Two years ago, I purchased a Scottish Highland heifer named Athena.
What’s funny about that statement is that if you had asked me a few years earlier whether I would ever own a Highland, my answer would have been a hard no.
In fact, when my husband first suggested we get Highlands, I remember telling him, “Absolutely not. I am not having cows with horns.”
As it turns out, he was onto something.
Over the years, I had opportunities to perform ovum pick-up procedures and conventional embryo flushes on several Highlands. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the breed. Their long hair, unique personalities, and striking appearance won me over. Before long, I found myself searching for a Highland female of my own.
That’s when Athena entered the picture.
I remember meeting her for the first time as a calf. She was a beautiful shade of red, curious about everything, and completely unconcerned about personal space. While the other calves kept their distance, Athena was busy searching for scratches and snacks.
Even today, she is still that same “in your pocket” type of animal. She’s the first one to meet you at the gate, the first one looking for treats, and the easiest cow on our farm to handle.
Which makes her the perfect candidate for a very important question:
Can Athena become an IVF donor?
Over the next two blog posts, I’m going to walk you through the entire process, from evaluating her ovaries and selecting a stimulation schedule to collecting oocytes and ultimately finding out how many embryos she produces.
Today, we’ll start at the beginning: why her, what her ovaries are telling me, the bull I’ve selected, and my predictions.
why athena?
Athena was selected as an IVF donor for several reasons. First, she has the kind of temperament I want to be around. She is calm, easy to handle, and always looking for attention. I can walk into the pasture at any time and she is usually the first one to meet me at the gate.
Second, I love her color pattern. She is a beautiful shade of red, one of the original Highland colors, with a white patch that extends from her udder to her naval, and a white switch on her tail. Her sire also carries a brindle pattern which adds another layer of genetic interest.
Finally, Athena and her half-brother have become conversation pieces around our place. If you’re going to make embryos, why not make cattle that people enjoy talking about?
the reproductive exam
Before Athena undergoes an ovum pick up procedure, I wanted to perform a thorough reproductive examination. This information is important not only for IVF, but also because Athena will eventually enter our breeding program. Normally, I perform OPU procedures on much younger or smaller Highland donors. With Athena, however, I intentionally waited until she had more age and maturity. I wanted to be confident she was cycling regularly and that the OPU probe would fit comfortably before moving forward.
My husband and I do not have a chute. I haven’t really needed one and we have a neighbor down the road that would let us borrow his in a pinch. So, before we hauled her to the neighbors I wanted to see if we could squeeze her between some panels and put a bar behind her. I have worked in some sketchy facilities so this was just another day in my life. Was the set up safe? It was safe-ish. Was it functional? Heck yes it was!
The perks of having a docile heifer is that she will usually do what you need her to do with a little extra encouragement (i.e. alfalfa pellets). After a couple tries, we got her into our makeshift “chute” and she happily ate her snacks while I lubed up and went to work.
I palpated her to ensure she had all of the parts of her reproductive tract including a cervix, uterine horns, and ovaries, and that all of her parts were normal. They were.
The next step was assessing her ovaries and determining her antral follicle count (AFC), which is simply a count of the visible follicles present on the ovaries at that moment in time.
As I scanned the first ovary, I started counting. Four. Six. Eight. That was roughly what I was expecting per ovary based on historical breed data. When I finished evaluating both ovaries, I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. We were looking at 16-20 follicles between both ovaries! In general, cows with higher AFCs tend to produce more oocytes and respond better to reproductive technologies such as IVF. Because Highlands are not particularly known for massive follicle counts, I was hoping Athena would be at least average. She is! For a Highland, I was thrilled with that result.
what athena’s ovaries are telling me
Based on her AFC, age, and breed, Athena doesn’t strike me as a future record-breaker. That’s perfectly fine. Not every successful donor starts with a jaw-dropping follicle count. Sometimes the most productive donors are the ones that quietly do their job, aspiration after aspiration.
The corpus luteum confirms she is cycling normally, which is exactly what I hoped to see. Her ovaries appear healthy, her follicle count is respectable for the breed, and nothing about the reproductive exam raises a concern.
What Athena’s ovaries are telling me is that she deserves an opportunity.
bull selection
Choosing the donor is only half the equation. The next question is: who should she be mated to?
Selecting the right bull is every bit as important as selecting the donor. Not every sire works well in the system. Scottish Highland bulls are especially inconsistent performers in IVF. For the first round, I wanted to focus on finding a bull that is calm and friendly with a moderate frame. A unique color in the Scottish Highland world is always a plus. My goal is to create more females for my herd with these embryos.
Admittedly, I had been keeping my eyes peeled for the right bull for about a year. I have a list in my Notes App of potential bulls to pair Athena with! After walking through the aisles of the Iowa State Fair cattle barn during the Scottish Highland show last year and seeing many calves out of BTTR Ironman, I knew that was the bull for this first round.
Ironman is a silver color Scottish Highland bull that checks the boxes of what I am looking for in this IVF session. He also has been used in the IVF system so I have a pretty good idea of his performance.
one more decision
We know the IVF process can be expensive so maximizing the embryo results from each session is ideal. Since this is Athena’s first time running in IVF, I want to see how well she performs without help from follicle stimulating hormone injections. These injections can be expensive.
If she performs well without FSH, then we will continue to work without it; however, if her embryo results are poor, I will consider FSH injections for future collections to improve the quality of her oocytes.
The one thing I do not skip is the application of FerAppease. It is a pheromone known for decreasing cattle’s response to stressful situations and has shown to have positive effects on embryo development rates in donors. Athena will get a dose of FerAppease about 24 hours prior to her OPU session.
my prediction
Based on her AFC, age, breed, and previous Scottish Highland data, I predict:
- 18 oocytes recovered
- 5 total embryos
- 2-3 freezable embryos
The plan is in place. The donor is selected. The semen is purchased. The ovaries have spoken.
Now comes the part every IVF practitioner loves and hates at the same time.
We get to find out whether our predictions are right.
In Part 2, I’ll walk you through Athena’s OPU procedure, show you the ultrasound footage, reveal her oocyte numbers, and compare the embryo results to everything I’ve predicted here.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in reproductive work, it’s this:
Ovaries love surprises.
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