Global Reproduction Solutions

Offering a range of Bovine Embryo

Services across Australia and the world

Information and Services guide

Global Reproduction Solutions

256 Peck Road, Goorambat. Victoria. 3725

Phone: +61 3 5764 1224

Email: dom@grsembryos.com.au

Web: www.grsembryos.com.au

Company Details

Company Name: Sexed Genetics Pty. Ltd T/A Global Reproduction Solutions

Address: 256 Peck Road, Goorambat. Victoria. Australia. 3725

ABN: 83 138 943 558

Established: 2004

Owned and Managed: Dominic and Joanne Bayard

Registered Full Blood Wagyu Herd: Goorambat Wagyu

Mission Statement

To provide excellence in genetic material to the Australian and International Bovine Industry.

Vision

To be at the cutting edge of genetic technology allowing GRS to offer their domestic and international

clients exceptional quality in bovine genetic material, superior before and after sales service both on and

off farm whilst supporting others within the industry to also achieve their maximum potential.

Company Overview

Global Reproduction Solutions (GRS) is owned and operated by Dominic and Joanne Bayard who have a

lifetime of experience with cattle having grown up on dairy farms. They then continued their interest in

the beef and dairy industries after finishing their tertiary education.

Dom and Jo own and run their own full-blood Wagyu cattle herd (Goorambat Wagyu) and understand the

highs and lows of being cattle breeders. This experience enables them to better empathize with and

understand cattle breeders and assists GRS in providing only the best in bovine genetic material to their

clients.

The Goorambat Wagyu herd provides the basis for GRS international embryo export. All Goorambat

Wagyu animals are full blood, are registered and have parentage verified with the Australian Wagyu

Association with pedigree certificates issued. Goorambat Wagyu are active members of Breedplan which

measures the performance of their animals on a Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) based system.

Goorambat Wagyu is geographically located below the Blue Tongue line in Australia.

Global Reproduction Solutions prides itself on being a company dedicated to the genetic improvement of

cattle in Australia. We are totally involved in seeing our clients breeding aims achieved in a timely and

successful way and nothing brings us greater joy than to see the results of our work running around the

paddock or in the sale/show ring.

GRS provides a number of reproductive services throughout Australia and Internationally. The base of

our operation is on our embryo transfer centre at Goorambat, in North Eastern Victoria. This consists of

an accredited embryo export centre, a domestic embryo transfer centre and a recipient farm. In all, these

facilities add up to approximately 1000 acres.

Services Global Reproduction Solutions Provide

Embryo Transfer

Global Reproduction Solutions offers an on farm embryo transfer service for cattle breeders across Australia. We regularly visit farms in various states around the country, servicing both dairy and beef clients. We provide our clients with an easy to read yet detailed program that is simple to follow and we take the time to discuss each donor’s flush history or expected results. We try to set a program to maximize results whilst ensuring the on-going viability of the donor being flushed.

GRS is also able to offer an on-centre environment at Goorambat for beef donors and dry dairy cows or heifers. Each donor is routinely checked to ensure that they are ready to be flushed and enter a program with a specifically designed and controlled nutritional protocol to maximize results. We set up and run the programs personally, ensuring the artificial insemination is done on time, at the right time.

Embryo Splitting Global Reproduction Solutions are experienced in the art of embryo splitting. This is an added advantage to breeders looking to maximize the number of pregnancies from fresh transfers. Embryo splitting is per-formed by taking a fine blade and splitting suitable embryos into 2 demi embryos. Each of these demi embryos are transferred fresh into suitable recipients. Experience has shown that the subsequent preg-nancy rate is between 100 and 120% of the original number of embryos split.

Embryo Sexing Global Reproduction Solutions has been sexing embryos for a number of years and is the only Australian based company offering this service on a regular basis. We use a Y chromosome specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based process that was originated by Dr. C Herr. The process works by taking a small 6-10 cell biopsy off suitable embryos on flush day, adding yCD and running the biopsy through a DNA amplifier then through an agarose gel. The embryos can be frozen for later transfer or placed in recipients on the day of flushing. This service is used by a number of our dairy clients who are looking to increase the number of heifer calves.

