100% AI?

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Is patching heifers and breeding them on natural heats a viable option?
Will a group of heifers ride each other to show you rubbed patches?
I plan on doing AI for the first time this winter for fall calves. I have 5 retained heifers from our herd I plan to start with.
 
kentuckyguy":5eszj6fw said:
Is patching heifers and breeding them on natural heats a viable option?
Will a group of heifers ride each other to show you rubbed patches?
I plan on doing AI for the first time this winter for fall calves. I have 5 retained heifers from our herd I plan to start with.
First question = depends on how much time you have (you are going to have to check them at least twice a day)

Second question = yes they should
 
ez14.":3cmv4lhh said:
kentuckyguy":3cmv4lhh said:
Is patching heifers and breeding them on natural heats a viable option?
Will a group of heifers ride each other to show you rubbed patches?
I plan on doing AI for the first time this winter for fall calves. I have 5 retained heifers from our herd I plan to start with.
First question = depends on how much time you have (you are going to have to check them at least twice a day)

Second question = yes they should


I agree 100%.
 
I still plan to use cidr's on them I would just like to see a sign they are in heat when breeding.

I've read through hours of post on here about heat detection and times A.I. What I can gather from the posts is breeding on a heat vs times produces better preferred rates.

That could be completely wrong but I'll have to start somewhere and learn from my mistakes.
 
When I use CIDR's I patch them. Breed on observed heat, breed rest on timed, breed any time bred ones they cycle/stand AFTER you bred them on timed breeding. But, patches are a tool, you have to SEE them also.
 
SEEING them is my biggest problem. I work 12 hour swing shifts and have a 40 min drive each way.

Once a month I'm off 7 days so my plan is to pull CIDR's my first day off and then I six days to watch them.

While I know this plan isn't perfect it's pretty much the best I can do.
 
kentuckyguy":13eltv1l said:
SEEING them is my biggest problem. I work 12 hour swing shifts and have a 40 min drive each way.

Once a month I'm off 7 days so my plan is to pull CIDR's my first day off and then I six days to watch them.

While I know this plan isn't perfect it's pretty much the best I can do.

Do you have a bull to cover them? What you are saying sounds like a perfect timed AI scenario (based on your limited time available) and you put a cover bull on them to clean up what doesn't take to AI.
 
Yeah we have a cleanup bull I would just like to keep my AI percentage as high as possible
 
If you are willing to devote your 7 days off to this program, you should be in great shape. The tags are a really, really great help. You do have to learn how to "read" them. If there is activity going on, you may have some tags that get slightly scratched off because others that are in heat try to ride everything. If you spend a little time with them, you will see what I mean. If they are totally scratched off, you can be "pretty" sure they were standing. But, if they are not completely scratched off, they may have been one of the less active ones that were standing. So, you need to coordinate other signs, like discharge, swollen vulva, PERKY!!!, jumping others, etc.
 
Time AI them on the 14day cidr protocol then put a patch on 14 days later and watch them.

You should get most of them on 2 cycles. Hire an experienced technician the first round at least.
 
hornedfrogbbq":3jbtrds8 said:
Exactly. I'm am mostly concerned with the highest pregnancy rate in the AI session regardless of the AI taking or the bull doing it. The bulls we buy are as good or better than most (IMHO...) and have very unique traits we are trying to foster in the retention of our heifers. I'm indifferent as to the AI session impregnating the cow or the bull later that day. We typically run about a 60-74% success rate in our AI program. I'd like to get 80% or better bred up in that 3 day-ish window.

We are AI'ing to bring in other genetics and target specific things we want out of specific cows. That being said, and not to have any ego in this because we screw-up all the time but we go through over 10,000 bulls for sale every year and target very specific bulls to buy. We buy all over the nation and we really like what we buy (or, when we make a mistake, they last one year and they are out of our program).

We have two Journey sons right now that won't make it a second year with us. Good bulls, registered and from a great cow family each...but we bought them young and knew we were taking a chance. We haven't liked the way they have grown out.

Bottom line: we can never "recapture" the 21 days if a cow doesn't get pregnant early in the season. That is at least 40lbs/head we will not sell since we sell all our steers at the same time. An increase in 10% on my conception rate around the AI heat will add over 1000lbs to our sales potentially. It will tighten up our calving window and it will make our calves more uniform if more are born at the same time as the AI.

Who knows...it may not work! We are just experimenting.

If you're time AI'ing and using gnrh to force them to cycle, the semen can be good for 24hrs inside the cow so I wait at least that long.

But I'm using AI bulls I could never hope to afford to buy.
 

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