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<blockquote data-quote="Putangitangi" data-source="post: 1549697" data-attributes="member: 5956"><p>If your cow is in "the sweet spot" at 2.30am, then she's likely still in the sweet spot four hours later when it gets light. It's not quite that critical unless you're using sexed semen and if you're going to that effort, why not get out there at the right time for the saving of three weeks? You can't buy time.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I can't see why that should be. Heifers used to be my tough ones, but only because they were physically more difficult to AI with a tiny virgin cervix. Experience has made that no more difficult than older cows now.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>We're all AIing "blindfolded"; that's the nature of being inside a cow. I was talking to one of my old trainers the other day, who was telling me when he got back into AI he'd been out of the business for 30 years and when he did it again, it was as if he'd never had a break. It isn't hard if you know what you're doing and have become good at it. Sure some people can't do it or find it hard but people who can do it do not find it hard. </p><p>Yes, I'm often full of ****, I can live with that: it gets in my ears, around the back of my head if my cow swings her tail in annoyance, sometimes down my gumboots and often down the front of my clothes. It's summer, so I don't care, just strip off and wash everything down. But I can AI to a near 80% conception rate, so four out of five cows I AI are pregnant on the first shot. I love the AI season. I get a real kick out of introducing new genetics to my lovely herd.</p><p></p><p>I prefer my cows to calve within a six-week window, so I do everything I can to get them all in calf within about 35 days. Usually I don't quite make that but as the herd is reasonably short-gestation (average 278/280 on heifers/bulls), I have time up my sleeve. I calve in the same months each year.</p><p></p><p>So yeah, I reckon maybe, as you suggest, you aren't as good at AI or heat detection as you'd like to think, despite all the gizmos you have to help. I'd love to have detectors to tell me when they start standing and when they stop and how active they were in between but I have more time than money and a summer out in the fields with the cows, gradually quieting them all as I wander around checking every few hours, isn't a bad life to live.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Putangitangi, post: 1549697, member: 5956"] If your cow is in "the sweet spot" at 2.30am, then she's likely still in the sweet spot four hours later when it gets light. It's not quite that critical unless you're using sexed semen and if you're going to that effort, why not get out there at the right time for the saving of three weeks? You can't buy time. I can't see why that should be. Heifers used to be my tough ones, but only because they were physically more difficult to AI with a tiny virgin cervix. Experience has made that no more difficult than older cows now. We're all AIing "blindfolded"; that's the nature of being inside a cow. I was talking to one of my old trainers the other day, who was telling me when he got back into AI he'd been out of the business for 30 years and when he did it again, it was as if he'd never had a break. It isn't hard if you know what you're doing and have become good at it. Sure some people can't do it or find it hard but people who can do it do not find it hard. Yes, I'm often full of ****, I can live with that: it gets in my ears, around the back of my head if my cow swings her tail in annoyance, sometimes down my gumboots and often down the front of my clothes. It's summer, so I don't care, just strip off and wash everything down. But I can AI to a near 80% conception rate, so four out of five cows I AI are pregnant on the first shot. I love the AI season. I get a real kick out of introducing new genetics to my lovely herd. I prefer my cows to calve within a six-week window, so I do everything I can to get them all in calf within about 35 days. Usually I don't quite make that but as the herd is reasonably short-gestation (average 278/280 on heifers/bulls), I have time up my sleeve. I calve in the same months each year. So yeah, I reckon maybe, as you suggest, you aren't as good at AI or heat detection as you'd like to think, despite all the gizmos you have to help. I'd love to have detectors to tell me when they start standing and when they stop and how active they were in between but I have more time than money and a summer out in the fields with the cows, gradually quieting them all as I wander around checking every few hours, isn't a bad life to live. [/QUOTE]
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