In Nicaragua, according to official data as of 2018, on average a cow produced 3.76 liters per day. But with the help of technology, an animal has the potential to produce 24 liters, which shows the enormous challenge for the local livestock sector to make use of new scientific techniques to increase not only dairy but also meat production, especially in times when climate change demands greater resilience capacity for agricultural activities.
Vernon Halleslevens, specialist in in vitro fertilization, explains that since 20016 in Nicaragua they have been working on the issue, but due to the political crisis of 2018 and the health care of 2020 they were forced to pause, but this year they have decided to reopen the Nicaraguan Institute of Biotechnology and Animal Reproduction (Inbra), which is precisely promoting the use of in vitro insemination to boost production.
“We started work in the second half of 2016, all of 2017 we worked well, but in 2018 with what happened, the laboratory had to close then we started in 2019, already more fully, but then with the pandemic there we did again a pause. In 2017 when we started it was not so cheap and only large farmers were those who could access, now we are making another type of format to lower costs, here there are quite a few calves and calves born from the in vitro fertilization technique ”, explains Halleslevens .
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30 calves from the same cow
But what is this technology that can allow not only to raise dairy but meat productivity on farms? The specialist explains that in vitro fertilization is nothing more than the extraction “of eggs from a cow, they are brought to the laboratory and those eggs are fertilized with the semen that you want and once embryonic development begins, you place that embryo in discharge. quality in a recipient cow, a commercial cow, a surrogate mother, that carries it in her womb for nine months until she calves it, although it is not its biological mother and there you will have a purebred calf ”.
It indicates that the cow that is an egg donor does not get pregnant, because it has to be giving the eggs, in such a way that a cow can have up to 30 calves in a year using surrogate bellies.
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The specialist points out that it has been shown that this technique does not affect genetics, on the contrary, it improves production yields.
“For example in dairy cattle, you can improve in such a way that the national average at this time is 3.5 to 4 liters per animal, with this technique (genetic improvement) you can get 20 or 24 liters per day, so instead if you have 100 animals that produce 300 liters, you can have about 20 animals that will produce the same for you, eat less, spend less and yield more, “he said.
As for meat, it indicates that for an animal to reach 400 kilos it has to spend more than four years and with genetic improvement to reach 400 kilos in a period of between 18 and 24 months, that is to say “you shorten the process ”.
Inbra, which is located at kilometer 9.5 Carretera a Masaya, will reopen this month with the expectation that the institute will achieve more influence on bovine genetic improvement.
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“We are going to start with in vitro fertilization, then little by little we can see the freezing of semen, of embryos, but initially only that, because remember that we come from two crises. We are the only center in Nicaragua, there is one in Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador does not have it, nor does Guatemala and Panama have two centers ”.
According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, until 2018 in Nicaragua there were 5.48 million head of cattle. Of this, 1.28 million were calves less than one year old; another 718,000 were animals between one and two years old. In addition, 763,272 were recorded in heifers and steers between two and three years old.
Heifers older than three years numbered 382,327; steers over three years old reached 186,689. In addition, only 1.25 million were calved heifers, among others.
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