We use Angus bulls in our pasture Jan – Mar for breeding. Is there a way to ensure production of more bull calves than heifers?
I’m not aware of a predictable way to ensure more of one sex of calf verses the other sex via natural service. Females are xx and Males are xy so at each conception there is a 50% chance of a male or female calf. There is and has been a lot of research on sexing semen. In this research they collect the bull and use a technique(s) to separate the x and y chromosomes. Following is an excerpt from an article from the 2003 Range Beef Cow Symposium on sexed semen: There is no commercially available method for sexing semen, but there is a method that works under laboratory conditions. X-chromosome-bearing bull sperm (which lead to females) have about 4% more DNA than Y-chromosome-bearing ones (which lead to males). By placing sperm in a solution of DNA-binding dye, X-chromosome-bearing sperm become more brightly stained than Y-chromosome-bearing sperm. By use of lasers plus a device called a cell sorter, it is possible to separate the sperm into three test tubes, male, female, and unsexable
