 15 minutes from the thaw to that.

34:44
The other thing is, and we haven't talked about this yet, but these thaw units, the electric ones do pretty good, but you have to keep an eye on it, each time we put a semen straw in them, it's like putting in an ice cube.

34:57
So it's going to fluctuate.

34:59
So especially with the insulated thermoses that don't have a way to reheat them, if you're thawing 3 or 4 units, you're going to want to make sure that you're checking that each time you add a new straw that that temperature is still within the range you want because you don't want it to drop down because those little ice cubes are going to cool that water down.

35:18
So while this comes down to experience, the more frequently you do this, so you can do it a little bit quicker, a little more comfortable with it.

35:24
But when you teach AI class, if you're doing this for the first time, take your time, focus on one.

35:30
Yes.

35:31
And you know, like right now we've been holding this semen straw out and we wouldn't be doing this if we were truly breeding, right?

35:37
It would be back in my shirt and that I would have the sheath on.

35:40
But I wanted to show you how to put it on.

35:42
So yeah.

35:44
OK, so here I'm going to come up again.

35:46
So you can see because right now this sheath is on the gun, but it's really loose and the way we take care of that is we have to make sure we slide it all the way up.

35:57
So the plastic is going to actually expand.

35:59
You can kind of see it got a little bit wider in here.

36:02
And then on this one, we have a little blue plug at the end of it and this blue plug is all the way up to the opening.

36:09
So that's going to be really important.

36:11
The other thing you want to make sure is that, and again, this has to be sterile and has to be clean, so don't touch the opening with like bare hands or dirty hands.

36:20
So again, make sure you have clean gloved hands on if you're going to be handling the end part of this. Your plunger,

36:28
One thing we I mention it, but we had to pull this back out in order to put the straw in because if you don't, the straw is going to meet resistance with this plunger and it won't go into your gun very easily.

36:40
So you're going to pull the plunger out and slide that semen straw into the other end.

36:45
But once you have the gun loaded, you're going to actually push this plunger back in.

36:49
And right there I felt resistant.

36:51
So right until the point where you feel resistance and you're ready to go breed the cow.

36:55
So you'll slip it back into your shirt and it'll be warm and you'll go breed that cow that you had in the headlock before you even getting your semen out.

37:03
So that's going to be the key point is have the animals locked up and ready to go before you try to go out there and start breeding them.

37:12
So when you go to breeding,

37:14
So here we have Betsy.

37:17
Betsy is just our model that we use in the AI class.

37:20
It's got some I'm going to open Betsy up.

37:22
You can't do this in real life.

37:23
But Betsy on the inside here has has a a little fake uterus and a little fake cervix so that we can get an idea to breed her when you are breeding your cow right, which we get the question, well, which hand should I put in the rectum?

37:42
Do I put my left hand or my right hand in the rectum?

37:46
Ryan, what do you, what do you say or what do you think about that?

37:49
I think it's what people are most comfortable with.

37:52
It depends on how you were trained.

37:54
So I know some people that are also trained to do palpation or ultrasound might have been when I was in grad school, ultrasounding cows.

38:00
I was always taught to use my left arm because I might have to use my right arm to write or do something else with it.

38:05
So that's what I've always been comfortable with.

38:07
We have people that use the right arm and they do perfectly fine with that as well, right?

38:12
So I would agree with that completely.

38:14
Try them both out.

38:15
If you've never bred before, try both your dominant hand and your non dominant hand in the rectum.

38:20
The hand in the rectum is going to be doing the majority of the work.

38:23
The hand that is controlling the gun is just all it does is a forward motion and that's it.

38:29
The hand in the rectum is actually manipulating that uterus, trying to get the gun over the cervix.

38:35
So we have a little rubber, rubber model here.

38:39
The cervix down at the end is going to be the point.

38:42
So you have your your vagina on the outside or your vulva on the outside.

38:46
Excuse me.

38:46
And then your vagina is the first compartment that you come to.

38:50
And then you have the cervix.

38:51
And the cervix is going to be more of a rigid structure within that repro tract.

38:55
And so what you're doing is you're trying to reach down over or through the rectum and feel that cervix.

39:03
That bump fits in there, and then it is with the hand in the rectum that you're trying to guide the AI gun.

39:09
And so other people like to have their dominant hand within the rectum because it's the one that's doing the majority of the work.

39:17
You know, once you have your gun through the cervix, you're going to inseminate the animal.

39:26
And when you place it in the animal, you actually want to place it right in the uterine body.

39:31
So the uterine body is going to be an opening right before you get to the uterine horns.

