{"id":23057,"date":"2025-03-21T15:23:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T21:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/five-local-producers-receive-certifications-for-artificial-insemination-at-ag-expo\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:23:54","slug":"five-local-producers-receive-certifications-for-artificial-insemination-at-ag-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/five-local-producers-receive-certifications-for-artificial-insemination-at-ag-expo\/","title":{"rendered":"Five local producers receive certifications for artificial insemination at Ag Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The five women who received certifications for artificial insemination at this year\u2019s Ag Expo. From left to right: Latifa Rodriguez, Felicia Herrmann, Janna Neely, eighth grader Riah Head and Jennifer White. (Kate Rowan\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not what we normally think of when we hear \u201cAI,\u201d but it\u2019s just as revolutionary, especially for rural producers.<\/p>\n

When artificially breeding cattle, artificial insemination involves taking semen from a bull and manually putting it into a cow to impregnate it, thus removing the need for a bull.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a rural area, there\u2019s not a big cattle lot to choose from,\u201d said Kate Rowan, a co-founder of Four Corners Women in Agriculture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Artificial insemination makes it so a family with a single dairy cow with no finances to keep a bull around can still put forward good calves, said Rowan.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beneficial to big ag operations, too, since it gives producers access to breeds that might not be available locally: Artificial insemination offers genetic variability in an otherwise rural area.<\/p>\n

With grant money from the LOR Foundation, Four Corners Women in Agriculture sponsored five local female producers to undergo a two-day artificial insemination class at the Four States Ag Expo on March 14 and 15, valued at $497 per person.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many times women are overlooked when it comes to the ability to be successful in agriculture,\u201d said Felicia Hermann, a producer who received her AI certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to have a hand with an animal from tube to grown is fascinating and I don\u2019t want any little girl that wants to do it be told she can\u2019t \u2026 the encouragement must come from seeing other women succeed,\u201d said Hermann.<\/p>\n

The class<\/a> was from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days, and covered everything from cattle anatomy to semen handling to techniques that ultimately informed hands-on practice.<\/p>\n

Heslep\u2019s Coastal Cattle out of Delaware taught it at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds, and its teacher Stephanie has over 11 years of hands-on experience artificially inseminating both beef and dairy cattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeslep\u2019s Coastal Cattle did an excellent job, I learned so much,\u201d said Jennifer White, a student in the class. \u201cI will be using this knowledge for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

A core value of Four Corners Women in Ag, Rowan said, is \u201cincreasing and expanding educational offerings,\u201d so they were excited when this opportunity came along.<\/p>\n

The five participants \u2013 some had past experience artificially inseminating pigs, others were \u201cnew and nervous\u201d \u2013 all had different reasons for pursuing the certification, though it boiled down to knowledge, which is \u201ckey to a successful breeding operation,\u201d as Hermann put it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seeking an AI certification to improve future breeding on my farm,\u201d said Janna Neely, a participant, before the class. \u201cAI would allow me to enhance herd genetics, increase breeding success, and reduce costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another producer, Latifa Rodriguez, said upon learning beef AI, she would \u201chelp other fellow families in Montezuma County learn how to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowan said the students also learned how to insert CIDR device, or Controlled Internal Drug Release, which is hormone therapy so \u201cevery cow comes to cycle at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With CIDR, \u201call cows should birth at the same time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rowan underscored how the certification \u201cis fantastic for people in this area,\u201d since it\u2019s \u201cstreamline and increases genetic variability.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, those at the clinic got to connect with other producers and make new friends, which is second only to education for Four Corners Women in Ag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Knowledge is key to a successful breeding operation,\u2019 producer says <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1737,281,21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agricultural-research-and-technology","tag-agriculture","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77959,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23057\/revisions\/77959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23057"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}