Heifer fertility question

[Air gator]

I have a really nice heifer and she didn't take with AI, but I used her as a recip and she took.
Do you think she will easier to get pregnant after she calves? Have you had a heifer not take to AI bred by a bull...were you able to get her bred AI the next time? I remember hearing about a great female athlete who had all these injuries and then she got pregnant and it helped heal her old injuries. Just wondering if the hormones from a pregnancy would affect the future fertility. Thanks.

 

[Son of Butch]

I have a really nice heifer and she didn't take with AI, but I used her as a recip and she took.
Do you think she will easier to get pregnant after she calves?
Have you had a heifer not take to AI bred by a bull...were you able to get her bred AI the next time?
I remember hearing about a great female athlete who had all these injuries and then she got pregnant and it helped
heal her old injuries. Just wondering if the hormones from a pregnancy would affect the future fertility. Thanks.

No, I do not think using as a recip improves fertility.
Yes I've bred many dairy cattle that were A.I. repeat breeders and were never a recip, yet went on to settle on the
1st A.I. service the next year.

As for the 'great female athlete' perhaps going off steroids allowed her to get pregnant and or her old injuries healed
from more rest and less strenuous work outs ect. who knows.

 

[NEFarmwife]

This intrigues me. We've never used a heifer as a recip.

But I wouldn't concern myself with her not taking to AI the first time around. When you consider the AI Preg rate, she may have just been one that didn't stick.

Have you tried to AI her more than once?

 

[Air gator]

NEFarmWife,
From all the research I saw heifers had the highest conception rate as recips.
I used Brahman-dairy crosses and they all did well as mama cows.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

It usually takes a fertile cow/heifer to settle to an embryo. Implanting embryos have a lower conception rate than straight AI
Heifers make great recips.