Problematic Heifer AI

[MMFARM1]

Hello,

First time posting, but I'd like a few opinions on my situation. After a few years of raising a couple dozen stocker cattle, I bought some registered breeding stock, 2 bred cows and 6 heifers. The two cows calved w/o issue. I lost one cow 8 weeks after calving, leaving me with 1 cow and 6 heifers. The cow was from one farm, 5 heifers from another, and the last 'show' heifer from a third farm.

I bought 10 straws of semen from ABS.

I synchronized AI'd the cow (an ABS technician AI'd the cow). The cow was confirmed bred..

Then I synchonized AI'd the 6 heifers the same way (CIDR and gnrh, removed CIDR and pg on day 7, AI ~60 hours later with another shot of gnrh). The five heifers from the one farm were sucessfully bred. The 6th heifer, from farm C was not pregnant. No worries, I had better success than I expected.

I synchronized and time AI'd the 6th heifer again (same semen, same AI tech). 22 days later she was blatantly in heat, bellowing, pacing the field, repeatedly mounted by 8 month old steer (she's normally pretty sedate and rarely moos).

Since she was blatantly in heat, rather than preg check her again, I went ahead and synch'd her again, and had her AI'd again. Both the tech and I were pretty sure she wasn't in heat. So I expect a blood sample preg check in another 30 days will show her open.

So I've got 1 cow and 5 heifers that are confirmed pregnant with 1 service...and my show heifer that is likely open after 3 services.

I don't know whether to go ahead and punt, send her to the sale barn and cut my loses, or try one more time. How many times would you try a heifer before deciding she isn't going to work out? She's 18 months old, good body condition, zero stress. Of all the cows I've got, she the only one that willingly walks right into the chute.

Cut my loses, or give a go one more time? Winter feed isn't an issue, I just don't want to waste my time. Have others had heifers that've been difficult to get bred the 1st time, and then turned out to be pretty reliable, or is her difficulty likely to be indicative of long-term problems? She's the fanciest heifer I've got, but not higher dollar, so I don't know that getting a cattle vet out here to investigate further is worth it.

 

[wbvs58]

Why didn't you inseminate her when you saw her on heat? It would have saved you a bit of time. She is getting a fair way from the other heifers calving date now. I think I would cut my losses.
Ken

 

[bse]

I would have bred her on her natural heat instead of re-syncing her. Some just don't work with A I if you know anybody with a bull that would let her visit or bring him to your place for 45 days it may fix her up and get her on track you can start pulling her back to the others next year. Now days a vet call is cheaper than trying to find another that you like. I do ship mine if they don't breed in 45 days, just a few more options because everyones not on my plan.

 

[cow pollinater]

Heifers can be pretty hard to synchronize. All of the synch stuff that we do is considered off-label use for drugs used to treat reproductive conditions on COWS. Not to be crude but you cannot expect the cycle of a forty year old woman with three kids and the cycle of a sixteen year old girl to be the same and you can't expect sixteen year old girls to cycle the same as each other or even the same every time. It would be silly to try to try to come up with one system to manage both of them the same and yet that's what we do with cattle and then we wonder why the outliers don't breed up like we'd like.
I don't like the thought of one calving that far off from everything else but I also don't think it's absolutely her fault if you've relied on shots to get her in heat. Maybe try breeding on standing heat and if she's open she's beef and if she sticks she's a nice bred heifer for someone.

 

[MMFARM1]

haha. I would have bred her in standing heat if I could have, but I don't AI my cows, the ABS technician does. I called him and he couldn't come up. Our ABS technician lives about an hour drive away, so I schedule my service date to coincide when he's already in this county. I might try SS technician next year just because I think he lives 30 minutes away so I might be able to catch one a half day after standing heat. But the ABS guy is friendly and prompt, and was good on one try for the first 6. Calving time doesn't matter to me that much, I only have 8 females. When I get more I'll get them in a smaller window. I'll also have a bull then too...

Might ask a member at our church if I can borrow his bull, or just take my heifer over there. He owes me a favor..

 

[gizmom]

You also mentioned she was a show heifer, we have had problems getting some of the show heifers bred just due to over condition, and like CP said some heifers are just hard to get settled AI, if you could get her in with a bull you would probably get her settled.

Gizmom

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I agree with Gizmom.
If you do not have access to a bull (make sure he is heifer safe), what about taking her to the AI tech's place, whether it is the ABS or SS guy? That way they can get her on a natural heat. Breeding on a natural heat gives much better results. I would keep trying, if feed is not an issue and you are not in a hurry. It is not her fault.

 

[mjnetex]

Once was asked if a former show heifer could come stay with my herd to try to get her bred, she had failed to AI, five attempts. Took the bull three cycles to get her bred.
She was an over-conditioned nervous wreck when she got here but left a calm, happy bred heifer.

 

[CKC1586]

I would have bred her on her natural heat instead of re-syncing her. Some just don't work with A I if you know anybody with a bull that would let her visit or bring him to your place for 45 days it may fix her up and get her on track you can start pulling her back to the others next year. Now days a vet call is cheaper than trying to find another that you like. I do ship mine if they don't breed in 45 days, just a few more options because everyones not on my plan.

My opinion as well.....