Hog catcher
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- Jul 21, 2019
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I have never been able to make myself fix something that isn't broken. If you have been getting the results you want with natural heats i would stick with it.
Hog catcher said:I have never been able to make myself fix something that isn't broken. If you have been getting the results you want with natural heats i would stick with it.
Buck Randall said:Most of the dairy farms around here have gone to breeding exclusively on synchronization and TAI for the first breeding. Even if a cow shows a beautiful standing heat, they'll ignore it and synchronize her because the conception rates are so much better with TAI following presynch ovsynch or double ovsynch. Of course, it's also much easier for them to give the extra shots than it is for most beef producers.
It's hard to beat the convenience of a CIDR cosynch, but if you really want to maximize your conception rate, I'd recommend something like this:
Day one: GnRH and insert CIDR
Seven days later: Prostaglandin and pull CIDR
24 hours later: Prostaglandin
32 hours later: GnRH
16 hours later: Timed AI
That's an unacceptable number of trips through the chute for most people, but if you have the right facilities and cattle for it, the 5-10% bump in conception might be worth it to you.
T & B farms said:I bred a herd of 35 on natural heats this spring. Even if I was guaranteed a 100% conception on it, I would never do it again. Took an incredible amount of time. Cows got very tired of being handled, got to the point it was a fight to get them up twice a day.
I will be doing the 14 day cidr on everything from here on out based on NEfarms recommendations.
I'm going to have about 60 heifers to breed next spring. I am going to do 14 day cidr breed on observed heats, then I'm going to watch for heats and breed them a second time as necessary. That's as close as I'm getting to breeding on natural heat ever again.
T & B farms said:I bred a herd of 35 on natural heats this spring. Even if I was guaranteed a 100% conception on it, I would never do it again. Took an incredible amount of time. Cows got very tired of being handled, got to the point it was a fight to get them up twice a day.
I will be doing the 14 day cidr on everything from here on out based on NEfarms recommendations.
I'm going to have about 60 heifers to breed next spring. I am going to do 14 day cidr breed on observed heats, then I'm going to watch for heats and breed them a second time as necessary. That's as close as I'm getting to breeding on natural heat ever again.
CreekAngus said:The protocol you are going to use, is what we use. We set them up on Wed to breed on the tenth day a Saturday. We watch for early standing heats, sometimes they will start coming in on Friday and we breed them with that heat and then the rest will come in late Saturday morning and we breed them early evening.
Bright Raven said:Thanks. I agree. I have been well served by natural heat protocol but I sure might give the synchronization a try.
Jeanne - Simme Valley said:All these different sync programs are good - but - IMO - nothing beats a natural heat. Just saying.
I can understand to sync them for the first round, then everything natural after that. You will definitely get a nice group due together.
Do you calve out on pasture? so calving area crowding won't be a problem. Are YOU up to having a bunch due at once? Getting them bred is one thing - then you have to calve them out. Which, in a perfect world, no problem - but, what if you have a few sets of twins? or puny calf? or, or, or. Sh$t happens and you are alone.