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The 10 semi-finalist teams will compete to advance to the final round where the four finalist teams will receive an additional $5,000 for a total of $15,000 each. The final four teams will compete live in front of Farm Bureau members, investors and industry representatives on Sunday, Jan. 8, to win three top titles and prizes:
• Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge Winner, for a total of $50,000
• Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge Runner-up, for a total of $20,000
• People’s Choice Team selected by public vote, for an additional $5,000 (all 10 semi-finalist teams compete for this honor)
EmGenisys was founded in 2019 with the goal of launching innovation solutions to maximize the genetic gains of embryo transfer and in fertilization in livestock. Dr. Russell Killingsworth, one the founders of EmGenisys and Chief Veterinary Officer, has been practicing conventional embryo transfer in beef cattle in the Texas Panhandle for the past 40 years and states “methods to evaluate embryo health and competency has not changed since I began working with embryos in 1981. The methods used to evaluate embryo health are based on my ability to examine the embryos under a microscope for visually apparent characteristics. These methods have allowed us to grow the industry and make embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization routine breeding procedures in cattle, but we know these methods are subjective and fail to detect subclinical signs of embryo stress and deterioration. The EmGenisys technique can ensure each embryo transferred is alive and capable of establishing a pregnancy which will in return, improve pregnancy rates of these procedures and widen profit margins for beef and dairy producers”.
“To be recognized and supported by Farm Bureau can help us make our technology available to American ranchers, dairy producers and rural veterinarians working hard to breed healthy and efficient animals to provide nutritious beef and dairy protein for the global population. We understand the challenges these people face and appreciate the platform Farm Bureau provides to facilitate the growth of our company” said Dr. Cara Wells, Founder and CEO of EmGenisys.
EmGenisys’ flagship product is a SaaS solution offering a noninvasive analysis of embryo morphokinetic activity, viability, and development to improve pregnancy outcomes of assisted reproductive techniques in livestock. To use the system, veterinarians simply record 30 second videos of embryos with their smartphone camera, upload videos to the EmGenisys web-based platform and results are delivered directly to the veterinarian in a digital report. Veterinarians and producers can use this information to make data-driven breeding decisions.
“Our customers have called our product a game changer. They are innovators themselves, investing in many new technologies to achieve genetic gains, improve animal health and monitor biometric data of their animals but the current state-of-art of embryo evaluation produces low pregnancy outcomes and bottlenecks their success. Our customers have been our partners since day 1, as they generously provided videos of their embryos which were used to train our machine learning models. It is exciting to work with them at the ground level to develop solution they can use on their farms. We look forward to the Ag Innovation Challenge this winter and meeting with other American entrepreneurs in the ag industry” said Dr. Cara Wells.
To learn more about EmGenisys, visit www.emgenisys.co or contact Dr. Cara Wells at cara@emgenisys.com. To learn more about the Challenge visit fb.org/challenge.