39:36
And the reason we place it into the body instead of the horns because we don't know what side ovulated.

39:41
So you're going to actually depress the plunger into the body and allow that sperm to self select where it wants to go and it'll go into both horns.

39:49
But it'll that way you have a better chance of finding that egg.

39:53
If you put it into the left horn or the right horn and that wasn't the side that ovulated, she can still get pregnant because some of that sperm is going to be pushed back out and it'll migrate back up into the other side.

40:06
But your chances are going to be a lot lower than if you place it in this uterine body right here.

40:11
The other thing to keep in mind is that when you are breeding her, you and I'm going to breed the paper towel here just so that I can demonstrate this for you and you can see it.

40:21
You want to do it nice and slow.

40:23
So you're going to do a nice 10 count, so 1234-567-8910.

40:33
And the reason that we do a nice slow 10 count when we're breeding is if you think about a fire drill and everybody trying to get out the exit door at the same time, when they're all running through the exit door, right?

40:46
You're banging on each other and you're getting bruised those maybe a smash finger or something like that.

40:51
Maybe some people are tripping and falling that's causing injury as we go through that exit door when the fire alarm goes off.

40:58
And it's similar to our sperm.

41:00
So they've got that small opening that they have to go through.

41:03
And if we push them all out really fast, they're going to shear their tails.

41:08
They're going to get damage to them because we're forcing them all through that slow, that opening all at the same time.

41:15
So we do a nice slow 10 count to help prevent their tails from shearing off.

41:21
Well, Heather's working that.

41:22
I was just going to show this picture one last time.

41:25
So when she mentioned getting through the cervix a little more rigid, they're actually cartilage here.

41:30
So it does anatomically feel different.

41:33
If you've never done AI before, there are rings.

41:35
So that's kind of what you can see here in this picture.

41:38
So if you're inexperienced, when you Heather does AI class, one of the biggest thing is there's helping people get through the cervix for the first time, know if they're through or not, finding the opening and making sure they're past each of those rings.

41:51
The more experience you get with that, the more natural level, that's one of the big things you got to learn if you've never done this before.

41:57
Yeah.

41:57
And it the biggest hang up and it's kind of hard to see here, but you can kind of see this open pocket.

42:03
If I get the glare off, you can see this open pocket.

42:05
So this is called the vaginal fold or the fornix vagina right here.

42:09
So the vagina really is not a rigid structure.

42:12
It's a loose structure within there.

42:15
And so as you are pushing your AI gun in, a lot of times you'll end up in one of these fornix vaginas.

42:23
So either below, above or kind of around going from a loose structure to that cartilage, cardiolininis, cartilage structure filled with cartilage.

42:33
All right.

42:34
And so you have a more rigid structure that it's going to and that so you go from loose to big.

42:40
So you get a little bit of a baggy, baggy structure right around there that kind of grabs you your AI gun and hides it from you.

42:48
So, and that's where Betsy,

42:49
It's a nice teaching tool to help people for the first time.

42:53
But I also remember when I learned how to do this, I was told the first thing, it's warm inside, and the second thing, it's dark.

42:58
Don't have the advantage to being able to see this.

43:01
Yeah.

43:01
So, you know, practicing with Betsy with your eyes closed.

43:05
But again, like Ryan said, the biggest thing you can do is just practice, practice, practice.

43:10
We've had some beef producers that come through the AI class and they're like, can we palpate our animals that aren't, you know, ready, you know, they're not in heat.

43:19
Can we go ahead and palpate them?

43:20
And yeah, the answer is yes, because it does two things, right?

43:23
It gets your, your animals, like especially your dairy heifers that have never been in a chute, never been in a tie stall or a headlock, you know, get used to going into the structure that you're going to be breeding them in.

43:34
And then it also, you know, allows you to keep that practice and keep your, your, your arms warm and, you know, used to the, the feeling and the function of it.

43:44
So one last question for Heather, or not last, but one more.

43:47
So you've bred the cow here, deposit of the semen.

43:50
You're not done with the straw semen yet, though.

43:53
Do you want to explain what we have left to do with that straw?

43:55
Yeah.

43:56
So Ryan had mentioned that the top of the cane has the name on it.

44:01
And so your straw also does.

44:04
So if we come here and you can kind of see there's writing on there, I don't know that you can actually make it out, but it tells us right here, 

44:13
Genex Cooperative, because they were the company that made the semen or packaged the semen, the bull made it.

44:19
But and then it says right here, practice straw.

44:22
OK, so you can verify then by looking at the straw if the bull you thought you bred actually was.

