Dairy farmers wanting to choose the sex of their calves to order will have access to the technology in New Zealand from next month.
New reproductive technology that allows livestock semen to be sexed with a 90% success rate before it's distributed for artifical insemination, has been available in the United States for some time.
But use of it in New Zealand has been very limited because it required semen or breeding bulls to be sent to the US.
That's about to change, due to an agreement between AgResearch and the Waikato Innovation Park with the US company, Sexing Technologies, that owns the process.
AgResearch says a laboratory is being set up that will allow semen from New Zealand cattle and other livestock to be processed here.
Reproductive Technologies head Dr Vish Vishwanath hopes to start production in the first week in October, in time for the bulk of the dairy breeding season.
The service will also be available to other livestock industries including horses, deer, pigs and sheep.
