The local circumstances of the ovary may influenced by the presence of corpus luteum (CL). We investigated the cleavage rate and blastocyst development of bovine oocytes collected from ovaries with or without CL. Oocytes were incubated with brilliant cresyl blue (BCB) for 90 min and separated on the basis of low (BCB ) or high (BCB–) activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. For both types of ovaries, the embryo cleavage rates in the case of BCB oocytes were significantly higher than those in the case of BCB– oocytes, but were not higher than the rates in the control group. The percentage of blastocysts developing from BCB and BCB– oocytes from the ovaries with CL did not significantly differ. However, in the case of ovaries without CL, a significantly higher (P<0.05) percentage of blastocysts developed from BCB oocytes than from BCB– and control group oocytes. The presence or absence of CL did not significantly influence the cleavage rate and blastocyst development. Based on our results, we conclude that BCB staining facilitates the selection of competent oocytes that will develop into blastocysts for IVF better than conventional morphological selection methods. We also conclude that the CL does not significantly influence blastocyst development.