The demand for livestock in Cesar has made it necessary to evaluate the birth rate of cattle. In this sense, an initiative has been implemented to carry out fertility tests on bulls from the different livestock areas of the department. With this project it was determined that out of 2,000 bulls that were evaluated in 2020, 440 were infertile, in addition that 20% of these livestock were used as fertilizers despite the fact that they had low sperm production.
According to Hanzel Hortua, the coordinator of the program for the Implementation of Fertility Tests in Small and Medium Livestock Bulls in Cesar, most producers do not know for sure which bulls are suitable for the fertilization of cows, because they are Few of them perform a fertility test on these cattle.
Faced with this difficulty, the Government of Cesar and the Center for Technological Development, CDT, a Cesar farmer, reactivated this program in 2020 with the purpose of improving the genetics of herds through testing of producing bulls.
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In that order of ideas, Hortua specified that the molecular markers for the genetic improvement of cattle are: Kappa-casein, (K-CN); Beta-lactoglobulin, (B-LGB); and Beta-casein, (B-CN), so yesterday the Government of Cesar and CDT again signed the agreement to start between the end of July and the beginning of August of this year fertility tests to 2,000 bulls in order to continue identifying the fertile ones. and infertile and the very fertile “That can be used to replicate their genetics”.
“With the tests, you can determine the specific animals that are responsible for improving milk quality and that are suitable for reproduction. Also with these data, small and medium producers will be able to reliably know what numbers of cattle they have for fertilization without falling into economic losses “Hortua commented.
According to the project report, 440 infertile bulls stopped producing approximately 8,800 offspring during 2020, whereas a bovine with reproductive power can fertilize 25 cows and produce up to 20 offspring in the same period, thus demonstrating the need to reproduce. the types of genes that allow bovine repopulation in the department.
He explained that the cattle are evaluated directly in the field by means of a physical examination, taking their respective biometric measurements, examination of genital organs and evaluation of the semen. Thus limiting that during the 2020 study they found that of the evaluated bulls 51% correspond to the Brahman breed, 14% to the Gyr, 6% to the Girolando, 5% to the Simbra, 3% to the Guzerat , 3% to the Simental and 18% to others.
THE THIRD ATTEMPT?
It is the third time in the last 10 years that this program has been implemented for the improvement of cattle genetics in Cesar. The project was born in 2011 with the commitment to be carried out sequentially to obtain better results in bovine repopulation with transfer of genetic material, but it was not carried out.
According to the coordinator of the program for the Implementation of Fertility Tests in Small and Medium Livestock Bulls in Cesar, the initiative was reactivated in 2013, where 2,001 bulls were evaluated, and in 2014 the fertility test was applied to 2,148 bovines. After that intervention, five years passed before the project was resumed, so some farmers “They lost confidence in the process of genetic improvement of livestock”.
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Luis Rueda, a rancher from the municipality of Agustín Codazzi, commented that the projects in the field depend more on politics than on the improvement of economic activity, indicating that the initiatives are “Truncated by differences between administrations”, and the producers are adrift because the process is not continued.
“It is useless if the genetic improvement project is implemented for one or two years but it will reach a period of four years. It is not possible that the repopulation of cattle with high characteristics for milk production will be achieved if it is interrupted by political interests “said Rueda.
Likewise, the president of the Board of Directors of Fedegán, Oscar Daza Laverde, pointed out that the lack of continuity in the project in previous years delays the genetic improvement process. He added that the union would like the program to be continuous because it is not fully effective if it is interrupted again.
By: Namieh Baute Barrios / EL PILÓN
@namiibb
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