Thanks for the comments above.
gizmom":1baa84dg said:
Did you flush a cow that you raised or one you purchased? What is the breeding of the donor and who did you flush her to? I am glad you had good success with your flush.
Gizmom
The cow that was flushed was purchased last year when she was about 3yrs old. She was the result of an embryo that was imported from France and is a fullblood Aubrac (i.e., 100% Aubrac). She was flushed to another fullblood Aubrac bull who's semen was imported from France via their bull test station (the only French bulls approved for export are their top few bulls in their grass-only bull station tests).
If that's not the information you were looking for ... and you were looking for information on specific Aubrac bulls ... then this is a bit more specific ---- the donor is a daughter of Ushuaia AIA and she was flushed to Andalou AIA. If you don't know Ushuaia AIA, he is a son of Lioran AIA, and his mother is a 3/4 sister to Orfevre AIA. Most French herds will have a son of Lioran and/or Orfevre running around in their pastures...both are/were very excellent bulls. Andalou AIA is a curve-bending bull in terms of width and depth of frame (i.e., his linear measurements for his width and depth characteristics are three standard deviations above the breed norm). Ushuaia and the bulls behind him are known for their elite maternal traits and above average length and width. Ushuaia, Andalou, Lioran and Orfevre are known for having well-behaved calves.
We have an excellent 2014-born heifer on the ground who was sired by Andalou and is out of the half-sister to the donor (the half-sister was also imported as an embryo, sired by Ushuaia AIA). We liked the combo and want to repeat that here and now, hence the flush and fresh implant of the donor and Andalou. We also AI'd all of our fullbloods to Andalou for the 2015 calf crop (including AI'ing the mother of the Andalou-sired heifer we liked back to Andalou again in hopes of getting another heifer).
The donor cow will be flushed to Andalou AIA again this fall (as well as 1-3 other bulls). Another one of our cows has been purposefully held out of production to be flushed later this year; she'll also be flushed to Andalou (and 2-6 other bulls).
...or at least that's the plan now...
There just aren't that many Aubrac females in North America ... the fastest way to get them on the ground is via ET work. We have around twenty different French fullbloods (plus several US-bred fullbloods) we'll be using in our ET and AI programs in the coming years.
If I still didn't answer your question, LMK.
