Stage 5 Agriculture 

Willow Glen Angora Stud

Narrandera high school stage 5 Agriculture 

Willow Glen Angora Artificial Insemination Program 

On Wednesday the 22nd of May the Stage 5 Agriculture class went to West Wyalong to help Ms Statham from Willow Glen Angora Stud with her 2025 Artificial Inseminate program. Which is like IVF for goats. In the led up to the day the animals had been administered hormones to synchronise their oestrus cycle ready for insemination. 

Apon arrival the students packaged up the mohair recently shorn and loaded it for delivery to AMMO in Narrandera on their return. The animals were penned into groups according to the sire selection criteria and we awaited the arrival of Roger who oversaw the operation. 

With the equipment unloaded and set up it was time to carry out the final preparations for the animals. The Does were then sedated and put to sleep with an intravenous injection through the goats neck. 

We then lifted them into cradles and tilted the cradles so their heads were down as shown in the photo’s. We then prepared the incision point by shaving some mohair off the skin and then wheeled the trolly into the vet. The vet then injected a microscope to look inside the abdominal cavity and find the uterine horns where he then injected the seaman into the uterus. 

As mentioned earlier the weeks leading up to the Insemination day the animals were prepared with a series of injections and CIDR implants which synchronised the oestrus cycle of all the animals. This gave the best chance of fertilization once the Artificial Insemination was completed. The Does were then given an intramuscular injection of antibiotics and a subcutaneous injection of anti-inflammatory, we then carried the goats back to a holding pen to wake up. 

This was a great learning experience to see how they Artificial Inseminate the goats.

In this Artificial Insemination program four sires were used over 36 Does. The semen was sourced from Texas, South Africa and Australian Studs. 

We would like to thank Ms Statham for the opportunity to participate in this years Artificial Insemination program at Willow Gen Angora Stud.

Meanwhile back at school we found two new kids on the block and this will form the beginning of our next years kids show team.

Mr Matt Shady

Agriculture Teacher