First Day of AI/ET Training

We arrived at Adami Tulu this morning for our AI/ET training session. As we were about to start, I asked if we could start with prayer. We had Christians and Muslims in the group, so I stood up and said that it was our custom to invite the help of God or Allah. One of our team prayed for us. The meeting went incredibly well, and I feel that its success is in large part because we took time to invite the Lord to be with us.

The first half of the day was on Artificial Insemination (AI). Before going into the details, we had a lengthy discussion about the economics of genetic improvement and the critical role that proper nutrition has in reaching the genetic potential. I think that that discussion may have been the most important part of the day because they began to think about the economics of utilizing the various resources that they have. AI might be a good tool to use for some farmers but others might have more success improving in other areas.

For lunch we drove to Zeway and ate at the tourist hotel restaurant. One member of the group ordered Dura Wot which is a very standard Ethiopian dish. It is a tomato-based sauce with a hardboiled egg and a piece of chicken. You eat it by sopping it up with the ingera. I had the fish goulash which was okay, but it is sitting in the pit of my stomach now and is making me nauseous. Thankfully, this is the first time that food has made me sick since I have been here.

In the afternoon I had Dr. Kolste explain the process of "flushing", or extracting, embryos from a cow. He had brought the supplies necessary to do a flush and explain the process. He did a very good job and sparked a lot of discussion. We took a break and walked down to see the heifer recipients, which are looking good. Our herdsman said that about half of them had shown good heat, which is about what we expected. When we reconvened, I led a discussion on the economics and the reasons why, or why not, to do Embryo Transfer (ET). The discussion was very lively and we learned while we were teaching. I think the group was starting to see the possibilities. I feel really good about what we accomplished today and I am excited about tomorrow.