The time to use hormone-free IVF is now

This is branded content for Vytelle

Mating selection and reproduction method are two of the most important decisions a cattle producer can make, and their decision directly impacts profit, efficiency, and the overall sustainability of their operation.

The adoption and use of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) has experienced tremendous growth and success, driven by the ease of use and opportunity to achieve faster genetic improvement, unmatched by other reproduction methods.

According to the latest data published by the International Embryo Technology Society (IETS), 80 per cent of all reported embryo production was made through IVF versus in vivo derived (IVD) embryo production, commonly referred to as MOET or conventional flushing.

This trend validates the growing preference by producers to use IVF as their reproductive method.

There are many reasons for their preference, including the genetic gain from the donor and sire (not just the sire), doubling monthly embryo production, collecting heifers, pregnant cows, or cows that have recently calved, maximising semen usage, and no donor preparation with hormone-free IVF systems.

Landfall Angus stud, based in northern Tasmania, ventured into IVF breeding operations for the first time in 2023, leveraging Vytelle's hormone-free IVF system. The fifth generation Archer family operation has been using embryo transfer breeding technology for 40 years, but has never considered using IVF methods until recently.

Landfall Angus director, Frank Archer said with a draft of elite heifers to flush last spring, and after hearing about the services Vytelle offers, they decided to give IVF a go.

Vytelle is a global precision livestock company reshaping how cattle producers worldwide unlock animal performance.

Operating in 23 countries with 17 global IVF labs, Vytelle offers IVF services in Brisbane with the mission of bringing the most accessible, reliable, and predictable IVF technology to Australia.

"A major benefit of IVF harvest, in comparison to MOET, is that the heifers can still undergo AI along with every other heifer, so you get the benefit of collecting the eggs and also keeping them synchronised with the rest of the herd," Mr Archer said.

Mr Archer said a big plus is that heifers involved in the IVF program, end up producing twice as many calves by the time they are two-years-of-age. For example, you end up with three live calves per donor heifer, not only their ET calves but they are also calving out themselves from AI or live cover.

"We are particularly interested in what those heifers offer to our herd, and we felt that IVF would be well worth trying out, in comparison to flushing them using the conventional MOET method."

At Landfall Angus, their investment in breeding programs is all about conception rate and live calves on the ground driving forward the rate of genetic gain.

"Using IVF we can improve the rate of genetic gain in our herd by shortening the generation interval. We chose to do an IVF breeding program last year because we felt Vytelle had good processes and systems in place to move ahead with this technology," Mr Archer said.

Vytelle's hormone-free IVF process is simple, beginning with a quick 15-minute procedure to collect the oocytes from the donor. The next day, fertilisation is completed in the lab and the structures are cultured for a week. All high-quality embryos are frozen the following week upon evaluation.

For Landfall Angus, all frozen embryos were sent back and implanted by their technicians.

"The metric for IVF will be how many calves we get live on the ground, that end up in the system as replacement females or a bull that can be marketed to a client base - the reason we look at it from this angle is because that is what's delivering the value to the breeding program," Mr Archer said.

Pregnancy testing at 70 days saw a conception rate of 59 percent on 172 frozen IVF embryos, and the recipients are due to start calving from 10 August 2024.

"Vytelle truly made the process seamless for us, their people were here on the ground to collect and fly the oocytes to Brisbane. Their service was efficient, and they delivered on what they said they could do for us."

"We will definitely be doing IVF again this spring."

Vytelle has a long history in Australia through its Vytelle SENSE phenotypic data capture technology to measure and select for feed efficiency. With their regional Brisbane lab, Vytelle is positioned to serve 70 per cent of the total beef herd in Australia to enable faster genetic progress.

Vytelle regional manager for Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Donoghue said the large-scale adoption of IVF will be driven by the successful use of frozen embryos.

"Unlike other technologies, the Vytelle system allows us to deliver frozen results that producers can count on, providing reliable IVF to herds, which have been historically underserved with fresh programs," Mr Donoghue said.

Vytelle is ready to help unlock the performance of your herd by replicating the right genetics faster. Mr Donoghue said with a network of satellite locations offering ovum-pick up (OPU), accessing their technology is easy.

Visit the website vytelle.com or contact Andrew Donoghue at andrew.donoghue@vytelle.com to schedule your donors today.

No donor set up or added labour required, all you have to do is bring the cow.

This is branded content for Vytelle