Cosmic Breeding Both Sides
My objective: breed cattle by artificial insemination with a 90% success rate. And a 85% success rate for embryo transplant. As opposed to 75% & 50% respectively.
My practice: Over the last 10 years I have been using a 10 day protocol that stimulates the cow to come into estrous on a morning that is deemed to be the/a “best” day for attempted conception or an “acceptable day” for attempted conception. These days are regarded as such by several sources in the animal husbandry community; with chickens, rabbits and observations from Roman antiquity on large livestock (cattle and horses.)
Smaller creatures are so much easier than large animals because of the short gestation periods, etc. Cattle are difficult in that they have a 9 month gestation with a 30+ day wait to discover the success or failure of the attempt.
My attempts: I figure that the ancients learned by observation that conceptions occurred best when the copulation takes place during certain astrological (moon) signs. I have no way of knowing if the zodiac was Tropical or Sidereal, but I have decided to use the Maria Thun version of sidereal because I practice biodynamic agriculture in our garden and fields. So, in my spreadsheet, I build a column of dates and manually juxtapose the moon sign of each day of the month from https://mooncalendar.astro-seek.com/gardening-moon-calendar-farmers-guide in the adjacent column. I am hoping for a breeding date that falls within a few (2-3) days of the full moon, but, that is not in concrete. I then count back 10 days to discover the start of the protocol. This satisfies the breeding analysis at its fundamental conception requirement. However, each breed of bovine has a few days difference in gestation, and I want to look down-range at those days and try to pick out a “Best” or an “Acceptable Day” for birthing as well. So columns are established to reflect that projected number of days with it’s Moon Sign juxtaposed next to it.
Resultant outcome: Line items clear across the sheets that reveal the ideal day(s) for success in the breeding and birthing of these cows. That line that has the greatest number of Best Days wins my Protocol efforts. Thus we have Cosmic Breeding on Both Sides of the equation.
If you have a better idea, I’d like to know about it . . . Karl E. Falster.
