TEN REASONS WHY I PREFER VAI OVER LAI
Vaginal Artificial Insemination, (VAI)
Vs. Laparoscopic Artificial Insemination, (LAI)
1.) Top of the list! LAI is an intrusive procedure requiring the ewe to be flipped over, restrained, tilted upside down, and then a pipette being inserted through her abdominal wall. It is uncomfortable and scary for her, and potentially dangerous as well. Ewes can be injured or very rarely, even killed. VAI requires only a pipette being inserted into the vagina and quickly withdrawn. There is no pain involved as this is the same entry designed for the breeding ram, and the ewe is only minimally restrained for the few seconds it takes to breed her. Many ewes just eat cheerfully through the event and barely notice the handling.
2.) VAI can be done by the farmer and does not require hiring a vet or a technician. Huge savings on the vet bill! The VAI seminar of course has a cost attached, but the learning accomplished there is for a lifetime, while the LAI vet has to be paid every year. The cost of the seminar is still less than the cost of one year’s vet bill for LAI.
3.) VAI is done on the ewe’s natural cycle, and no hormones are required. Hormones are expensive, often difficult to find, and are usually in short supply. We did LAI here for 5 years before we made the switch to VAI, and there was not a year of the LAI but we were anxious about the hormones being available, and having enough to prep all the ewes on our AI list.
4.) Hormones are unpredictable to use in terms of their effect on fertility. Some ewes have an enormous bump in fertility and some ewes suffer a decreasing effect. Ewes sometimes get resistant to the effect of the hormones, requiring that a higher dose be used the next year, and yet too high a level of the hormones will also have a decreasing effect. With some ewes having too many lambs and some ewes having too few, the LAI procedure is a feeding nightmare for the gestation season.
5.) LAI is all or nothing. In general, farmers learn quickly not to put all of their eggs in one basket, yet with the LAI your entire year’s crop of AI lambs is riding on the one day. If it is a successful day, then you will get AI lambs in the spring. But if there is any kind of a glitch, then you may get NO AI lambs for the year. If the hormone levels were off, or if they were not potent for some reason, or if there was a glitch in the equipment, or even if the LAI Vet has had a bad day, then all of your AI pregnancies are at risk. With VAI being done all throughout the breeding season, if the farmer has an off day for VAI, then she doesn’t get lambs from that one session. But there is another opportunity tomorrow, and the next day, and the next week, all throughout the breeding season. You will never find yourself with all of your AI lambs in one egg basket.
6.) VAI requires very little equipment compared to LAI, and what you do need is very inexpensive. Both techniques require the use of a nitrogen tank and of course the straws, but beyond that, VAI needs only a pipette, the plastic sheaths, a thermometer, a thermos, and a pair of tweezers. All easily purchased online, all inexpensive. LAI also requires the tweezers, as well as the cradles, the hormones, a CO2 tank, disinfectant, shears to shave the belly, not to mention all of the AI equipment that the LAI vet will need to carry to your farm and then pack up.
7.) VAI requires very little in the way of farm labor. If you set up a very small AI pen, not much larger than the ewe herself, VAI can be done with NO farm labor, other than you, the farmer. I routinely do the VAI by myself. On LAI day, you will need to hire in a number of helpers as you are trying to complete a complicated and finicky procedure on a lot of ewes in one session. There are two people to catch the ewe, roll her into the cradle, restrain her, and prep her belly. There is someone at the gate to assist them. There is at least one person in the warm room prepping the semen, and one or two people assisting the AI vet. And if you want to speed up the process with two cradles, then you will need that many more helpers for the day.
8.) VAI is done on the ewes’ natural cycles, spread over a season, so there is never a huge clump of ewes lambing all at one time. They are interspersed throughout the lambing season which can be handled in the normal course of lambing events.
9.) Because there is not an unnatural bump in fertility, ewes do not have more lambs than they would in a normal season. Their system is not stressed beyond what they were built to handle during lambing and lactation. Yes, it is nice to get triplets rather than twins out of the same straw, but with VAI you will never find yourself helping a ewe either birth or feed her multiples that she would never have had on her own. It is much less stressful for both of you! VAI can unfortunately have a depressing effect on fertility, but in contrast, you will never find yourself stressing your treasured ewes with an unnatural workload.
10.) By doing the heat checks at least twice a day, you will catch EVERY ewe when she enters her heat and can decide to breed her either VAI or naturally. We have started doing all of our breeding this way, detecting the heats and then breeding her according to the breeding plan. When the teaser ram finds a ewe in heat that is on the list for a farm ram, I move her into a small pen for 12 or 24 hours, bring her the assigned ram, and then move her on to the bred ewe pen. Instead of paddock or pasture breeding all my ewes on the farm breeding list, by hand breeding them this way, I know the breeding date of each and every one of my ewes, which is VERY helpful at lambing time. This also skips the entire setting up, feeding separately, and breaking down, of all the pens or paddocks that are usually required during breeding season, and we all know how labor intensive that is!
11.) VAI always gives you another chance, until you decide that the VAI season is over. If you have a favorite ewe that you just must get AI lambs from, and she recycles after her first AI breeding, then you can catch her again the next cycle. I often get ewes to catch the second time, or even the third. With the all or nothing of LAI, whoever recycles after AI day, will not give you AI lambs that year. With VAI, you can decide to either AI her again, or you can decide that her AI season is over and give her a ram. The flexibility is wonderful.
12.) And my favorite reason, VAI requires you to follow closely the ewes’ natural cycles and you will find yourself becoming closely tuned to their heat cycles in a way that will surprise you. You will find yourself learning how they behave as they approach their heat, when they are in full standing heat, and when their heats are passing by. In contrast, you will feel like you were blind to your ewes and their behavior, before you learned VAI. You will have a fresh appreciation for your ewe flock, for their differences and similarities, and even for your rams.
I see now that my list of ten reasons has stretched out to twelve! ~ I was hesitant to try the VAI at first, feeling like at least I knew and understood what was required for LAI, but now after five years of LAI and five years of VAI, I will never go back. The ease of the procedure, for me and for my ewes, the low cost and the flexibility, and for all the other reasons listed here, I am a permanent convert to VAI. The freedom from the LAI vet and the feeling of controlling my own farm destiny is a wonderful thing. I send a fervent “Thank you!” to Thorsteinn for designing the VAI process and for so generously sharing his knowledge with us, as well as to Mundi for organizing it all and helping to make it all possible. ~ Thanks Guys!
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