AI Question

[inyati13]

When performing AI with the cow in a squeeze chute; Do you want her squeezed up tight, loose, not at all? Do you want to slide a 2x4 behind her back legs to keep her toward the front of the chute?

 

[Anonymous]

I squeeze them tight and out a bar behind them so I don't get kicked

 

[dun]

I just head catch them, no squeeze, no board. The only time I've used a board, actaully a steel bar, behind them has been in an alleyway with no headcatch.

 

[bse]

i do like dun no squeeze or bars just get back there and do it.

 

[chippie]

If she humps her back up while you are trying to pass the straw, have someone pinch her on the top of her back (in the middle) to make her suck her back down. You pinch on either side of her spine. I use two hands.

 

[Alan]

You want the cow as relaxed as possible, I use a chute, no squeeze and no bar. I never seen one kick with an arm inserted in the green chute.

 

[Jake]

I've always been told not to put a bar behind them incase they drop their hind end before you can get your arm out and you end up with a scuffed up or broken arm.

 

[LRTX1]

I like to see them calm anytime in the chute. Sometimes a squeeze will settle them down.

 

[cowgirl_jenna]

Give them some feed to munch on while in the chute, seems to really calm them and they kinda forget a little whats going on. I did the pipe behind them, but found the feed is very effective, and safer if they should drop down. Most seem to calm down once i get my arm in them, I just like to think I have the magic touch

Edit: I forgot to add, many times with the feed, one of our tamer show cows usually comes over and eats feed too with the cow in the chute, that really keeps the other cow calm.
Jenna

 

[dun]

Ours ar5e almost always pretty calm in the chute. The only time they aren;t is if they're still in standing heat, then anything excites them, including a dog barking on another farm or the cat walking in front of them.

 

[robert]

Headcatch and no bar behind them, squeeze depends on the individual, some are more antsy so I'll just snug them up a bit.

 

[dun]

Ours have been through the chute so much that by their breeding for their second calf they just walk in and don;t even trip the autocatch, have to reach up and flip.
Last year we had a cow that had been AIed 3 years in a row with absolutely no excitement. Last year, everytime I would touch the service with the sheatch should would go totally berserk. Ended up just splashing her and turning her in with the bull. This year if she does the same thing she'll get a new job as a filler between 2 parts of a hamburger bun

 

[Chris H]

Squeezed enough she can't swing side to side, no bar. Ours are pretty calm, they don't usually push the headgate enough to close it either.

Here's an idea: The guy we bought the herd from would use a gomer bull. He'd go out twice a day to check who was ready to breed. Every one of his cows are halter broke. We bought 40 cows & 10 heifers in 2001 from him, all halter broke. He has since restocked and has halter broked every one again. Anyway, he'd catch whoever was ready to AI, tie them to the back of his pickup. He had a man come out and AI them while they were tied to the truck!

 

[cowgirl_jenna]

Here's an idea: The guy we bought the herd from would use a gomer bull. He'd go out twice a day to check who was ready to breed. Every one of his cows are halter broke. We bought 40 cows & 10 heifers in 2001 from him, all halter broke. He has since restocked and has halter broked every one again. Anyway, he'd catch whoever was ready to AI, tie them to the back of his pickup. He had a man come out and AI them while they were tied to the truck!

I would love to have all my cows that tame!! I have AI'd some cows/heifers that were only tied with a halter, our cattle that have been showed, but I don't think it would work for the others, although they are pretty easy going for the most part.
Jenna

 

[Dega Moo]

We use a "breeding barn" in place of the chute and headgate. Generally we setup and breed in their pasture rather than bring them into a regular barn. Essentially she walks into the dark and bumps into the front door, a pipe rotates behind her to keep her from backing over the technician, technician steps in and inserts the gun and unloads the straw. Everything is nice and quiet.

 

[cow pollinater]

I like them squeezed a little just to keep them from squirming and as already mentioned that bar is an arm breaker and I've had enough fall down that I won't breed one with that bar there.
There is no way to keep from getting kicked from a cow that wants to do it. MOST won't kick with an arm in them but I've been jerked off the ground by my elbow and kicked in the midsection more than a few times. I once got kicked in the left shoulder by a cow that had my right hand in her up to the wrist.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Most of ours are halter broke, so we just put a halter on them in the pasture and walk them up to the grooming chute. No squeeze. If we use the chute, same thing, we like to drop feed while we breed, it helps calm them and keep them happy.

 

[ranchmom77]

We run ours into a dark box with no squeeze and leave their heads free. We do put a pipe behind them, but its just above the hocks. The darkness seems to quiet them.

 

[cowgirl_jenna]

We run ours into a dark box with no squeeze and leave their heads free. We do put a pipe behind them, but its just above the hocks. The darkness seems to quiet them.

I would like to build a box like this one day, everyone that has anything similar seems to have good success with it.
Jenna

 

[Anonymous]

I used a breeding box in my AI class and it does clam them down more than a squeeze does