Did I make a good choice

[lancemart]

I bred my Holstein using AI. I called Genex and they had a list of bulls. One bull Toystory had all pluses on the good characteristic side of his chart. I did not use him, although I wanted to, but used a bull that threw off small calfs. I think the column read 'ease in calving" Did I make a good decision.? She is a heiffer and was 14 months when I bred her, July 1, 2007. I had problems with my two herfords the first time they had a calf, and had to pull both times. The second and third and.......... calf was no trouble. Are the Holsteins different, because of their configuration?

 

[dun]

I bred my Holstein using AI. I called Genex and they had a list of bulls. One bull Toystory had all pluses on the good characteristic side of his chart. I did not use him, although I wanted to, but used a bull that threw off small calfs. I think the column read 'ease in calving" Did I make a good decision.? She is a heiffer and was 14 months when I bred her, July 1, 2007. I had problems with my two herfords the first time they had a calf, and had to pull both times. The second and third and.......... calf was no trouble. Are the Holsteins different, because of their configuration?

If you're comfortable with the choice of bulls you did the right thing.
Holsteins aren;t any different then any other breed. The difference is that most dairymen don;t pay much attention to calving ease of the daughters. For that matter a lot of them don;t worry about the calving ease at all

 

[northernboy]

Breed average for holsteins is around 9%ce(calving ease).But I have used bulls with ce's of 11-12 and no probs, I've also used bulls with 6-7 ce and had prob. Bottom line feed and conformation also effect ce.

Dun most dairyman rely heavily on ce info for virgin heifers.The holstein breed keeps track of sire %ce,daughter %ce,daughter pregnancy rates,%sire still births,and %daughter still births.They have loads of info to use,and most do. When it costs $2000-$2500 to raise a replacement only to lose her at calving you don't stay in busness very long.

 

[dun]

Breed average for holsteins is around 9%ce(calving ease).But I have used bulls with ce's of 11-12 and no probs, I've also used bulls with 6-7 ce and had prob. Bottom line feed and conformation also effect ce.

Dun most dairyman rely heavily on ce info for virgin heifers.The holstein breed keeps track of sire %ce,daughter %ce,daughter pregnancy rates,%sire still births,and %daughter still births.They have loads of info to use,and most do. When it costs $2000-$2500 to raise a replacement only to lose her at calving you don't stay in busness very long.

They may pay attention in your neck of the woods, but not so much here. Only about half of the dairys around here use AI. Most only look at production factors or "that's a good looking bull".
Even the dairys that do AI still breed the majority of their cows natural service.