The aim was to improve the protein to fat ratio in milk production. Changing milk composition succeeded well, but the target of getting 4 offspring per cow was not achieved due to the relugtancy of commercial farmers to more than one flushing. The aim of ASMO-nucleus herd is to establish a centrelized breeding herd based on embryo transfer. The first generation of the herd is formed by collecting embryos of animals from previous ASMO project and bull dams of Ayrshire breed. The goal is to accelerate and extend genetic progress into the whole Finnish dairy cattle population by using AI bulls and selling embryos.
Business goal is to develop commercial embryo production for national and international trade.
The herd will be placed in MTT's cow stable in Rehtij rvi. The largest unit of MTT, Institute of Animal Production , will participate in establishing the ASMO project. Institute is responsible for using their top level techniques in animal evaluation, feeding and embryo transfer in the herd to surpass the Finnish top in breeding and production levels. The collected embryos are primarily transfered to the recipient cows of the nucleus herd. When the need of offspring in the herd is fulfilled the best donors will start producing embryos for sale.