Breeding Season

[Chuckie]

If you are wanting to get your cows where they calve close, and you are using a bull, how many cows can he handle within this limited time frame? If you used lutalyse on all of them, bringing them in at the same time, there must be a limit of cows he can service productively. If you use this method on different lots of cows, how many lots could the bull handle per year. For example: 10 cows per lot brought in at same day (one lot) and the bull could do four lots a year without risking his health? I am not sure how this could be broken up. What is the amount of time between lots that the bull should rest?

 

[Jake]

this summer we kept the heifers in a small grassy wintering lot for a month or so before we let them out to pasture. in one day I saw the bull breed 2 for sure, and that was right away, don't know how many he could handle but I haven't seen anymore cycle so my guess is that we'll have a pretty syncronized set of heifers. Don't know how many it could handle, but the idea really seems to work

 

[Chuckie]

Jake, you are on the right track. I have ten to twelve cows per lot in three different pastures. I am not sure if he can take on that many at one time when they are all in. And I am trying to figure later on how I might work the deal. I plan on AIing later on. I will do a few this year.

 

[TheBullLady]

An older bull can probably "handle" a larger group at a time then, say, a yearling bull. Might be something to keep in mind when choosing a bull for that kind of breeding program

 

[polledbull]

be aware that if , say several came into heat the same time , the bull could "court" or spend more of his time with 1 maybe 2 or so cows and over look the others. Usually this is more of a problem with a young bull. you could get excessive riding with that many in a small pen all in heat at once ,it possibly could lead to an injury to the cows or the bull for that matter.

 

[Tod Dague]

Sounds like a bad idea to me. If the bull decides one cow is better looking than the others you may end up spread out anyway. If you don't lut. them then you're looking at about a 20 day spread on a small group. Not to shabby.

 

[Chuckie]

20 days apart I could handle. What I really want to do is AI them. I don't mind taking someone up on volunteering their help, but I don't want to abuse them. I want to do it myself. When you are at the mercy of someone else, it isn't the same. Being self sufficent is the only way to go when raising cattle and farming. They are talking about getting up a school here. I need to push that a bit more. I think they were short of pupils and I think I might can help round up a few more. This year I will probably only AI a few.

 

[polledbull]

If you were to decide to AI them , you could get the local semen rep.to either bred them or get you a good AI tech to do it . If you syncronize them , they will be able to time bred them all in the same day. AI is not as easy as it sounds to the guy who has never passed a gun on a cow. it takes alot of breeding to really get good at it . I would recommend you get a breeder to come in a do it for a small fee. you still should try to get a AI class in your area to attend . It is very rewarding to breed your own cows and get them settled to AI service . once you get a few under your belt . You should have fun with it.

 

[ollie]

When I learned to AI I thought it was easy to learn but hard to perfect. I would go ahead and try this year. Go to the slaughter house and have the man that guts them to save you a female tract from a mature heifer. Try passing the gun through the cervix while you can see it before you try it in the dark. It is hard to get a flashlight in the cow so you can see.

 

[certherfbeef]

Go to the slaughter house and have the man that guts them to save you a female tract from a mature heifer. Try passing the gun through the cervix while you can see it before you try it in the dark. It is hard to get a flashlight in the cow so you can see.

You can also Put different colored pellets in the gun. When you get done praticing so you can see the cervix, cut it open and then you can see just how close you were and if you improved with each try or not.