Semen: doses used for artificial insemination
Semen is the fluid that carries sperm cells from a male animal; on the farm it usually means the doses used for artificial insemination. Breeders freeze it in measured doses, each labelled with a bull or ram code. Writing down which dose went into which female ties every offspring to its sire.
How do you trace a lamb back to the semen dose?
For example, a frozen dose from ram 1234 is used on ewe 56 on 3 March. When her lamb is born and registered, its record points back to the same ram, so you can compare the flock's breeding results year after year.
Questions from the farm
Must every dose carry the sire code?
Yes. The code ties each dose to its sire, so you can trace the offspring of that dose later.
How HerdMobile helps
Bring your animals, feed stocks and farm accounts together on your Android phone. HerdMobile keeps your daily work moving offline: record events, compare feed quantities and follow sales and payments in one place. Use your own feeds and herd information to prepare a ration, then keep a backup file under your control.
HerdMobile keeps each animal's sire and the date of every mating or insemination, so you can always see a calf's mother and father. The sire is kept exactly as you enter it, so the family tree comes from your own farm records.
