This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Professor Simon de Graaf, a fellow podcaster and a world expert in sheep reproduction, sperm sexing and AI.

Simon is currently a Professor of Animal Reproduction at The University of Sydney,  where he says 90% of the work he does now is sheep "But my background is such that we've dealt with a lot of different species."

Simons work in reproduction began during his PhD where he studied sexed semen. Mark asks for a run through of the process of sexing semen.

"It's all based on the fact there's a different amount of DNA in a male sperm and a female sperm." explains Simon. "The X chromosome is bigger than the Y chromosome so if you add a special dye to it, you can pick up the higher florescence in the X chromosome."

The method for successfully separating sexed semen was a success. "The big challenge, after they initially developed the technology, was keeping the sperm alive though the process." explains Simon. "It's a lot to be shot through a cannon at 80 miles an hour...it's not a recipe for long life. So there was a lot of research that went into keeping them happy and healthy in the process"

​Fast forward 20 years and the results of sexed semen have pretty good conception rates.

"There's certainly been some people that have gotten fantastic results in recent times and [they] are going back for second or even third sexed semen programs. You should expect, if everything goes right, around your normal AI, which is around 70%."

Mark asks if Simon is involved in anything that might explain the variability of AI success.

"With in my team, Dr Jessica Rickard and Eloise Spanner, they have just commenced a project on prediction of AI success."

Part of this project is to attempt to place a few more numbers or gather more information on what makes for a success or what makes for a failure.

Mark and Simon then cover "Reproduction Co", Simons latest venture.

"I've always been quite interested in the commercial space and I was keen to offer the semen assessment service at a national level. So what I decided to do was set up this business. Amongst other things it's offering standardised semen testing."

"We have three labs where everyone is doing the same thing, following the same protocols. They've been trained in the same way and we exchange reference samples to check we're all seeing the same thing and scoring the same thing."

"We all talk about how expensive AI programs are...I would argue that you should take a look at the semen that you are going to be using.  Check it for numbers, looks, swimming patterns.... Why not test for those things if they are relatively inexpensive in comparison to a failure?" he asks.

Simon delves into the science behind artificial insemination and he and Mark discuss the future of AI. Currently work is going on to facilitate cervical AI in sheep with frozen semen.

And finally, Simon discusses his podcast "Repro Radio" which covers all aspects of reproduction. From human fertility to wildlife conservation.

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