Farming Talk: 2013 has been a good year for sheep embryo numbers
Autumn is by far our busiest time of year with selling rams, delivering rams and, most importantly, getting the ewes in lamb to produce next year's lamb crop.
During this autumn rush our most stressful days are when we do our Embryo Transfer programmes.
"ET" is the sheep equivalent of IVF in humans and has played a critical role in the expansion of our flock. Back in 2006 we started by importing 60 frozen Suffolk embryos from New Zealand which were implanted into our UK ewes and which produced the following year 15 pure NZ Suffolk ram lambs and 10 NZ Suffolk ewe lambs. Further imports of embryos over the following two years formed the basis of our flock which has grown to 400 pure NZ Suffolk ewes. This rapid expansion has only been possible through continued use of ET.
The actual mechanics of ET involve the use of hormones to produce more eggs within the "donor ewes" that once fertilised are transferred to surrogate mums ("recipients"). This very technical process is carried out by a specialised vet.
Our own wizard – Ian – is an Australian vet who is acknowledged to be the world's best and who works for three months in the UK each year and the rest of the year in the southern hemisphere. This year we have had a truly international team with Ian being assisted by Sollie – an embryologist from Argentina
The most stressful time for me is waiting for the embryologist to tell me how many embryos we have recovered from each donor because while we hope to average eight per donor the actual numbers can range from zero to 20-plus. Anyway 2013 has been a good year with over 420 embryos implanted from 51 donors
Talking of stress, I am busy rehearsing for what my family are calling "Dad's Oscars Night;" having entered a competition run by a national farming paper for the "Sheep Innovator of the Year". I have been lucky enough to reach the last three and the winner will be announced at a large glitzy dinner this week.
As I am convinced I will not win, I am in an intense training routine: Learning to smile when I am really disappointed, just as you see the stars doing on the telly at slightly more glamorous events!
Robyn Hulme of Pikesend Farm, Ellesmere, is founder of "Easyrams", the UK's only NZ Suffolk breeders.
