Preparing heifers for AI

[jdsears94]

Hello. I am needing some advice. I prepared my heifers for AI by inserting CIDR removing it in 7 days and giving shot of Lutalyse. My cows never came into heat within the 3 to 5 days after removing cidr and shot. What am I doing wrong? Please help. Thank you.
Denise

 

[Dsth]

more info would help. how old are the heifers and do you know the history of heifers? if you bought them from a sale barn, they could be freemartin. If they are older heifers that you thought were open; they could be pregnant already. Lutalyse won't make a heifer abort a calf if they are far enough along. My advice would be to have them checked by a vet since it seems unlikely that none cycled. How many heifers did you do?

 

[wbvs58]

Last year I had the best results with my heifers for sometime. I gave all a shot of PG, left them 2 weeks then put the cidrs in and went as normal. Got about 80% conception rate. The early dose of PG just seemed to prime them up and when the cidrs came out they were ready to come on heat going on their 3 week cycle.

Ken

 

[kentuckyguy]

I have tried using 7 day CIDR protocol on some heifers that were right at a year old. None of them cycled.
They all ended up getting bred by the bull about 6 months later. I don't think they react well to synchronization until they are actually mature enough to be ready to breed.

 

[kilroy60]

Heifers are a pain to AI in my opinion. We no longer try to use heifers unless we have one that is a phenom and has great numbers.

 

[kentuckyguy]

Heifers can be strange in general. I've had some that cycled good and would stand and others that were hard to catch in heat.

So far I've had my best AI success when breeding on natural heats.

 

[Redgully]

I have had good luck with heifers avoiding cidrs and just giving two shots of pg 12 hours apart. I like Ken's idea of a shot of pg two weeks before cidrs, makes good sense in aligning up their cycles, i will try that next time i do a group on timed ai.