Breeding Soundness Evaluations of Bulls with Dr. Roy Lewis

Dr. Roy Lewis joins the podcast to discuss breeding soundness evaluations of bulls.  Dr. Lewis is an experienced bovine practitioner who has practiced for many years in the Westlock, Alberta area.  He has also worked as a technical service veterinarian for the pharmaceutical industry and he writes extensively for many producer publications.  Roy has a special interest in bovine preventive medicine and reproductive fertility of cow-calf herds.  He chats with me about how the breeding soundness evaluation of bulls has become more commonplace and what the various components of the evaluation can tell us about bull fertility.00:00 – 01:51   Introduction01:52– 04:07 How breeding soundness examinations have evolved over the years04:08 – 05:31 Good facilities for bull testing05:32 – 08:22 Seminal vesiculitis in bulls08:33– 10:38 Measuring scrotal circumference in bulls10:39 – 11:57 Testicular degeneration in bulls11:58 – 13:28 Equipment improvements for obtaining semen samples13:29 – 15:12 Penile frenulums, warts, and hair rings15:13 – 16:37 Bulls that don’t protrude during collection16:38 – 18:12 Evaluating the semen18:13 – 20:06 Pass, Failure and Decision Deferred Categories20:07 - 21:50 Testing pubertal bulls21:51 – 24:29 Other factors that may impact fertility of the bull24:30 – 25:24  Closing comments