Artificial Insemination
- Thread starter bgc
- Start date
Help Support Ranchers.net:
Faster horses
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 30,240
- Reaction score
- 1,423
....just my humble opinion.....
Faster horses
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 30,240
- Reaction score
- 1,423
No problem on the acronymns. I don't know what they all mean
either.
Some people put the cattle that don't breed up in the spring
into a fall breeding program.
It used to be a known that if a heifer didn't breed in the spring,
she should be sold...don't try and breed her again cuz you'll
run into problems. Don't know if that's what's said any more or
not, but that's what we went by and we sold 'em. We had
a real short breeding season too. 30 days MAX. It got so
that we didn't have many drop outs. Breed for fertility, it will
pay dividends.
either.
Some people put the cattle that don't breed up in the spring
into a fall breeding program.
It used to be a known that if a heifer didn't breed in the spring,
she should be sold...don't try and breed her again cuz you'll
run into problems. Don't know if that's what's said any more or
not, but that's what we went by and we sold 'em. We had
a real short breeding season too. 30 days MAX. It got so
that we didn't have many drop outs. Breed for fertility, it will
pay dividends.
If all other factors (size, age, bull fertility...) are in order and a heifer makes it through a breeding season without settling then she is not fertile enough for my program and I sell them. I only have one heifer breeding season a year, and I plan to keep it that way. Right now that season lasts 45 days and I would like it to be shorter than that. Hopefully 30 days. I have two herds of cows that I run on different places and they are managed about the same way. One herd is fall and the other is spring. If they come up open they go to town, and that fact is noted for future culling reasons on that cows offspring. I keep far more notes that are more detailed on my cows than anyone else I know of. It takes a lot of time, but to me it is worth it when it comes time to select my replacements. I have over 300 no excuse cows. If they dont fit they dont stay.
bgc said:
You'll improve your herd quicker by keeping and useing your own bulls from cow's in your herd that excell in your invironment, Don't be afraid to keep and use some of the resulting bull calves good luck.
Decide how many bulls you need, pick your best cows and AI about 4 times as many as you think you need with a bull you think will help out your herd, and pick your bulls out of the calves they produce - - - that is what I have been doing and while I'm not the best I have some good cattle to sell and I have people wanting my bulls I sell as 4 to 5 year olds. The hiefers will be worth looking at as replacements as well.
Thats what I am doing, I am just doing it with heifers out of my best cows instead of the cows themselves. The heifers should be better genetically than the cows, and they are easier to do the protocol on.
Soapweed
Well-known member
bgc said:
With open yearling heifers being worth approximately $400 less than their bred counterparts, I guess it could be considered "sad" when a nice pretty heifer comes up open.
:wink:I can see where people would think that was sad, and I will admit that I feel some remorse when a heifer that I bred, raised, and chose as a replacement didnt get bred and I have to sell her. The only ones that I sell open are the ones that dont settle with a bull, but I have saved back more heifers this year for the AI project because I plan on only keeping the ones that settle AI. They, in theory, should be the most fertile ones of the group, therefore I wont feel bad at all about selling the ones that dont settle AI. I will get my moneys worth out of the ones that I do sell because they will be bred heifers.
flyingS
Well-known member
Not trying to pick a fight right off the bat, but it sounds to me like you have to set some priorities in life. If you want an AI program you either have to change your breeding dates or quit coaching basketball. I don't know how many heifers you are looking at breeding for sure but it is going to take some time and effort on your part regardless. I can tell you that the key to a time breed is timing effeciency, if you don't hit your time allotment you may as well turn them out or shoot your semen on the ground. Move your breeding date a week and it frees half your day up, then maybe you can do both to the best of your ability. If your a commercial outfit why are you not capitalizing on market opportunity. With two herds I would probably give a cow two opportunities to concieve before I culled her. I would not expect more than 50% conception on a time breed and be tickled with anything greater than that. I helped AI once when we actually pulled heats off a time breed protocol for 60 hrs. It worked really well, but we pulled heats from daylight to dark literally and bred in the dark.
Im not going to get in a fight either, but I will say that what works for one person will not work for another. I worked for a university and all they did was time breeding and they were in the 75% and up range on heifers and above 85% on cows with all time breeding. The guy that is doing the breeding has been doing it for 15+ years and is averaging 65% and up on his own heifers. Moving my breeding season a week is not going to do any good because practice has already started, and moving it back will move my calving too close to hot weather and I dont want to fight flies with my heifers. I am not going to make excuses for my cows about skipping a breeding season. All that does is give you slow breeders and cows that dont perform. I make no excuses for any cow, and if she is open she gone. I sell heifers that are better genetically than the cows. I would rather keep the heifers as replacements than take an open cow through the winter or all summer.
flyingS
Well-known member
How do you know whether that she is not suited for your other program? If you only breed heifers one time of the year how do you get replacements in your spring herd, do you intentionally not breed something so that you can breed them to replace the other herd? I worked for the University of Nebraska, as far as I can see if I operated the way they do it would not take long before I would be working for them again.
High Plains
Well-known member
Seems like if a guy wants to have a friend help him out with his A.I. program while he coaches basketball then he is a right-minded fellow that is trying to do good things for his cows and good things for kids that need a quality coach. Sometimes we just can't commit as many resources and time to any given area of life that we'd like to. Doing the best you can with what you have is what it's all about. I wish you many pregnant cows by A.I. and some wins in the basketball arena as well. G'day!!
WVGenetics
Well-known member
bgc said:
Not necessarily true, all it means is that they responded to your protocol(no protocol will give you 100% response every time) and you were able to get semen in them at the appropriate time. You could have a lot of potentially very fertile heifers that you simply dont get inseminated at the right time or they simply didn't respond to treatment. Lots of other variables too! Still, I understand, agree with, and applaud your efforts to challenge your heifers and cows from a fertility standpoint. I too think it is very important, and it will pay dividends over time. Be careful putting all your eggs in the AI basket!!!
Completely agree. There are a ton of other variables to consider, but picking something and sticking with it will pay dividends in the end. We cant control everything, so we control what we can and stick with that if it works. I will not be putting all my eggs in the AI basket, at least not yet. If this project returns good dividends then I will be breeding some cows and my heifers next year AI. The idea of being able to use more than just one bull will allow me to further my genetic base in my herd as well as getting to use the best time proven sires out there to make better cows. I am not after huge growth or carcass traits, but those wont be completely ignored either.
flyingS said:
I agree with you that you cannot operate the same way the big schools do with their cattle, but we can all learn something from them. The one thing I learned when I worked at the university farm was that attention to the small details is what makes the difference in a timed AI protocol. Normal outfits cannot feed their cattle the way the schools do and they dont have free student labor to get things done, but if someone is dedicated to making better cattle then they need to take note of what the universities are doing. I am trying to get away from spring calving all together, and use only fall calving. I make more money per cow with my fall herd than I do with my spring herd, but those cows that are still doing a good job as spring cows, I cannot afford to sell them or turn them into fall cows. The economics just dont iron out.
High Plains said:
Thank you very much, and you are right we have to make do with what we can. I am devoted to both my cattle and my basketball team. I am confident that I will get very good results with these heifers and as far as I can see we wont have any issues winning25 games, our conference, and our districts.
