Learning more about technology

By Barb Lumley

As a registered Holstein breeder and dairy farmer, many years ago I first learned about the abbreviation of two capital letters, A and I, and their meaning back then. They stood for “artificial insemination.” It was a newly discovered way of inseminating dairy cows and getting them pregnant without the need for a live bull on the farm. The bulls from each dairy breed were housed in special facilities in several areas. Semen was collected from them, put into vials, and immediately transported to areas where dairy farmers were located. The semen had to be used within a certain period of time and, in the early days, was transported by airplane and dropped where the local men working as inseminators received it. The choices were usually limited to two or three bulls. Over the years tremendous progress has been made in artificial insemination and it is used on many types of animals.… Continue reading