Embryo Export Centre Global Reproduction Solutions runs an Australian Department of Agriculture accredited embryo export facility, allowing clients with overseas interest to be able to meet demand for their genetics. We have been exporting bovine embryos to countries including New Zealand, Canada, USA, the EU and China for the past ten years, spreading the best of Australian bovine genetics across the world. We have up to 100 donors of different breeds on the Goorambat centre at any time, collecting embryos for export. With this wide range of breeds represented we are able to produce embryos on a customized basis for specific markets. Due to the different requirements of individual countries, GRS has a number of separate ‘areas’ within the overall export facility. Donors are kept in ‘areas’ to ensure compliance with various protocols and this means we need to maintain a high level of attention to what we are doing. The export of genetics across the world is an exciting industry to be involved in and it is very pleasing to see the progeny of our embryo exports appearing in the show rings and sales catalogues throughout the world. We also work in closely with Dave and Roz Kennett of Genstock NSW, who run an ovine embryo export facility and we have been able to meet demand for ovine and caprine embryos to many different countries.

The Multi Award Winning Goorambat Wagyu Herd

Wagyu cattle are well renowned for their superior meat quality and highly marbled beef, which is often seen in high end restaurants around the world.

History

For Dom and Jo Bayard, both cattle breeders since teenagers, the foray into Wagyu cattle came in the 1990’s. Dom was involved with the large Wagyu breeding companies in Queensland in the early days of Wagyu breeding in Australia. The Goorambat herd was established in 2004 with the purchase of 23 females from NSW and has steadily grown since then.

Our Cattle

Our animals are Full Blood or 100% Wagyu, are registered and have parentage verified with the Australian Wagyu Association with pedigree certificates issued. We are active members of Breedplan which measures the performance of our animals on a BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction) based system.

The Wagyu breed consists of different strains of the breed and we have cow families representing each of these strains. Goorambat Wagyu currently has a herd of about 260 breeding females and a number of selected bulls which provide semen for both the domestic and international markets.

Goorambat Wagyu has up to 60 full-blood females at any one time in our flushing team, producing embryos for the export market. Our genetics have been sent all over the world and are being used as the basis of international Wagyu herds. We are proud to say we are able to produce embryos to meet our customers specific requirements regarding which particular Wagyu strains each herd requires.

This breeding herd provides the basis of Global Reproduction Solutions Australian and International Wagyu embryo export business.

Awards Won

Gold Medal Winner 2014 Grassfed Australian Wagyu Association Carcase Competition Silver Medal Winner 2012 Grassfed Australian Wagyu Association Carcase Competition

What you need to know when considering Embryo Transfer with GRS

MOET (Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer) is a breeding technology tool that has been an option in a commercial form for cattle breeders since the 1980's. The basis is the use of a drug called FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) which recruits many of the follicles that are available on the ovary at any particular time and helps them all to grow at once, rather than just the one dominant follicle that grows during a normal cycle.

MOET can be used on heifers from around 10 to 12 months of age, on lactating dairy and beef cows and also on older dry cows that are not in calf. Lactating cows need to be at least 42 days post calving before undergoing a flush procedure and need to have had at least one post calving heat cycle. In the case of beef animals the same criteria applies and it is not necessary to wean the calf off the donor.

Results

Donors can be flushed every 6 to 8 weeks and from each flush a dairy cow should average about 4 transferable embryos. Beef cattle are slightly higher than this and should average around 6 embryos. Heifers generally, can be slightly less than average whilst some donors average well above this number.

The number of embryos collected is affected by many variables.

Firstly, some cows produce large numbers of oocytes (eggs) on their ovary during their natural reproductive cycle. These cows therefore have the natural ability to produce larger numbers of embryos than the cow that has small numbers of oocytes produced. It is often seen that this oocyte production follows cow families. Thus it is often seen that a good embryo producer has often come from a dam that is a good embryo producer, and in turn the progeny often continue this trend. Conversely it occasionally occurs that poor embryo producers continue that trend through their cow family. There are exceptions however as other factors can be responsible for results.

