From Drovers: Does AI cost or pay

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Cheapest approach by far is to lease a bull. Yes, I know you need to to careful about disease.
I have issues with injuries trying to run more than one bull, so I think the best approach for medium sized herds is to AI and then own 1 clean up bull.
 
Interesting article.

I was planning to start an AI program next year, but that pretty much confirms that it just plain makes sense for many reasons. But.................

I do however have a question for anyone who knows. Why are the cows exposed to a bull after the AI? Is the AI success rate that low? If I go thru the trouble and expense of doing the AI, it makes no sense to then have to bring in a bull "just to make sure". If I am without a bull, I then have to go out and rent one for a month, and take the chance on an unknown bull along with the unknown behavior of said bull tearing up my place and/or fences.
 
robertwhite":213u1k0b said:
Interesting article.

I was planning to start an AI program next year, but that pretty much confirms that it just plain makes sense for many reasons. But.................

I do however have a question for anyone who knows. Why are the cows exposed to a bull after the AI? Is the AI success rate that low? If I go thru the trouble and expense of doing the AI, it makes no sense to then have to bring in a bull "just to make sure". If I am without a bull, I then have to go out and rent one for a month, and take the chance on an unknown bull along with the unknown behavior of said bull tearing up my place and/or fences.
Click to expand...
It's just insurance. If you go through all of the crapola of syncing them AI then turn them out with the bull, in theory you'll only have a 3 week (or so) calving season. Sorter calving season = more uniform calf crop = more dollars.
 
That study while interesting is outdated. For instance, i cant get anyone out here to sync and ai for less than $100/hd plus straw cost. Then, i still would need to run a cleanup bull.
For small timers like myself the best deal is still the rental of a quality bull for 60 days.
But with that said, i just bought a 6 month old son of a good local bull to use for the next couple years for 400 bucks. And i already have people wanting to lease him next year as well.
Lots of variables go into the equation of whats most profitable and each operator needs to hammer out the cost for themselves.
 
Robert, most AI techs run about 60% success rate. I think my daughter is among the best and she is probably running over 80%. That is 20-40% that you either have to AI again or turn in with a bull. Even if you AI again you are only going to get that same 60-80% and you still have some open. that is why we have a clean up bull. Another positive thing about AIing is that you can also use sexed semem and get either heier calves or bull calves which ever you want. Though it can work on all females, it only works well on heifers and the success rate is much lower. I am a believer of AIing. Good luck !!!!!
 
HomePlaceAngus":392jyufs said:
Robert, most AI techs run about 60% success rate. I think my daughter is among the best and she is probably running over 80%. That is 20-40% that you either have to AI again or turn in with a bull. Even if you AI again you are only going to get that same 60-80% and you still have some open. that is why we have a clean up bull. Another positive thing about AIing is that you can also use sexed semem and get either heier calves or bull calves which ever you want. Though it can work on all females, it only works well on heifers and the success rate is much lower. I am a believer of AIing. Good luck !!!!!
Click to expand...

I would have thought the success rate to be much higher than 60%. Heck, that is barely better than a 50/50 chance. Going to have to give this AI deal a lot more thought. Low success rate plus I am going to need a bull for 30 days, I may as well forget the AI and rent a bull for 60 days.
 
robertwhite":5h0mgp1z said:
HomePlaceAngus":5h0mgp1z said:
Robert, most AI techs run about 60% success rate. I think my daughter is among the best and she is probably running over 80%. That is 20-40% that you either have to AI again or turn in with a bull. Even if you AI again you are only going to get that same 60-80% and you still have some open. that is why we have a clean up bull. Another positive thing about AIing is that you can also use sexed semem and get either heier calves or bull calves which ever you want. Though it can work on all females, it only works well on heifers and the success rate is much lower. I am a believer of AIing. Good luck !!!!!
Click to expand...

I would have thought the success rate to be much higher than 60%. Heck, that is barely better than a 50/50 chance. Going to have to give this AI deal a lot more thought. Low success rate plus I am going to need a bull for 30 days, I may as well forget the AI and rent a bull for 60 days.
Click to expand...
It's higher then 60% if you don;t sync and don;t TAI. AI on observed heats and a decent tech will be at 80 of higher.
 
Success rate should be higher than 60%. I'm at 63 - 64% non-return rate this year, actual calving rate may drop slightly from that but that's on dairy cows that are much harder to get in calf than beef.
Bulls on those same cows don't get any higher conception rate than that.
 
Rego if the bulls arent pulling higher than ai than you have a problem. Most likely a mineral problem based on some if your other posts. Just my opinion
 
Dun, had a look at the article and I'm inclined to call BS on the data of 62% calving to natural matings in 30 days... even if you use my dairy cow conception rates of 60 - 65% another third should be in calf - 60 in three weeks plus 40 (cycling)x 60% /3 (1/3 of cows cycled again) is 68 - 70% that should be achieved as a minimum.
Good arguments can't be made with erroneous data.

There's a lot of other arguments favouring either AI/bull or a combination that aren't based on expense/income differences.
 
nah hook, bulls and AI are doing the same thing. It's like Dun says, you get the higher conception rates breeding to natural and observed heats. Which is what I'm doing. If the bulls were doing better than me, I'd think I had a problem.
I'm pretty sure the bulls do better on my non-cycling cows than 'gnrh, prostaglandin and timed AI'. Which is why I chucked the non-cyclers out with bulls this year and didn't inject them with anything. I'm still learning - and interested in exploring the idea that home grown bulls might have better fertility than the ones that come off a truck.
 
The ones off a truck usually have an adjustment period of 15-30 days. As do cows moved to the bulls. But over a 60 day period with trucked in bulls i would expect 80-90 % take.
Am i missing something because im awful tired today?
 
I missed that the article was about synchronised AI, through not having read it before first posting.

Adjustment time is a good point... it's not uncommon practice here for dairy farmers to have their bulls arrive and straight out to work the same day they finish doing AI - I did that the first two years I had my own herd. The other big disadvantage the clean-up bulls have against the AI is that they're expected to get the cows that have already failed to catch with one or two chances.
 
HomePlaceAngus":qt8i8mhz said:
Robert, most AI techs run about 60% success rate. I think my daughter is among the best and she is probably running over 80%. That is 20-40% that you either have to AI again or turn in with a bull. Even if you AI again you are only going to get that same 60-80% and you still have some open. that is why we have a clean up bull. Another positive thing about AIing is that you can also use sexed semem and get either heier calves or bull calves which ever you want. Though it can work on all females, it only works well on heifers and the success rate is much lower. I am a believer of AIing. Good luck !!!!!
Click to expand...
I never really kept any "performance records" on my wife's AI'ing but I'd guess she was 90% bred on first service at least on the whole herd year in and year out. We did some synching but bred mostly on observed heat and calved year round. These were on lactating dairy cattle too under much more stress than typical beef cattle. A 60% rate is hardly worth the effort and expense.
 

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