Flushing a cow.

[Amo]

I did a search and came up with 46 pages to look through. Kinda busy, so just thought Id post my question.

Ive got a cow that Im thinking about flushing. 3 years ago she was open. I ran her over the next year. She raised a good calf two years ago, and I kept her over. Then last year she had an awesome calf till mid june. Cows had tubs for supplement. Calf just seamed to stop growing. She is a pretty fleshy cow, and presuming that she lost some of her milking ability. Don't really understand why, but I asked this question before and thats basicly what I gathered. Plus talked to others.

So she calved yesterday. Now Im trying to decide weather to keep her around a while and try to flush her since I have a tank or just split the pair up. She is a nice easy (maybe too easy) deep bodied cow. Never done e.t. stuff, but I got a tank with plenty of room. Yes her bag went bad. Proably because of her being too fat. She became too fat because she was open a year. So thats 2 strikes against her, but she could of been open from some other fault than her dna.

So how long do I have to wait to get a flush? I know proably at least 32 days if not 60 post calving, but just courious. What kinda expence am I looking at to do this? I know that kinda depends on the success of the flush. What things have I overlooked? The cow had her first calf in 2008. Is she too old to be successfull?

Thanks for your imput! :tiphat:

 

[bse]

im no expert at flushing kinda had the same deal cow that wouldnt hoild a calf would abort i liked her alot so decided to flush her tried it twice no luck then a flushing guru told me to try and make a recip out of her sounded crazy but i did it shes been carrying it about 90 days now he told me if she carries it ti term may just straigten her out after the first abortion normally by my rules shed be gone.
now for your questions shes not to old at all the flush will cost around 300 plus freezing each egg the more good eggs the cheaper it gets it cost me $4 a day while she was there. then semen depending on what you choose for that cost so id say about 600 a flush when its done. Then you have to have the recips syncd and embryos put in thats maybe around 75 to 100 each its not a cheap thing but if shes good it may be worth it.
you may find there are good embryos out there to buy cheaper im going to a dispersal sale next week that has several and maybe i can pick up a few there.

 

[cow pollinater]

Get rid of her! The purpose of flushing is to recreate your best cows in multitude... Why in the he!! would you want to reproduce multitudes of a cow who shows up open and her calves stop growing and she has a bad bag etc?
I have plenty of room in my tanks but I don't run out and collect bulls that have nothing to offer just to fill them.

 

[shadyhollownj]

What do you mean when you say " kept her over"? I hope that didnt mean she raised a calf and then she wasnt bred the following year. I think that will cause huge problems if she doesnt calve on a yearly basis especially if she has a problem milking. I would clarify her calving record so everyone knows the situation. Doesnt sound like your gonna get many positive responses based on the facts. Most tanks hold hundreds or thousands of straws. Dont let the extra room talk you into something. If she cant milk and is open more than once I wouldnt keep her let alone waste a straw or worse yet flush money. Sorry if thats not what you wanna hear but I learned thats theres no sugar coating on here.

 

[R V]

She sounds like a pound cow and not a flush cow. What makes her so special that she should be flushed?

 

[gizmom]

cow pollinater hit the nail on the head. Get rid of her. The only way to develop a good cow herd is to have a serious culling each year. Set yourself a culling criteria and stick to it. If a cow doesn't breed back after calving within 90 days why on earth would you want to keep her. Besides breeding back, the cow needs to wean a heavy calf, have a beautiful balanced udder, excellent conformation and feet and maintain a decent body condition. Your cows are employees not your friends, if they don't do a good job fire them. In our herd a cow doesn't get flushed until she has proven herself not with one calf but with three or four calves. To make it to the flush pen she has to breed back 70 days after calving and wean her calf in the top 5% of the herd. Her calf then has to perform and be in the top 5% of the herd at yearling. Again it takes several years to identify a cow with these qualities but then when she goes in the flush pen we know that she is worthy of flushing. I know alot of farms that flush cattle based on their genetics after one calf and some actually flush heifers, I am not saying this is wrong it just isn't right for us. No matter what the genetics not all cows are created equal and some cows even the ones with top genetics don't work in the real world.

edit to add we made mistakes when we started flushing we flushed heifers and unproven cows and it was a waste of money, so I am speaking from our experiences. Our first flush was 17 years ago so we have learned a bit since then.

Gizmom

 

[dieselbeef]

in my exp









ya gotta have a really really big toilet

 

[Nesikep]

Though I don't have experience with ET, based on her age alone which seems to be the question, I wouldn't see a problem with it.. she's not an OLD cow. The merits of flushing her I fail to see though

 

[3waycross]

Why do you want to flush her?

 

[deenranch]

. So thats 2 strikes against her, but she could of been open from some other fault than her dna.
Thanks for your imput! :tiphat:

A DONOR COW CAN HAVE ZERO STRIKES AGAINST HER,,,, ZERO STRIKES