Argentinian device ensures cull cows do not go in calf
Enrique Turin, who is also a professor at the National University of Northwestern Buenos Aires, has designed and is producing a bovine intra-uterine device to prevent pregnancy, and some 2.5 million of these have been exported to countries including Brazil and Spain.
He has patented his invention locally and in the EU.
Argentina has 58 million head of cattle, many of which are fattened as cull cows. But about 1m slaughter cows per year are estimated to arrive at the processing plants pregnant — mainly because it’s difficult to keep bulls and cows apart in the wide open fields of the south American country.
In-calf fatteners is an animal welfare problem, but also an economical one for farmers, because 10kg (22lb) of meat per animal can be lost, because the nutrients in her feed are consumed by the calf foetus rather than to going to increase the kill-out weight.
According to Turin, 5% more beef is produced by a non-pregnant animal. His IUD is designed for cows that have already given birth to five to seven calves, and are being fattened for slaughter.
He began experimenting with home-made bovine IUDs 20 years ago. Now he has a small factory built next to his home in Argentina’s livestock and agricultural heartland, and sells the devices for $3 (€2.25) each.
Officials have approved one of Turin’s IUD models for use in sows in Spain, where castration of boars was recently banned on animal welfare grounds.
The Argentine government has taken special interest in the invention, and this year agreed to finance the distribution of 440,000 bovine IUDs over two years to ranchers with small and mid-sized herds.
