AI protocol for heifers

Help Support CattleToday:

Ive used the regular 33 day without the gnrh at 23 days got along real well with it. If I did much of a group thats all id use it takes a little planning adding the gnrh at day 23 just a little more planning, they would have a mild heat after pulling the cidr its hard not to breed them then but I was told conception on that heat is terrible. id get most all of them in heat with that protocol couldn't tell you how many settled sold them before that time came around.
 
We will be setting up 27 heifers so we should be giving the protocol a pretty good test. We are starting tomorrow, so I will let you know what we think of the protocol in a few months. The next month is going to be a mad house we start with the heifers tomorrow then we will start group A of the cattle I can't remember the date followed a day later with group B then somewhere in the mix will be the recips if it wasn't all written on a calendar with reminders I am sure by the middle of the month I won't know if were coming or going. Trying to get all these schedules made up has been a bear trying to avoid Christmas eve and Christmas day I don't worry as much about New Years. Did I mention that I do need to go to work once in awhile just to let them know not to give my desk to someone else.

Gizmom
 
Would like to hear how you do on this protocol, which I had not heard of. We did the 7 day and so far (knock wood) think we had all 4 cows take and 2 of the 3 heifers. The one that didn't take was coming off very bad pinkeye in both eyes and wasn't seeing well, so we weren't surprised. We re-AI'd her on natural heat. Vet is coming to preg check and give rabies shots Sat., so we'll see if we missed any heats! Fingers are crossed...
We also have a few potential DD carriers so plan to test them for that too. So toes are crossed too!
 
This is the protocol I use. Last year we bred close to 50 heifers and had 75% take. Dan Busch, who they quoted in the article does our AI. He knows his stuff.
 
We ended up putting CIDRs in 21 head. A cold front was going through so the day started out wet and got cold. We were giving shots, getting yearling weights and measurements. By the time we were done I was needing cheese to go with my wine! I hate cold weather and cold wet weather is even worse. For those of you living in the snow and sleet....yes I am a wimp, that is the reason I live in Florida. I hope we have good success with the protocol and it makes it all worthwhile.

Gizmom
 
Just did our preg checks after following a 7 day protocol. We'd AI'd 7 total: 5 of them took on the first try, and one took on a second try (she was blind with pinkeye at the time of AI).
The only one that tested open is a heifer we did not see any heat in, over the past 2 cycles. Will go ahead and re-AI her but it's a bit odd we saw no heat at all; we caught the other one that didn't take because we were watching all of them closely. Hope she's not infertile...Kinda bites that calving will be so spread out now. Hopefully we'll be able to tighten her up next year.

Still, we were pretty happy with the results, all in all, especially since 3 of the 7 were first-timers...I can definitely see that heifers aren't as likely to catch on AI!
 
boondocks":2qi79f4a said:
Just did our preg checks after following a 7 day protocol. We'd AI'd 7 total: 5 of them took on the first try, and one took on a second try (she was blind with pinkeye at the time of AI).
The only one that tested open is a heifer we did not see any heat in, over the past 2 cycles. Will go ahead and re-AI her but it's a bit odd we saw no heat at all; we caught the other one that didn't take because we were watching all of them closely. Hope she's not infertile...Kinda bites that calving will be so spread out now. Hopefully we'll be able to tighten her up next year.

Still, we were pretty happy with the results, all in all, especially since 3 of the 7 were first-timers...I can definitely see that heifers aren't as likely to catch on AI!
Click to expand...
Virgin first time heifers should be the most fertile. Just looked up data on our dairy cows. 33% conception on cows, 66% on heifers. Heifers about 20% get a round or two at sexed. Just looking at my beef breeding sheet I would say even with 6/7 heifers getting bred sexed semen we ran about 10-15% higher on heifers.
 
Gizmom, we used that protocol last fall, and liked it. That Pioneer I talked about in another thread stuck to it, and had not had a visible heat prior to setting her up. She took! So we like it, and a lot of people use it around here.
We did not set up for it this year, going off all natural heats. Everyone has cycled, except three due in this week, over the last 10 days. If all take (not likely, 4 got embryos so I am sure one will likely come around), we will have the tightest calving window ever! We like to calve over several months, so the kids have different heifers to choose from for show (different classes, so they are not always competing against each other). So if a few come back in, I will not be upset...
Good Luck!
 
Till-Hill":22inprli said:
Virgin first time heifers should be the most fertile. Just looked up data on our dairy cows. 33% conception on cows, 66% on heifers. Heifers about 20% get a round or two at sexed. Just looking at my beef breeding sheet I would say even with 6/7 heifers getting bred sexed semen we ran about 10-15% higher on heifers.
Click to expand...
Till-Hill (and any others),
Now I'm confused about first time heifers. My understanding has been (as is shown in the article Gizmom posted at the top of this thread) that first time heifers on the 7 day protocol were sometimes harder to breed (ie, they don't take on the first try as well). Thoughts?
 
