Simulated Artificial Insemination Training Builds Farm Skills and Partnerships
At a recent Mitchell Center Sustainability Talk, a volunteer from the audience planted her feet before a life-size model of a cow’s hindquarters, listening to Colt Knight explain the steps required to artificially inseminate (AI) a cow. Knight is a University of Maine assistant professor of Extension where he serves as the State Livestock Specialist.
This is exactly the type of collaborative learning experience Knight and assistant extension and animal science professor Glenda Pereira were dreaming up when they received a Mitchell Center partnership development grant to purchase two portable AI simulators, one for cattle and one for swine.
The grant helped purchase the simulators, but its goal was to spur something far less tangible though no less valuable: a statewide effort to build and strengthen partnerships within the farming community and with other farming organizations.
Because the award did not completely cover the cost of the two simulators, it inspired Knight and Pereira to reach out to other agricultural organizations, whose members would benefit from AI training, for additional donations. This has led to on-going partnerships with the Maine Beef Producers Association, the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, the Bangor State Fair, the Pork Checkoff, and the National Pork Board.
“Building relationships is our task one when we start at Extension,” said Knight.
AI has multiple benefits for farmers that contribute to a farm’s sustainability efforts by improving economic outcomes while lowering environmental impacts. For example, adding genetic diversity via AI allows farms to improve specific traits, such as how effectively a cow gains weight on pasture. Farms then may be able to produce more meat with fewer animals, reducing land use and feed costs, and potentially greenhouse gas emissions.
Farmers and farm workers can also benefit from AI because dangerous male animals are no longer needed. There’s also a biosecurity benefit because farmers no longer need to bring male animals, who potentially can carry costly diseases, onto their farms.
AI, though, is a skilled trade, requiring an understanding of reproductive physiology, the handling of frozen semen, and quick delivery of the semen to female animals. Maine farmers struggle to find AI services. There are very few professional AI breeders in Maine, and it’s difficult for smaller livestock operations to get one to come to their farm. Compounding this challenge is that there is only one yearly AI class held in Maine, and this class only teaches AI on cattle. No AI training exists for swine producers.
Again and again, Pereira and Knight received requests for more AI training. “Artificial insemination was a need that was consistently coming in from farmers and producers across the state,” said Pereira. Live AI classes in an academic setting, however, are difficult to implement due to the costs of purchasing live animals and the required animal care use protocols. Given these constraints, Pereira and Knight decided that offering statewide classes using the portable simulators was the next best option.
Pereira and Knight offered four free workshops in 2025: the first at the Mitchell Center, a summer option for 4-H kids at the Bangor State Fair, a third at Pineland Farms, and the last in Augusta as part of the Maine Cattlemen’s College. A winter 2026 workshop is scheduled in Aroostook County. Future classes will be for all ages; they’ve learned that kids are adept at picking up AI knowledge and sharing it with each other.
Kevin Woltemath, who procures beef for Pineland Farms Natural Meats brand and serves as the president of the Maine Beef Producers Association, noted that it has been increasingly difficult to draw people together for in-person agricultural events. The AI workshops bucked this trend; the two workshops he attended had a strong turnout with a diverse mix of participants, from experienced breeders to first-time cattle owners and young dairy farmers.
The workshops are designed to be as hands-on as possible with multiple stations to prevent downtime. At one station, participants learn how to handle the semen, using tweezers to carefully remove a semen straw from the -320 F degree tank of liquid nitrogen and placing it in a special warmer. At another, they handle real reproductive tracts, stained blue from being preserved in windshield washer solution, that Knight collects from local slaughterhouses. The preserved reproductive tracts provide a critical bridge between the simulators and live animals. A third station provides information about how to select sires to match a farm’s genetic goals. The last station is a step-by-step tutorial using the simulator where each participant gets to conduct the entire AI process.
Cooperation and reciprocity permeate the entire project. Partner organizations not only helped finance the project, but they also advertised the workshops. Two nationally renowned AI experts traveled to Maine — motivated by lobster, the Maine coast, and a chance to see a moose, Knight joked — to help develop and facilitate the workshops. Peireira and Knight are also eager to pass on what they’ve learned. Two University of New Hampshire staff, who recently received their own grant to purchase AI simulators, attended the Augusta class to observe Pereira and Knight in action.
Knight and Pereira continue to refine the workshops based on attendees’ feedback. Overall, participants report an increased confidence in their understanding of livestock anatomy, handling the AI equipment, and performing artificial insemination. One attendee said, “I appreciate the class very much. I am so excited to be able to breed my own animals.” Another said, “Thank you so much for the opportunity to improve the fourth generation of our beef farm.”
People continue to express an interest in learning to perform AI on live animals. A simulator afterall will never be able to mimic real-life on-the-farm conditions — a sow throwing its body back and forth or a wet tail slap from a cow across the face — so Knight and Pereira are thinking about how to incorporate a paid class with a live animal component, perhaps once a year.
The benefits of the simulators and the workshops go beyond the physical skillset that farmers and livestock producers gain; the project has also strengthened relationships.
“These workshops successfully bring together beef and dairy producers, fostering valuable networking and addressing a growing need for on-farm AI skills due to a decline in breeding services,” said Kevin Woltematch of Pineland Farms.
Knight is thrilled about the success of the workshops and how the project helped increase the team’s connections throughout the state including with Pineland Farms.
“Building this kind of innovative collaboration is exactly what we were hoping for when the Mitchell Center awarded Colt and Glenda this partnership development grant,” added Mitchell Center director David Hart.