AS A beef producer, you don't have to use embryo transfer, but you do have to compete with those who are.
That's the philosophy Calfcorp - an ET-recipient herd and business that offers embryo production, management and contract breeding - was built on.
And while ET isn't for every producer, in just three years the demand for artificial-breeding services has seen the Calfcorp herd grow to 1300 predominantly Angus and Angus-cross females.
Last year alone, Calfcorp implanted 1600 fresh and frozen embryos from 11 different breeds.
Herd manager Anthony Nicholls oversees the recipients, which are run across seven properties totalling 1600ha, from Holbrook to Rosewood in southern NSW.
"Our clients range from stud breeders to corporate farmers and a delivery can be anywhere from five to 500 calves," Anthony said.
Some larger clients are commercial beef producers who design their own genetics and use Calfcorp to produce embryos and raise eventual herd bulls.
"For many clients, these calves are their future breeders or sale bulls - we could have the their next top bull or donor cow here now," Anthony said.
The herd calves almost all year round to accommodate for different client requirements and Anthony lists fertility as the biggest driver on farm.
"Managing cow performance - getting body condition right prior to calving and post calving to ensure the herd is as productive as possible - is what's most important," he said.
"An empty cow isn't any good to us."
Although donor and embryo management is co-ordinated from Holbrook, all the implanting is done on farm, in groups of 150 to 400 cows per program. Both fresh and frozen embryos, normally imported from the US, are used.
The recipients are ultrasound scanned at about 28 days, to allow the empties to be identified and reprogrammed early. They are pregnancy tested again at 90 days, to verify their pregnancy status.
Calfcorp then sells back a 90-day pregnancy-tested-in-calf female or a 230-day-old weaned calf, Anthony said.
Software from Sapien Technology captures and manages data for different animals.
Koolcollect - an automated data-collection system that relies on radio-frequency identification readers - is used to capture information on each individual animal in the crush.
This information is then directed into the SuperKool program, which serves as a business-management system and central repository for all of the animal information.
Both programs work with the National Livestock Identification System to meet compliance requirements.
"It's a terrific tool for recipient management - we can keep track of every cow, plus the weight gain and performance of its calf," Anthony said.
With such valuable progeny, all precautions are taken with animal health and biosecurity.
"The herd is run in complete isolation from outside cattle - there are absolutely no bulls in the system and all the cows are ear-notched," he said.
The recipients are mainly Angus and Angus-cross and have been selected for fertility, temperament and soundness.
The contract calves ranged from Brahman-crosses to Wagyu, Holstein, Simmental and everything in between, Anthony said.
"We'll breed whatever our client wants. We custom-design the program for the client, as far as the time of implanting the embryos, delivery date and weights of the calves ... even the sex of the pregnancies, to give the client advanced information on the sex of the resultant offspring," he said.
Since Anthony's appointmentas herd manager six months ago the herd has grown by 200 head.
"It certainly keeps me busy - I pretty much spend every day in the cattle yards," he said.
