Timed AI in Heifers

[WarEagle73]

I set my heifers up on the 7 day Co-Synch protocol and bred them this afternoon. We started breeding at 53 hours after pulling CIDRs and finished by 54 hours. It was a really wet, nasty day here in Alabama, but we did see a little bit of riding and heat activity around the time we bred. Our bull is in an adjacent pen and was riled up all day. When we got them in the chute, I saw a lot of thick clear mucus in each heifer.

My question is, what else do you look for when observing for heat in Timed AI heifers to see if they responded to the protocol? TIA

 

[bse]

If your doing TAI not really looking for anything, just breed at whatever time, I know the protocol says 54 + or- 2 but I like 60 to 66. The ones you seen standing just before breeding at 54 may do a little better at 60. I sync and breed as needed usually 2 different times, you will get several answers here, I breed more hefiers at 66 hours than at 54.

 

[Brand]

Remember to have plenty of cleanup bulls so you can benefit a tighter calving interval through the females life
and continued strict management. That's what I consider the best advantage of timed Ai rather than the 60 or so percentage of Ai calves one may get.

A real good AI tech told us make sure you have more than one fresh bull waiting for the heifers as soon as they are released from the AI Chute.

 

[VirginiaCattle]

I would not turn a bull with them for 24 hours. That semen you put in them will still be viable for that long. most people would prefer the AI bull to be the sire. Not sure why you would spend the money on semen to let your herd bull win the race.

 

[Amo]

They have been telling us 60-66 hrs here for several years now.

 

[Dave]

I start Ai'ing at 54 hours. Takes about 2 hours to run through 60 heifers. So we finish at 56 hours. I turn in the clean up bulls 48 hours later. Two years ago the clean up bull had nothing to do for three weeks. I got about 70% with the TAI. Last year the bull went right to work. There were heifers mounting each other when I turned them out. I am not sure what the AI success rate was but I am certain it was not as good as the year before.