In Vitro Fertilization

Now offering an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) program with on-farm services, Pipestone Veterinary Services is one of only 12 accredited satellite OPU sites with Boviteq a world leader in research and embryo technologies.

On farm IVF provides convenience for commercial producers who wish to capitalize on superior genetics in a cost effective manner. Oocytes are collected from the donor animals at your farm and shipped overnight in maturation media to Boviteq’s lab where they are fertilized, cultured, and returned to the farm for transfer.

This eliminates the need to haul your donors to a distant collection facility reducing trucking and housing costs, stress on donors, and exposure to other animals/diseases. The resulting embryos are implanted 1 week later into inferior animals or frozen thus improving the genetics of the herd.

Is IVF Right for Me?
  • Do you have genetically superior cows or heifers?
  • Do you have excess heifers?
  • Do you want to remain competitive in today’s dairy economy?
  • Do you have a passion for herd improvement and profitability?
Why IVF Over Traditional ET? 6 Reasons…
  • With IVF, donors can be collected every two weeks from OPU versus every six to eight weeks with conventional flushing.
  • IVF can be performed on pregnant cows, and on donors as young as 7 months of age, eliminating the need to take a donor out of production to get multiple offspring from her.
  • Failure rate (producing zero embryos) is considerably lower with IVF than with conventional embryo recovery.
  • Sexed semen can be used to fertilize the oocytes with much greater reliability than in conventional flushing.
  • IVF is a more efficient use of rare or expensive semen as multiple donors’ oocytes can be fertilized with a single unit of semen versus two to three in conventional flushing.
  • IVF allows for reverse-sorting semen, allowing you fertilize with desired gender.

We’re happy to discuss your options and what’s best for your operation.

For questions, contact Dr. Brett Kroeze at 507.215.2510 or brett.kroeze@pipestone.com