44:29
Because sometimes what'll happen is if you're, you know, pulling out, if you have like more than one bull within canister in your tank and you pull out two.

44:38
Like, I don't know if you guys heard, but I actually had two straws when I first did.

44:43
So I had to drop 1 so that I didn't pull out both of them.

44:46
So if I were to have pulled it out and dropped it and dropped it outside of my cane, it may have fallen into another cane.

44:54
And so while I thought I was breeding, I don't know, bulll A, I might have accidentally bred bull B.

45:01
So it's just this is a way to double check that you bred the animal that you thought you did and then update your records if on accident you didn't breed practice semen.

45:11
And now that we're done depositing the semen, we can show you.

45:14
So on this Kombi gun here, this actually pulls apart.

45:18
The plunger can come out.

45:19
So again, hot water and soap is your friend to clean this stuff up after you're done breeding.

45:25
Yeah.

45:25
And one thing that I do is you'll find that sometimes you'll get, like, vaginal fluid within the guns.

45:32
So again, cleanliness.

45:33
So making sure hot water, I just use Novalsan and run soapy Novalsan water through it.

45:40
When I get all done with it, I'll run some alcohol down through it to help it dry out.

45:45
They're stainless steel, but they can still rust if you get little cracks and stuff in there.

45:49
So before I put it away and put it back together, I take a little dropper of 70% alcohol or whatever we have.

45:56
I think right now we I got a bottle of 70% alcohol, run that through it to help evaporate the water that's inside of there out.

46:02
And then I'll slide it back together and store it back in the box this way.

46:06
So always make sure it's clean before you put it back in the box.

46:10
If you don't clean them out, 'cause we have had a couple classes where I've been like, I don't have time to clean this right now.

46:17
And then I wait a few weeks and then I come back to cleaning out all the guns.

46:21
They get really stinky.

46:22
So you'll know if you didn't do a good job cleaning it, just give it a little smell, test if it stinks, clean it again before you use it 'cause you know there's some vaginal fluid in there.

46:32
And if you had vaginal fluid when you took it out and it's been sitting at room temperature, odds are you've got some bacteria going on.

46:40


46:42
Well, Jackie, do we have any questions?

46:45
We do not have any questions, but I guess I have you kind of touched on the sheath protectors.

46:52
Just your thoughts again, are do you recommend using them?

46:58
Is it kind of a preference thing?

47:00
What is your thoughts there?

47:05
So I would say there is no research out there that says that you need to use the sheath protectors 100% of the time.

47:13
Because what it shows is that if there is like a chance of infection, that's when you get the biggest benefit of using the sheath protectors.

47:23
So a lot of times we'll use the reproductive like synchronization protocols and they require the use of a CIDR.

47:30
We didn't bring a CIDR to show you guys what that looks like.

47:33
But basically it's progesterone implant that sits in the vagina and it's got little, it's like the shape of a Y and the little wings of the Y will sit against the vagina and hold it in place and those wings will rub while it's in there for that, you know, seven days, 7 to 10 days that that cidr is sitting in there.

47:53
And when we pull that cidr out, you can have a subgrade infection in there just because of that irritation that's going on.

48:01
Nothing that you're going to see that's going to like develop into like a full blown, you know, vaginal infection.

48:08
But there's enough going on that we don't want to transfer that into the cervix.

48:12
And so that's when it is recommended to actually use those sheath protectors if you've been using a CIDR, because that way any bacteria or anything that is in that vaginal environment isn't being transferred into the uterine environment.

48:26
But on a regular daily basis, like I'm not using a protocol or if you're just breeding to heat and you haven't used the cidr, then you really don't have to use them.

48:37
I think something comes down to personal comfort level and how you're most comfortable.

48:41
Yeah, I mean, I've talked to some breeders and they swear that they have better conception by using them.

48:46
So they use one every single time they breed.

48:49
If that's your comfort level and you want to purchase them, then by all means, we're not going to tell you not to do it again because it's a farm by farm basis and preference.

49:01
Perfect.

49:03
I think I'm going to share my screen quick just to promote our next Badger Dairy Insight as we're coming to close to our end of our time.

49:15
So next month on October 21st, we're going to have "Ask the Experts: Your Automatic Milking System Questions answered".

49:24
So they have experts coming from UW Madison, the University of Minnesota, and then also the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center.

49:34
So all your burning questions can be answered in another month.

49:39
And then also for additional information or unbiased university based dairy resources, please visit the Extension Dairy Program web page.

