there are a lot of different percentages floating around out there and it can be misleading. Most universities advertise somewhere around 60-75%. I know thats a broad range when talking about economics, but there are so many variables that it is no where near and exact science. The little things are what makes the difference. Things like the type of mineral you use, and the quality of the water the cattle are drinking can all make small differences in your conception percentage. The people who do the best with AI are one of two things, Lucky to live in a place where all the things in their environment help them, or they are very good at doing their homework on the little things. You know you have to have you cattle in good shape, eating good groceries, and very healthy, but it goes way beyond that. Breed, age, weight, temperament, even the tone of voice by the people handling the cattle can make an impact. If you have a bunch of loud people there on breeding day that arent there normally, you will stress the cattle out more and conception will be impacted. Proximity to the neighbors cattle can have an affect. Last year I had 40 heifers synchronized and ready to breed, and on breeding day I went over to gather them into the lot by myself(normally very easy just shake bucket and try not to get ran over) and found a strange heifer from my neighbors farm a mile away standing in the pasture. She was loco and as soon as I pulled into the field she slammed the fence and tore it down taking all my heifers with her. I got 16 of the 40 back in time to breed. It was a wreck that I have since taken precautions to avoid. Those 16 will get preg checked the end of this month to see what my conception rate was. That heifer was just some bad luck, but there are so many things that can happen to impact conception. Those 16 heifers were very stressed out and im sure that I will get unsatisfactory conception rates, but all was not lost. I had my heifers synchronized and was able to turn the cleanup bulls in and save the rest of my semen for this year. I will not be turning my heifers back out into the small pasture after the second shot this year. I will be watering them and feeding them in the lot for two days and then wont have to worry about them.
Pay attention to the small details and all will be good!