If my heifers are not easier to breed than the cows who are feeding a calf and trying to put one inside them at the same time something is very very wrong. Heifers should be easy to get bred. If heifers are old enough, 12-15 months old, big enough (I don't mind 600 pounds long as they got some frame but rather be 750-900 and NOT FAT) There is not a reason I could come up with why virgin heifers are hard to get bred.
 
We have only had one first time heifer NOT get bred by AI, and she took to the bull we had to find. We AI everything here, so even though we are dealing with smaller numbers, it has to work.
 
Till-Hill":2ban9fz8 said:
If my heifers are not easier to breed than the cows who are feeding a calf and trying to put one inside them at the same time something is very very wrong. Heifers should be easy to get bred. If heifers are old enough, 12-15 months old, big enough (I don't mind 600 pounds long as they got some frame but rather be 750-900 and NOT FAT) There is not a reason I could come up with why virgin heifers are hard to get bred.
Click to expand...

Till-Hill, is your heifer success rate based on a 7 day synch protocol? Just trying to see if we're comparing apples to apples. Thanks!
 
I have used everything. Mga will get best conception I feel while watching for heats. 2bd best Cidr +gnrh Monday lute Sunday pull Monday breed all Wednesday. All trips at same time of day. Extra trip but with cidr only way I TAI them is with that protocol.
 
Till Hill

I agree with you that heifers should be the easiest to get bred. However I have not found an AI protocol for timed breeding that works real well for heifers. I am looking to find a timed protocol that works on them. Ronnie and I both work off the farm so we are not able to be there to watch for heat. We pulled the CIDRS on Tuesday, I was at the office yesterday and got an email from Mike our herdsman telling us about 15 of them were standing. We have been told that with this protocol this would happen but not to breed on this heat, conception would not be as good. We are supposed to give them a shot of GNRH on the 19th then a shot of PG on the 26th and breed them on the 29th. I am not saying heifers are hard to get bred we have great luck getting them pregnant, excellent results with AI on natural service, just not good results with timed AI. however when your trying to set up groups of AI cattle and groups of Recips plus take care of all the other stuff it is very time consuming to try to pull up an entire group of 40 heifers cut one out and AI her on a natural heat. So the search continues for a way to make our lives a little easier. I sure hope this protocol works as well as I have heard it does. Our ET guy said it is the best he has seen.

Gizmom
 
Heifers are easy to watch, put stickers/kamars on them and breed once a day. When you see a fully rubbed off one you just breed her. If it's hard to sort one off of 40 before worrying about AI maybe it's a facility problem? Heifers in heat are alot more fun to sort than the others. If your paying your herdsman you should be able to expect a herdsman to be better than TAI everything and not being able to sort cattle?

Heat detection VS TAI is going to yield you around 10%+ better conception. I understand there may be more to it than what I'm reading but don't sell yourself short.
 
I understand that. Last 2 groups of dairy heifers I bred being my hired man is in wrestling now it's alot easier for me to sort 1-2 out than it is to take all 25 in to the shed where tub and alley is. So now I just put stickers on watch them every day and I've bred one heifer 2x and first 16 I preg checked were all preg. Labor wise it's harder but I have to check them everyday for water freezing anyway. I'd be really upset working 25 all alone!

You will do fine on that program, I got 3 on it now as they were not cycling and I don't want heifers calving in winter here so it's now or never to get them preg. Good luck!
 
Today was busy at the farm, we had to give 30 recips a shot we will be putting eggs in next Sunday. Once they were done we AI'd 22 head of heifers using the protocol that I started this thread discussing. Mike does all our AI work he said 21 of the 22 felt like they were in a good heat. We used heat detection patches on all of them 12 had red patches. It will be interesting to see if that made a difference as far as conception. We noted if the patch was was red or not, we will palpate in 45 or 50 days and see how we did.

Gizmom
 

Similar threads

F
AI Protocol
Replies
3
Views
704
wbvs58
wbvs58
Charbrangus
Cross Bred Bull For Heifers
2
Replies
27
Views
2K
Charbrangus
Charbrangus
L
Aborting heifers
Replies
14
Views
875
Silver
Silver
TCRanch
'23 Replacement Heifers
Replies
13
Views
705
TCRanch
TCRanch
F
Red angus or red baldie heifers?
2
Replies
22
Views
1K
Little Joe
L

Latest posts

Top