Semen from harvested mule deer

Searched on forum and found some 2010 topics similar. Curious if there is new knowledge. We are anticipating tags in some great mule deer country this season. If it was practical we want to be prepared to draw semen as soon as we get out of camp. Any good procedures out there for post mortem recovery of the parts needed , how to cool, how much time do we have . Really looking to add some new genetic to our mule deer herd. Thanks

I suggest sending it to Jack Schubarth, he has done lots of post mortem collections. I have used plenty of mule deer semen that he has personally packed, it has always been excellent quality. 

Check with your vet who does collects for you. Also Jack S. from MT has experience in this area. He frequents the forums, hopefully he will pick this up for you.

In my opinion you only have 30 hours to draw the semen from the testicles.  Of course time is against you and the sooner you collect the better.   My thinking is the acrosome which covers the head of the sperm will deteriorate after the death of the animal somewhere in that time period making the collection worthless when left in the testicles.  The enzymes that cover the head of semen digests the egg wall for the sperm to enter the egg for fertilization.  I have seen very motile semen but it made no pregnancies because the acrosome had deteriorated.  I used post mortem semen this year and had 65 % to 90% conception in the groups.  We did ultra sound to check for pregnancies.


Your comment you would draw as soon as you get out of camp will cause problems for you.


I suggest you make the collection as soon as you get back to camp, extend it and place it in some ice. This will allow you way more time for someone to process it.   Here is what I mean by put it in ice.  With extender there is no problem putting it on ice.  I place the extended semen in it's sealed container in a small amount of water which is in another jar.  This gives no real contact to the ice.  This semen when chilled will last longer without the problem from the acrosome and should extend your time for collection and processing.  You may email me at [email protected].  Here are some pictures I found to help you.

Can you expect a good semen draw on an august or early sept harvest. That is always our best shot at the big ones in Colorado, Utah, and North Dakota

On wild deer I have not collected very good collections in August or early Sept. only 4 straws or none.

This is our mule deer we live collected this fall in the peak of the rut here in SD. I plan on breeding about 20 whitetail does next fall. My buddy did it successfully Ai'ing both whitetail buck to mule deer doe and mule deer buck to half breed doe. Everyone I talked to about using post mortem semen told me to not  waste the time and money, It's not worth it for the small chance it may take. That made enough sense to me. I cant wait to get some crosses and then breed back to mule deer. The last 2 bucks are half brothers at 4 years old.

sdbigbucks,


You must have missed my post above.  We ai'd 90 plus animals with post mortem semen this last fall in groups of thirty.  We ultra sounded them at 42 days with the following results 65%, 75% and 90%.  I'm sure some of these fetuses will be absorbed because of crossing two breeds but these numbers prove post mortem semen will result in as good of conception results as live collected semen if the semen has good forward motility and has good semen concentration of at least 30 million cells.. I put this post mortem semen up personally myself so knew the semen was as good if not better than live collected semen. 


Very nice looking bucks by the way.

I'm never that interested in finding out who is pregnant.  The ultra sound was to determine who was pregnant at 42 days and then see how many  carried the fetus to full term.  If we find out many fetuses were absorbed we plan to try to support the fetuses next year after AI.  My Vet will be working on this when I give him a report on number of fetuses carried to full term.  Just a FYI why we did ultra sound in the first place.

Jack, That would be a descent success rate average with any semen. I would be interested in some of those doe offspring. What do you figure was the difference in the conception rates of the 3 groups, timing, semen quality, animal condition? Every year we have some bucks shot in the area that would be worthy of getting a semen collection from but it would look to me like all the stars would have to align to have it work out on timing and having the right person who shoots the buck be prepared and willing to go thru the steps. Thanks for the compliments on the bucks Jack, I wish I had raised them but I just had the opportunity to buy one. I'm afraid if these game & fish departments don't pull their heads out of their a$$ess and get these predator numbers under control instead of managing FOR them, the wild mule deer will be a thing of the past.

Over all I have been a little dissatisfied with the AI program for deer.  I have been making changes to the program.  I believe we are getting closer to a program that will increase conception.  I need another AI season to confirm my results which I will share with everyone at that time.


Yes the game & fish really are only interested in dead animals or monitoring why they die.  Just this last month I found the wild bighorns main problem for them going to over 2000 head to around 400 head from pneumonia as the final reason to die in my area.  While watching a group of wild sheep I realized they had parasite's and really bad.  I went over to collect some fecal material and right away I found tape worm segments on the stool.  I did a float and found many types of intestine worms.  People who raise livestock know when a worm load gets very high the animals immune system is suppressed and then the animal will get something like pneumonia and die.  The lamb crop out of thirty adult ewes was 2 lambs not even enough to hold the herd numbers up.  I explained to the game & fish that the lambs were born with worms which killed them by two months old.  As I have rocky Mountain bighorns I told them the only thing they will eat is salt protein blocks.  They could treat these sheep for worms by adding a wormer like safeguard or valbazen to the block.  I contacted ADM and they said they could make a block like that.  I was then told by the game & fish thanks for the option but they really just monitor animal health in wild animals.  I really think information from a game farmer was just dismissed.  I'm very disgusted they will not help these sheep by going to the easiest problem to fix why these sheep are dying which is just helping these sheep have a better immune system to help them from dying from pneumonia.  I've always said the game & fish only know how to handle dead animals and darn sure not live ones.

91 finished out great, I had the opportunity to work with those deer this spring. Ben has some great genetics.  

Looks like maybe I should work something out with SDBigbucks on semen or a swap of ? Those are some nice bucks. I assume the "friend" you and Snowman are referring to is Ben Doty?

Yes, you are correct Arrowed1. The foundation of the herd Ben works with is out of Canada. I'm sure SD could fill you in more.  

I have semen available from these bucks at this time.  The red tags are 2yr olds. Red 4 is out of the only 300inch mule deer ever raised in captivity. Red 13 has 5 200+ inch 4yrolds in his line and scores 154. Yellow 98 scored 210 at 4yrs and his mass is unbelievable.  I also have coming yearling bucks available that are sons of Red 4. Yellow 98. and Yellow 90.


 


 


http://www.cedarbreaksmuledeer.com

Yellow 90 (Crazy Horse) sons coming yearlings available.