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STRESS IN DAIRY COWS. "There is substantial evidence that fertility of the modern dairy cow is getting lower with increasing milk yields. Our inability to appropriately feed and house high-yielding cows is leading to increased stress and thus a failure to meet genetic potential for yield and fertility." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2854809/ View in LinkedIn

SHORT DURATION BEFORE WITHDRAWAL. rBGH (rBST) was approved for Monsanto for commercial use by the FDA (in 1993), and in other countries, but "rBST has not been allowed on the market in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel or the European Union since 2000. Part of the heated controversy was around labeling. http://lnkd.in/bc36Qsd View in LinkedIn

ESTROUS MANIPULATION followed by artificial insemination in the majority of food animals is a highly artificial state designed for farming efficiency. Despite having created a situation far from that in nature, there is a silence in the literature regarding any negatives about this practice, excepting stress and diminished fertility. View in LinkedIn

WHY rBGH WAS USED IN CATTLE: rBST administration increases the amount and duration of milk production in dairy cows by up regulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF). http://lnkd.in/bc36Qsd View in LinkedIn

EFFICIENT ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION "Estrous synchronisation enables the farmer to reduce costs ... of AI. Concentrated calving and uniform weaning saves time and is cheaper than having individual cows in heat throughout the year." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrous_synchronization View in LinkedIn

SYNCHRONIZED ESTROUS CYCLES in farm animals is used to make artificial insemination more efficient for the farmer. "There are three primary groups of products used to synchronize estrus or ovulation in beef cattle: prostaglandins, progestins, and gonadotropins." http://beef.unl.edu/learning/estrussynch.shtml View in LinkedIn

ESTROUS SYNCHRONIZATION IN CATTLE is achieved by hormone injections to control and reschedule estrous cycle (for timed artificial insemination), resulting in grouped and younger calving, and shorter breeding season. In some cases, super ovulation and embryo transfer to surrogates is used. http://lnkd.in/dWC4spV View in LinkedIn

CLONING OF CATTLE EMBRYOS. "Cloning animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer is simply inefficient. The success rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 3 percent, Cloned animals that do survive tend to be much bigger at birth than their natural counterparts. The clones look like the originals, and their DNA sequences are identical, (but) It is up to the scientist to reprogram the nucleus." http://lnkd.in/b9B289s View in LinkedIn

IN VITRO PRODUCTION OF CATTLE EMBRYOS for "low cost mass production of beef cattle embryos that will improve the commercial value of calves produced in dairy breeds" has progressed immensely since the first in vitro calf was born in 1981. This includes successful embryo cryopreservation and large scale production of embryos. http://lnkd.in/b8UH2dW View in LinkedIn

EMBRYO TRANSFERS. "The principal benefit of embryo transfer is the possibility to produce several progeny from a female, just as AI can produce many offspring from one male. For example the average lifetime production of a cow can be increased from 4 to 25 calves." http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/ilri/x5473b/x5473b05.htm View in LinkedIn