Week 1

For my genius hour project I am going to learn how to flush and implant an embryo in cows. I chose to research this because I am almost certain that I will be studying Animal Science as I continue my education, and this would only benefit me as I move forward. I also really enjoy all things cattle related, especially reproduction. Lately, I have been hearing more and more about this process, so I decided genius hour would be a great opportunity to learn more about this topic.

My first week included a Shark Tank pitch to the class. This was a very short presentation that we completed to begin our genius hour projects. In this introduction we included what we were going to do, why we chose our project, our process, and how we would determine if our projects were a success. I found this to be a cool way to somewhat formally announce what each of us are doing for our project. The most challenging part of this, for me, was creating my process. I was uncertain how to break down everything I needed to learn about into eight weeks. I finally decided to learn about one or two steps in the process each week, in chronological order. In order to learn more in depth, I will be looking at more than just the general over view. This will help me understand more, and allow me to connect this to other content as I go.

I began a little bit of research this week as well. My goal was to determine why a producer wold be interested in an embryo transfer, and what the cost would be. I found that many times producers use this process to increase the generic merit in a herd. Embryo transfers allow the best cows to utilize more of their superior genes. The eggs from these high quality females can be donated to less superb cows. These cows will then have a calf that carries the DNA of the more exceptional cow. These offspring can then be kept to increase the quality of genes present in a herd. Through this process, you are able to weed out the lower preforming cows. I also found that the price of an embryo transfer greatly varies from place to place. From what I was able to find, the cost was about $500-$600 per transfer. To break it down further, the flushing of embryos is about $200-$300, the shots are about $150, the embryo itself is about $70, and the straw of semen is about $40. All of these prices are averages and do not include any extra costs each facility may charge.

My first obstacle this week came way sooner than I anticipated. I thought I had more time than I did, but the due date crept up on me rather quickly. However, I sat down and managed to meet my goals for the week. I found researching the cost to be my biggest challenge this week. Every place I looked had different prices, and sometimes they even had totally different items they charged for. I ended up taking an average from a few different sites to come up with a pretty rough estimate. I also used the more common items that were present on a large majority of the bills I looked at. Overall, I think my week was a success, and I believe I am off to a good start with this project so far.