CPT AI Progress Well

• As of today (Friday 21st) we have artificially inseminated 1,800 ewes as part of the 2016 CPT programme. The AI has gone very well. In general our CPT rams have performed well from a jumping and semen provision point of view, with a small number of exceptions. There have also been incidences where individual ram’s semen has not been of adequate quality for AI on a particular day, this is just the nature of dealing with breeding rams.
• On Monday 17th, CPT AI took place in two different locations, on the farm of Andrew Moloney, Edenderry, Co. Offaly and in UCD Lyons Estate, Newcastle, Co. Kildare. Click here to see some footage from Andrew’s farm on the day

CPT Ram Semen Freezing and Storage

• As part of our arrangement with breeders who make rams available for our CPT programme annually, Sheep Ireland agree to freeze 25 doses of semen for each ram. If breeders would like more than 25 doses of semen, they can request this, but the cost of these extra straws must be covered by the breeder
• The storage of this CPT semen is now becoming an issue for Sheep Ireland as stocks build each year. More and more AI flasks are required annually to house this semen and this is unsustainable. For this reason we will be encouraging any breeders that have their own AI tank to take any semen held by Sheep Ireland on their behalf. Sheep Ireland will agree to hold 25 doses per breeder for a period of 3 years after which the breeder in question will need to make arrangements to store the semen themselves. Over the past number of weeks Sheep Ireland has been making contact with past CPT breeders to notify them of this change in procedure.