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Breeding heifers

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LCP

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I had a wild idea, thought I'd run it past you folks to see what you all think...

I turn bulls out with my heifers July 15 (same as cows) because I hate calving in blizzards. Which means those bulls are unemployed for the entire month of June. I'll have 150 of my own heifers to breed. I've got plenty of heifer bulls at the present time - five coming 3 yr old half-brothers (from the last time I AI'ed) and two coming 2's of another line. All are good aggressive breeders. I would not be afraid at all to run 1:30 or 1:35 ratio with them under normal circumstances.

Here's where my mind starts wandering...I've got the grass in a different location to run another 100 yearlings. What about buying another 100 heifers, synchronizing them, and breeding them natural service to my bulls starting June 1 for 28 days? (I've heard of sync'ing cows and still using natural service, article here ---> http://www.appliedreprostrategies.com/pdfs/2012arsbc_10dahlenproceedings.pdf). That gives the bulls 17 days to rest before turning out with my own heifers in July. Wouldn't have to use all of the bulls on those early heifers, probably only half-brothers for marketing purposes. These heifers would be ultrasounded and probably sold in Oct or Nov on a bred heifer sale locally.

Or I could do the same thing, just not sync them. Preg rate might be a touch better, according to the research.

I could go through the work of AI'ing them, but labor is in short supply around here in June. I wouldn't argue that AI'ed heifers would be worth more.

So, assuming the purchased heifers came from a reputable operation and didn't have major disease issues, is this a dumb idea or not?
 
Guess for the way the cattle market is these days, I'd have to ask if you can make any money doing this?
 
Some years back, we synched around 50-60 heifers, sorted them into small groups and put a bull with them. It was amazing. Everything was bred except for one which turned out to be a free martin.
 
If you are going to bull breed them and they are cycling well I wouldn't waste my time and money synchronizing them. There is a chance to make some money on this project as I think there will be quite a few less heifers bred this next year. I have been wrong before.
 
It seems like a good idea, but I'd run it passed a breeding expert like twig marsten at ksu. Ask how long the Bulls need to get sperm count back up. Might breed the spec heifers a little earlier so Bulls have time to get fertility back up.
 
Money? Who said anything about making money? :lol: I ran some numbers and I think this would be better than using the grass on fall cows. I would guess bred heifers are averaging about $1800 - 1900 around here this fall, while heifer calves can be bought for 850-950. Almost $1000 difference. If that spread holds, I think it would cash flow nicely. I rent all my grass, and I think it would be bad business to take what I consider very reasonably priced grass and then sublease it at a higher rate. I think that would be a good way for me to pay more next year. :D

From what I remember in livestock repro at school, it takes 60 days for a sperm cell to form from start to finish. I should double check that just to make sure. The bulls I use on the spec heifers would have about two weeks to breed my heifers before they would reach day 60 since turning out the first time, which due to all the action back on June 1 might cause a drop in fertility.

So, if I didn't sync them and just used 3 half-brothers to breed those spec heifers, that would leave me 4 fresh bulls to use on my own. I could turn out the "warmed up" bulls for the first 10 days but I'd want to bring them home after that.

Brad you are right, I need to talk to someone who knows about this stuff to make sure I have my biology straight.
 
I've been renting some of my cleanup hfr. bulls to Big Swede for a few years, since I pull mine the first part of July, and he doesn't turn out until around the tenth to fifteenth of that month. They've worked fairly hard in my situation before Big Swede uses them. I've been sending him a few (three or four) two year old's and up and then two to four yearlings that haven't had quite as much use. He's been breeding 200 head with a pack of seven or eight bulls this way for three years and I think his breed up has been acceptable doing it this way. Wasn't sure when we first tried it but seems to be working. I know an older bull will breed a lot of animals, and have had my uncle who is a vet tell me that if a bull is still breeding he's also producing semen as well. I don't know if that's the gospel, but I tend to think that it must be close to right. If you still have my phone # you can give me a call and we'll discuss it more.
 
We have some neighbours that do something similar. Rather than a full sync protocol, they use a single shot of estrumate on all the cows before turning the bulls out. This tightens up the cycle to around a week. You could leave the bulls out for 10-15 days and then pull them. We sync either loosely with estrumate or with a CIDR protocol and then AI, but turn bulls out immediately afterwards. We DNA all the replacements. It sure tightens things up. Of the 150+ AIed this summer, there are only about 3 that preg checked late.
 
My guess is a lot of the success will be based upon your reputation or the reputation you get for good cows. I hear a bit of talk of guys buying heifers rather than retaining. These guys use more terminal Bulls rather than try to develop their own. If that's true, I'd think you have a good chance.

As far as AI, I've always thought a bull was more talented and motivated at breeding cows than I,

;-}
 

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