Modern sexual techniques

An overcast chilly start to the day soon brightened into early morning sunshine and warming air. All the eyasses are out of the nest this morning and shouting at their mother who has denied them food for a couple of days to encourage this major change when they can start to feed themselves. The strange thing is that even though food is clearly visible and available they don't take it for themselves but still wait until she gives them permission to eat. My friend said that parental duties are 'fairly hard wired' into the adults and its fascinating that even though completely inexperienced any required behaviours arrive on the day.

The vet arrived promptly an hour after breakfast as the breeding season moves on and his modern equipment enables us all to see whether our mare Toffee has managed to get pregnant? Years ago it all seemed so simple and natural to take the mare to the stallion, try her again 18 - 21 days later and assume if there was no response that a foal was on the way. Today we have the video screen and as though TV addicts we all stare for the image on the scanner screen that might show the implanted foal at 35 days old. Within a few minutes as he manipulates the sensor inside the mare, in a most undignified manner, the image we all want to see appears (centre below). So unnatural has it all become in the light of progress that the sexual act simply does not occur any more! 'Far too risky for such a valuable animal to perform' and even though the mare visits the stallion he only gets to perform with a dummy for collection of his semen which is then artificially inseminated into the mare whilst hot in the straw and we all cross our fingers!

My friend has a large herd of pigs and they are all artificially inseminated but as he explains there is much to know for success to be the norm. Many people struggle with semen through the mail and at great expense have their vet do the work only to find that pregnancy simply does not occur. Naive assumption is that all it takes is to get the semen into the female and pregnancy is inevitable. My friend explains that in his pigs the largely unappreciated essential part of stockmanship is that he still has to use a boar to tease the sow into a state of excitement during which it is important that she picks up some of his saliva and close attention to get her hormones flowing in the correct manner. That is when she is artificially inseminated, fertilisation does happen and the implantation cycle can occur with all hormones in place. And so it is with horses it seems where the more successful studs use the stallion in just such a manner and simply sidestep the dangerous part of the mating process in which even the best mares are prone to kick and do serious damage. The days of the adrenaline rush for grooms and handlers are now mostly a thing of the past. We no longer have to conduct such risky adventures of bringing mare and stallion together - health and safety professionals are relieved - civilisation of sex has become the norm!

For many years now my falcons have been bred by AI and with that end in sight, for the ones I intend to keep, they are all raised from hatching to be imprinted with the human as their partner in life. It is not just breeding that this affects since the highly attuned relationship develops flying and hunting techniques vastly more satisfying than that achieved in normal falconry. In breeding eyasses this year an interesting experience occurred when I inseminated the falcon since my young Jerkin was only just embarking on his adult life and it was the first year he produced any semen. Under the microscope it looked unpromising with no visible motile sperms, it was just like water. About an hour later when my female Peregrine 'Gentle' had laid her second egg I thought I might as well inseminate this sample in case there would be any chance of a fertile egg, there certainly would not if it remained in the capillary tube. The Jerkin continued his unpredictable teenage behaviour and did not manage to produce another sample for about three weeks but it turned out not to be necessary as his first effort of 'clear water' got three eggs and these are the result!

Luckily for us it has not proven necessary with our dogs and the natural process prevails much to the pleasure of Brockan and FTCh. Tiqun Ember, our Irish Setters, who were mated yesterday - 'this is a date for your diary' said Steve on the phone ' Brockan did not need any encouragement this time, he was straight on before I could get into the yard!' On the previous occasion he had been a virgin and needed a lot of encouragement. Hopefully they will produce a litter of pups in nine weeks time at the start of the grouse season. It is a fortunate time for pups since Ember will soon be back in work for the rest of the game season and pups will be a year old for the next season and well into training.

And for tomorrow.....................?