Dairy farmers reap fat profits from sexed semen technology

It’s a cold Monday morning and Lenson Njeru, 57, is busy feeding his cows in readiness for the second round of milking on his farm in Mufu village, Embu County.

He tells Climate Action that he milks the cows thrice a day.

For nearly three decades, the father of three has supported his family through dairy farming. While he is currently only interested in keeping heifers - young female cows that have not yet had any offspring - he expresses disappointment over his past experience.  “The biggest challenge in dairy farming is the tendency to produce male calves. It is hard to see an animal giving birth to female calves simultaneously," Mr Njeru tells

Unlike beef farms, dairy farms loath bull calves and seek to dispose them of soon after birth. The reason is that bulls in a dairy farm are very expensive to rear for meat.

Mr Njeru got relieved when he learnt about a technology that allows veterinaries to increase chances of a cow giving birth to female calves through artificial insemination. Scientists refer to this method as sexed semen or gender-selected semen.

"I was forced by circumstances to use sexed semen, and that is when my cow gave birth to a female calf. I also have a heifer that is due to give birth in September, which means that by the end of this year, I will have two cows as products of this technology," he adds. 

The gender of a calf is determined by the sperm that fertilises the mother’s egg. All female eggs contain a genetic material called the X-chromosome. Sexed semen technology enhances the ratio of XX chromosomes to spermatozoa in the straws used by veterinarians to inseminate dairy cows on heat. Once the semen has been harvested from the bull, it goes through a special process to ensure that 90 per cent of the spermatozoa in a straw contain XX chromosomes. 

The technology helps farmers eliminate the cost of keeping a bull while at the same time enjoying the privilege of selecting the breed of their choice from all over the world and have it shipped to them.

Our next stop is at Kiangugi village, where Laban Mwaniki, 38, explains that the first cow he used the sexed semen on last year recently gave birth to twin female calves. “That morning I went to milk the cows as I normally do and noticed that the cow was showing signs of giving birth. As I continued milking, it delivered the first female calf and by the time I was done and leaving for the market to sell milk, it gave birth to the second female calf,” Mr Mwaniki narrates.

The father of two says that getting twin female calves has boosted his dairy farming venture. “This is a good breed of calves and I am not worried about the cost of taking care of them. I hope that the twin female calves reoccur in the future,” says Mr Mwaniki. The adoption of the technology by many dairy farmers is attributed to their desire to eliminate the number of male calves born when they use conventional semen. 

By embracing the technology, some dairy farmers like Ebenezer Gakuo, 29, a dairy farmer and CEO at Kid Farm in Kikuyu, Kiambu County, have cut down on the cost of keeping bulls while increasing their herds of dairy cows and quantity of milk over the years.

“I started with four heifers, which I reared properly and served them using sexed semen. They gave birth to female calves and now I have more than 20 heifers,” he says.

However, the sexed sperm technology has not been successful for all farmers.

Mr Joseph Njeru, 65, says he was let down by the technology, which he also terms expensive in comparison to the local semen that he has been using for decades. 

"I used the technology but my cow gave birth to a male calf. I can buy a straw of local conventional semen at between Sh1,000 –Sh1,200, whereas imported conventional semen varies in price ranging from Sh2,000 – Sh3,000 per straw. On the other side, a straw of sexed semen costs more than Sh5,000," says Mr Njeru. Dr John Kamau, a veterinarian from Embu County, notes that sexed semen technology does not work on all cows. He says the technology works better on high fertility rate cows. "We insist that farmers rear their breeds instead of buying animals whose history they don't know well because some are problematic in terms of conception,” says Dr Kamau. According to Dr Kamau, farmers should retain calves whenever their cows give birth. This helps them to identify the right animal for the sexed semen technology. “An animal whose placenta has been removed or has had difficulties expelling it after delivery becomes a poor candidate for gender-selected semen. Further, there are chances that if a bull is used to serve several cows, it may be acting as a carrier for some venereal diseases, which can reduce the fertility of the cow,” warns Dr Kamau. He further encourages farmers to understand the ovulation cycle of their cows and monitor heat signs accurately before calling a veterinary for artificial insemination.

“A normal cow comes on heat every 21 days but the farmer might only realise this after they notice some clear discharge. In such cases, they should count eight hours after the onset of the heat before they are served,” says Dennis Macharia, an animal health technician.

Prior to the introduction of the technology, dairy farmers used to depend on bulls for natural mating, but this has its share of problems, which includes spreading diseases easily. Through artificial insemination, scientists say dairy farmers obtain semen extracted from good traits of bulls through genetic selection process. 

However, the semen, whether sexed or conventional, has to be preserved at a temperature below (negative) -196 degrees Celsius. This condition is achieved by using liquid nitrogen, a volatile gaseous substance used for cold storage. A veterinarian removes a single straw from the liquid nitrogen when ready to serve the cow.

“Anytime you remove biological material from liquid nitrogen, you have approximately 15 seconds to use it. That is why a veterinary needs liquid nitrogen to be always present to conserve what is unused,” says Dr Chris Silali, CEO and founder of GenePlus.

GenePlus is one of the private organisations providing sexed semen technology across the country. The Nairobi-based organisation uses a last-mile service delivery model to increase the penetration rate of the technology among dairy farmers in rural areas. It also supplies liquid nitrogen to farmer cooperatives and veterinarians.

“We are addressing the adoption challenge by shortening the supply chain while passing the benefits from the shortened chain to the farmer at subsidised rates,” adds Dr Silali.

Despite Kenya supporting the use of sexed semen technology, it relies on imports, according to Bernard Kimoro, head of climate change and livestock sustainability in the Agriculture ministry.

“Sometimes we get genetic material which once inseminated into our animals, the offspring that come out encounter challenges when not well taken care of  because our environment is different from where the semen was obtained. When we start producing sexed semen locally, we will address the local issues around breeding,” Mr Kimoro tells Climate Action. 
 

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