Lute

[tnwalkingred]

I have 5 cows with calves on their side that I plan on asking to the AI breeder in a week or two. The breeder only breeds on natural heat. Would it benefit me to give eac cow a shot of Lute before I take them to him to make them cycle? I normally leave them at the breeder through two cycles and I thought this might speed up the first one and save me some money as I pay by the day to have them there. Any thoughts are appreciated.

KW

 

[dun]

The best solution would be to give them a shot of GnRH followed 7 days later with lute. They will usually start coming into standing heat at about 36 hours. The GnRH starts the ovary cycle and by a 7 days a new follicle is ready.

 

[tnwalkingred]

Thanks Dun.

I assume the GnRH can be given at any time in their natural cycle?

KW

 

[dun]

Thanks Dun.

I assume the GnRH can be given at any time in their natural cycle?

KW

Yes, because it starts the cycle over no matter where they are in it. We just did 11 head. Shots on Saturday, first breeding Monday night then all the others were bred by Wednesday night

 

[dun]

We used Estrotec patches and removed them after breeding. Sue made it a lot easier. That's how I came up with using the knife to cut/shave the patches off after they were AIed that I mentioned in the tips section

 

[tnwalkingred]

So if I gave them all a shot of GnRH this Saturday then I could give them a shot of Lute before I take them to the breeder next Saturday correct? They would in turn be ready to breed within a day or two after I dropped them off?

This breeder uses chalk on the cattle for heat detection. He does mostly dairy cattle and keeps a couple hundred at a time for a big dairy out of Florida. He also breeds a few beef cows for the locals. Works out nice for me as I work a full time job and would have trouble catching heat. Not to mention I don't know how to AI! Lol.

He won't give any shots but I thought if there was something I could do before I drop them off might work to my advantage.

KW

 

[dun]

So if I gave them all a shot of GnRH this Saturday then I could give them a shot of Lute before I take them to the breeder next Saturday correct? They would in turn be ready to breed within a day or two after I dropped them off?

This breeder uses chalk on the cattle for heat detection. He does mostly dairy cattle and keeps a couple hundred at a time for a big dairy out of Florida. He also breeds a few beef cows for the locals. Works out nice for me as I work a full time job and would have trouble catching heat. Not to mention I don't know how to AI! Lol.

He won't give any shots but I thought if there was something I could do before I drop them off might work to my advantage.

KW

Chalk works too. Anything to help heat detect. If you give the GnRH Saturday you would give the lute at the same time (about) on the following saturday

 

[bse]

If your going too all that trouble put a cidr in, narrow that heat time down. Have him or someone come over Mon afternoon and breed them, no hauling, depending on how many. I wouldn't haul one for a ten dollar cidr.

 

[tnwalkingred]

BSE,

The only issue with having someone come over is that I don't have a tank. It works out pretty well to take the cattle to him as I just have my semen shipped to him and he stores it for free. Plus it gets them off my feed bill while they are there. With my current full time job and trying it keep up with the commercial cattle letting someone else take care of the AI work on the registered cows makes the most sense. I did the math and for no more than he charges per day to keep the cows I'm better off just letting him breed them on natural heat and not paying for the drugs.

KW

 

[dun]

BSE,

The only issue with having someone come over is that I don't have a tank. It works out pretty well to take the cattle to him as I just have my semen shipped to him and he stores it for free. Plus it gets them off my feed bill while they are there. With my current full time job and trying it keep up with the commercial cattle letting someone else take care of the AI work on the registered cows makes the most sense. I did the math and for no more than he charges per day to keep the cows I'm better off just letting him breed them on natural heat and not paying for the drugs.

KW

The cost of GnRH and lute is minimal. They do have natural heats and I personally think the additional percentage of first service pregnancys is worth not messing with CIDRS and the (useless for us) first service conceptions with TAI sucks. The main advantage to using GnRH and Lute is it will get them ready to breed sooner, usually, then just waiting for their normal time for a natural heat.

 

[Stocker Steve]

[The cost of GnRH and lute is minimal. They do have natural heats and I personally think the additional percentage of first service pregnancys is worth not messing with CIDRS and the (useless for us) first service conceptions with TAI sucks. The main advantage to using GnRH and Lute is it will get them ready to breed sooner, usually, then just waiting for their normal time for a natural heat.

We have seen less than 50% conception with TAI. What is your experience?

Tried lute and patches this year. Worked OK for the first four days, and then some of the cows really did not want to go into the corral again. Need better lanes next year. Any other tips?

 

[dun]

[The cost of GnRH and lute is minimal. They do have natural heats and I personally think the additional percentage of first service pregnancys is worth not messing with CIDRS and the (useless for us) first service conceptions with TAI sucks. The main advantage to using GnRH and Lute is it will get them ready to breed sooner, usually, then just waiting for their normal time for a natural heat.

We have seen less than 50% conception with TAI. What is your experience?

Tried lute and patches this year. Worked OK for the first four days, and then some of the cows really did not want to go into the corral again. Need better lanes next year. Any other tips?

We've ranged from a high of 60% to a low of 20%. Quit doing it. Now if we have to sync we used the GnRH, 7 days later lute then breed on observed heats

 

[hopalong]

pretty much my experience as well dun,,, get expensive for customers when you don't get a good percentage of settling... do not use it at all anymore when only 2 to 4 out of 10 settle and have to do the rest over......

 

[Double R Ranch]

Dun I've always used CIDR's in our sync program.
I'm ditching the CIDR's this year. Sounds like the GNRH followed by Lute in 7 (same as with the CIDR's) is just as effective and $10+ less expensive per head and you don't have the discharge, extra time etc.
I have many years of numbers for our herd. Look forward to seeing the new bred numbers and comparing.
Thanks for the info

 

[dun]

Dun I've always used CIDR's in our sync program.
I'm ditching the CIDR's this year. Sounds like the GNRH followed by Lute in 7 (same as with the CIDR's) is just as effective and $10+ less expensive per head and you don't have the discharge, extra time etc.
I have many years of numbers for our herd. Look forward to seeing the new bred numbers and comparing.
Thanks for the info

Hope it works as well for you. When I did it this time I happened to be BSing with the vet about it. He says that's what he uses unless he is going to stick an embryo in them, then he uses the CIDRs.

 

[bse]

The one problem with the GnRH then PG is that they can be spread out over 8 days coming in, and Thats the ones that respond, if you do your own work and watch close then no worries, I do my own but don't want to be watching for 8 days I spend the 10 and save myself 6 days of watching. Just pointing out the down side.

 

[dun]

The one problem with the GnRH then PG is that they can be spread out over 8 days coming in, and Thats the ones that respond, if you do your own work and watch close then no worries, I do my own but don't want to be watching for 8 days I spend the 10 and save myself 6 days of watching. Just pointing out the down side.

The furthest we've had them spread out was 3 1/2 days from when the first one came in. Only have had 2 that didn;t respond. But after running with the bull for 6 months they were still open.

 

[bse]

100% response over 3 1/2 days is amazing, I've never been so lucky even with cidrs, maybe the cidr is the problem. I can observe for 3 1/2 days. I always stayed away from it because of what it says is the time span to breed. How long you been using this protocol?

 

[dun]

100% response over 3 1/2 days is amazing, I've never been so lucky even with cidrs, maybe the cidr is the problem. I can observe for 3 1/2 days. I always stayed away from it because of what it says is the time span to breed. How long you been using this protocol?

Since we started AIing in the 70s

 

[Stocker Steve]

100% response over 3 1/2 days is amazing,

Do you have enough bull power for clean up ?