Secondly, time of the year and lactation has an effect. Donors on high protein feed (such as rapidly growing young pasture or clover dominance) along with a peak in lactation are really adverse to reproductive results. Dairymen know that their high production cows are often the hardest to get into calf and this follows with embryo production. We therefore try to slightly modify feeding regimes and work with the owner to map out the best methods of feeding to maximise embryo production.

Thirdly, recipient condition and ovary quality play a role. Recipients are discussed later in this article.

How Does It Work?

A MOET program requires approximately 25 days to undertake. It commences with the insertion of a Controlled Internal Drug Release (CIDR) device into the potential donor, then 5-7 days later the donor commences a series of twice a day FSH injections over 4 days. She is given a Prostaglandin (PG) injection and has the CIDR removed at strategic times over this 4-day period. She will have a ‘heat’ the day after the last FSH injection. At that time she is mated to the preferred sire, using a 2-insemination program. Then 7 days later we undertake the flushing regime.

Flushing a donor animal involves giving it a local anaesthetic or epidural, then the placement of a catheter into the uterine horns. This looks similar to the method used for A.I. We then run some flush fluid into the uterine horns to collect the embryos that are there. Both uterine horns are flushed and the fluid and embryos collected in a specially designed filter. At the completion of the flush, which takes between 20 and 30 minutes per donor, the filter is searched under the microscope and the embryos collected into a small dish. The embryos are graded for both quality and stage of development. At this time they can either be transferred into available recipients or cryo-preserved (frozen) for later use. Frozen embryos can be kept for many years if required.

At the completion of the flush the donor animal is given a PG and she should have a ‘heat’ cycle within 5-7 days. It is important that she does have a ‘heat’ quickly after flushing to return her reproductive tract to a normal condition so heat detection post flush is important.

Recipients

Recipient animals are those females that the embryos from the donor are placed into, either in conjunction with the flush day or later when frozen embryos are used.

A recipient program is easier to carry out than the donor program but usually involves the use of a CIDR to synchronise heat cycles. In the case of transferring fresh embryos on the same day as the flush, we require the recipients to be on heat around the same day as the donor. The only thing we do at this stage is note which ones are on heat and the time of heat. They are then left unmated until the following week when the embryos will be transferred into them.

Not every recipient that has a ‘heat’ will be suitable to have an embryo transferred into it. It can vary from 50% up to 90% usage rate depending upon the condition of the recipients’ ovaries on the day of transfer. Each recipient is palpated and the quality of the ovary response noted. Any recipient that is not suitable is left and not used. Only suitable recipients will have an embryo placed into them.

The pregnancy rate from embryos transferred can vary but a minimum expectation should be 50%. There is a slight variation between fresh and frozen embryos with the frozen rate being up to 10% less than fresh transfers. However the transfer of fresh, high quality embryos into good recipients can result in much higher pregnancy rates.

Recipient selection is very important. Commonly, recipient selection is overlooked by breeders who put up cows they don’t want calves out of themselves, cows that haven't got into calf during the previous joining period or are carryover cows. These are generally among the lower fertility group of the herd and their selection as recipients is reducing the chances of getting high pregnancy rates. Ideally, recipients are the middle of the range cows that are not over fat or giving huge production figures and are fed correctly. In dairy herds, 2-year-old cows in their 1st lactation generally do not make good recipients as this group of cows is under the most pressure.

Selection is not as critical with beef recipients as they do not have the same levels of production pressure on them but again the use of lower fertility recipients will result in lower pregnancy rates.

Both dairy and beef heifers make good recipients. Often dairymen are reluctant to use heifers to put embryos into as they prefer their heifers to carry a beef cross calf or use a smaller bred breed first up, but if that is not a consideration then certainly the use of heifers is possible.

General

We are often asked how many times we can flush a donor. With heifers, the suggestion is to flush them only twice or perhaps 3 times before getting them into calf. With cows you may consider flushing them 3 or 4 times before getting them back into calf. It should be noted that occasionally it might take a little while after the completion of a flushing program to get the donor into calf.

The cost of a MOET program can be calculated from using the figures on the GRS pricelist.

It is important especially when considering MOET for the first time that you go through the whole program with your ET technician prior to program commencement and that you understand what is about to happen. This will ensure you obtain maximum results. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or want further information on any aspect of a MOET program.