50 is no age – for frozen sperm

One of the museum's rare shorthorn cows of the Lyngen tribe.

One of the museum's rare shorthorn cows recently underwent a different fertilization when she was inseminated with frozen sperm from a bull born in 1961. This took the form of a frozen sperm pill that had already celebrated its 50th anniversary.

As you know, they say that love has no age - whether this expression can also be used for bull semen in pill form, we will soon learn more when, hopefully in 2023, we can report on the arrival of a new small shorthorn calf from the Lynge tribe.

The reason why such old bull semen was used is to be found in the very small stock of individuals of the Lynge strain. At the museum we only have cows, not bulls, and to avoid inbreeding we chose the old bull. And now we are crossing our fingers that it will be successful, as there are only about 30 other cows of this breed in all of Denmark.

The technique of using sperm in pill form is also outdated and is no longer used – and in fact hasn't been for a long time. That's why it was also a very special day for the inseminator who was responsible for the insemination. Because this was the first time in more than 20 years that he inseminated with the help of a pill, as nowadays only tubes are used.

The technique of using sperm in pill form was introduced to the receiving cows back in the mid-60s – and in the 70s the next technique was ready, switching to tubes instead. However, both methods still use freezing the sperm in nitrogen – to ensure the possibility of thawing it again while it still has some juice and power left in it.

But here at the Green Museum we work to preserve the old Danish livestock breeds, which is why we hope that the Lynge tribe can also soon be transferred to newer technology – and a new batch of semen will come from the Lynge tribe's bulls, which have a slightly younger date.