49:51
You can also sign up for future Badger Dairy Insights and also our Dairy E-newsletter, which comes out monthly.

49:59
And then finally, we are back on Facebook.

50:04
We had a dairy page for quite a while on Facebook and we lost that and so now we're back.

50:11
So if you're on Facebook, search for Wisconsin Dairy Livestock and you can find all of the latest and greatest things that the dairy and livestock educators are doing across the state.

50:24
So with that, let me stop sharing.

50:30
Does not look like we have any more questions in the chat.

50:35
If somebody does have something that they have not been learned or asked yet, please feel free to drop that here in the Q&A or in the chat and we can get it answered here within the next couple minutes before we all log off.

50:52
Otherwise, I think Ryan and Heather did a great job.

50:56
I think too, it was a great reminder of things that I might have even forgotten on my farm.

51:03
I guess I do have a question.

51:05
When you're pulling the semen out of the tank, how close is there a certain distance you want that, the water bath or the hot water?

51:15
Do you have any recommendations on that?

51:16
Because obviously we don't want it to be halfway across the room.

51:20
I would say the closer you can get it, the better, you know, because the the more you have it in the tweezers, one, the more it's exposed to the sunlight in the room.

51:31
And then two, the higher the chances that they're going to drop that semen straw.

51:35
So the closer you can have it, the better.

51:37
I don't know, Ryan.

51:38
You look like you're going to say something.

51:40
Yeah, No, I was going to say thanks again to Jackie and Angie because we're doing a little something different here.

51:44
We weren't quite sure how this is going to go.

51:46
So, but to that point, this isn't our normal set up, right?

51:50
So it is, it was a little awkward today, but get to where you're familiar, kind of get that muscle memory of like, this is how I want my Vet room set up, so on and so forth.

51:59
So it's just more natural to you.

52:01
But that said, more and more farms might have cattle on multiple sites.

52:04
So you might be moving this stuff around.

52:06
So you're just going to see what feels best yet.

52:09
But just nice table.

52:10
Make sure you have enough space.

52:12
But yes, as close as you can get, it is obviously better.

52:17
And I don't know if we said it, but the water temperature, do we cover what temperature it should be at?

52:22
I was going to say something then I forgot about it.

52:24
But yes, yeah, I know we showed you the thermometer, but ideally you want that water bath temperature around the cow's temperature.

52:31
So like 94 to 98°F is going to be where you want it just so that you're not shocking the system because it's going from like you're, you're going to put take it from the cold into the water bath and thaw it out.

52:44
And then you're going to put it against your skin that's at like 98°.

52:47
And then you're going to put it in the cow.

52:48
So the more consistent you can keep that temperature throughout the process, the better it's going to be, right?

52:53
So, and I think that's important part of the why behind talking so much about temperature and keeping it protected, it's to keep it closer to that cow's body temperature.

53:01
That's going to keep those sperm as relatively alive as we can keep them until they're deposited.

53:09
One more question, you guys had mentioned that 10 to 15 minutes is kind of that maximum time we want the semen from thawing to being inside of the cow.

53:21
Does sexed semen have different criteria for that amount of time or is it the same 10 to 15?

53:29
Yes, I thought about that as I said that we should back up to that.

53:34
So yes, if anything, the manufacturer, I don't know if it's necessarily always a sexed semen thing or the different diameters of the straw.

53:41
Sometimes that'll all makes that change.

53:43
But we might have a shorter time, 5 to 8, and it's on some of that, a smaller diameter straw.

53:48
So some of that sexed semen, it's a shorter period.

53:50
Yeah, Yeah.

53:51
And I think because like as Ryan said, with that sexed semen, it's been processed more than our conventional semen, right?

53:57
It had to go through a sorting process.

53:59
So that sperm has already been stressed, so to speak.

54:03
And so that's why you have a little bit of a shorter period of time in order to get it in.

54:07
And we, it's the same reason why we know that we have different protocols, right?

54:10
If we're setting them up with this sexed semen, then we do conventional semen.

54:13
So they're just a little bit different animal.

54:15
But yeah, that's like Ryan said, 5 to 8 minutes with your sexed semen.

54:20
There's no penalty for doing it a little bit quicker.

54:22
There is, if you go over, if it ends up being 18-20 minutes instead, that's where we run into problems.

54:32
Perfect.

54:34
It does not look like we have any anything else in there.

54:38
So I just want to thank everybody for joining us and we hope to see you back in another month.

54:45
Thank you, guys.

54:46
Thank you, Jackie and Angie.

55:05
Just trying to get some of the our guests out of here.