What embryo transfer does
Embryo transfer (ET) lets one outstanding female produce many calves a year. You flush a donor cow after breeding her to a semen lot you own, freeze the embryos she gives up, and implant them in recipient cows that carry the calves to term. The calf's genetics come from the donor and the sire; the recipient only supplies the uterus.
Flushing a donor
- Go to Embryos → Flush, pick an open female you own and one of your semen lots. A flush uses two units of semen.
- You pay a flat flush fee up front plus a freezing fee for every embryo recovered. A blank flush (no embryos) still costs the flush fee — that is the risk.
- How many embryos you get depends on the donor's age, her hidden fertility, the semen's lab grade, and luck. Six is typical; zero and twelve both happen. Sexed semen gives fewer embryos.
- Each embryo gets a lab grade (1 excellent, 2 good, 3 fair). Better grades settle more often when implanted.
- A donor needs to rest between flushes and can only be flushed a few times a game year. Her flush history is on her cattle page — it is the best clue you have to her fertility.
Storage
Frozen embryos live in your nitrogen tank alongside your semen and take up tank space. If your storage bill is overdue you cannot flush, implant, biopsy or list embryos until it clears. Embryos you will never use can be discarded from your inventory.
Implanting
- Embryos → Implant lets you implant several embryos at once — one open female of yours per embryo. There is a vet fee per embryo.
- Implanting within a few hours of the flush counts as a fresh transfer and settles more often than a frozen one.
- Conception is not guaranteed. The page shows an estimate; the truth comes out at the pregnancy check. A failed transfer uses up the embryo.
- The recipient gets the calving record, the postpartum rest and any calving trouble. The donor stays the calf's dam on the pedigree.
Biopsy
For a fee the lab can biopsy a frozen embryo to reveal its sex and its TH / PHA / DS status before you implant or sell it. Biopsied embryos settle a little less often.
Buying and selling
- List embryos from a flush on the Embryo Market at a price per embryo. Buyers pick the specific embryos they want. A small commission comes off each sale.
- Both the sire and the donor must have known TH, PHA and DS status before their embryos can be listed — the same rule as semen.
- You can make a listing private to one named player, or gift embryos to someone directly from your inventory.
- Embryos sold with resale prohibited can only be implanted in the buyer's own cows.
ET calves
A calf born by embryo transfer carries an ET mark on its record, the way breed registries do it. It is registered and shown exactly like any other calf.