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How many have tried this?

B

Big Swede

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Joined
Jan 21, 2008
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Location
South Dakota
All my heifers are syncronized and AI'ed for a 3 day period. I start getting calves about 10-12 days before their due date and are about finished by their due date. The chances of calving trouble really increase for those that go over so what I was thinking of doing this year is inducing labor on anything that hasn't calved by their due date and watch them round the clock for the next day or two till they are all calved out. The only trouble I seem to have is on those ones that have been in the oven too long so maybe this is the way to keep closer tabs on those calves that get a little too big. Does anyone do this and if so what do you think?
 
I wouldn't do it..... Why?? I think your asking for trouble... Hey... they're bred the work is almost done... just relax and let nature do it... And this is totally free advice so take it for what's it worth! :tiphat:
 
I've done this before. The trouble that you get into is the heifers that are not dilated. Your assist rate is going to be higher, so be prepared to live with them for 3 days. I liked not having any drag out. If none of your heifers are bull bred I don't know if there is any advantage to trying it. More than likely you may pull more calves if you do.
 
Let nature do the job Big Swede. A guy I know used to induce the few cows that were at the end of his calving period just to be done with them, lots of retained placentas, dumb calves etc. About 3 springs and he quit the practice.
 
Messing with Mother Nature is what got them into the spot they're in. :shock: Seriously though I've never heard of any complications like you mentioned flying S, maybe I'll rethink it. The only 2 heifers last year that had any trouble were overdue. My nightman either missed seeing them at 2AM or something because by daylight they were both in trouble. I assisted them both by hand and got them out but both calves died.
 
We've induced a few cows over the years. Mostly cows that have vaginal prolapses and we know are very close to calving. And, one set of twins where the cow had gone down on us. Every time we've induced the cow has retained the placenta.

Personally, I would NOT induce any of the heifers. I'd just watch the tail enders a little closer. By late gestation, the calf is putting on around 1 lb/ day. If she's going to have trouble with a 85 lb calf, she's probably going to have trouble with an 80 lb calf... JMO!
 
Do you pelvic measure your heifers?

We used to, but never culled one for small pelvis so we quit.
I'm wondering if the last 2 you had trouble with, may have
had a small pelvis and that contributed to the problem.

I sure wouldn't induce them. Shortening up your breeding season
next year might help.

Good luck!
 
I would sure agree with the leave 'em alone thought. Calves know when they are done, and will come. Waiting is hard, but so can the retained placenta or dumb calf syndrome. If I deal with that, I wouldn't want it to be my fault. Work with nature, and don't try to control it.
 
We have used simple setups like estrumate, and gone as far as a 4 shot protocol with CIDRs and done 100+ on one day using different kinds of protocols.
I like breeding 100+ on a single day, but don't really like the CIDR protocols.
I suppose with unproven bulls a guy could get into a real wreck, but we found it was no more work than anytime before with summer calving and we got very high conception.
We are usually running 85% done in the first 21 day cycle on natural, or AI with natural followup. With a simple program of estrumate, heat check for 2 days and then AI anything that we haven't done we are hitting around 60-70% depending on the year.
We breed later, calve later, and are pretty lazy...
As for problems, the biggest problem we have with synchronization isn't calving, its the year it rains an inch on the day you have to breed...
FWIW :D
 
I calved out 90 head of heifers last year and the only 2 I touched were the 2 that I lost. I despise pulling calves and only use proven bulls so that's why I was thinking of doing something to improve my odds. From all the negatives I have heard on here I will probably not follow through with the inducing idea. Thanks for all the feedback.
 
We've done the cydr program heat detect 1 day and time breed all the rest the next morning.Cows time AI bred varied in calveing dates about 20 days. My problem with the cydrs is the cows that did'nt breed seamed to miss a heat cycle or two before they bred basically turned a march calver into a may calver.I just heat detect cows now only use cydrs on heifers..
 
The process for breaking down the carnuckles between the uterus/placenta starts about 2 weeks prior to calving. If an animal calves early, the process hasn't finished and you get a RP. Twins are usually born early and that's one reason you will often get an RP.
 
Northern Rancher said:
RSL you only heat detected for two days?
Click to expand...
We have tried a bunch of things...
Heat check for a week, estrumate and time breed the leftovers
4 shot CIDRs,
Estrumate, heat check 2 days, breed everything else on the 3rd day,
heat check for 3 weeks,
etc.
We are hitting around 60 - 70% on the estrumate, heat check two days, breed everything left. I think that is pretty good for the labour, cost, invested.
 

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