To Lute or not to Lute

[J&D Cattle]

I have a question about lutalyse. I bought an additional 10 pair in March and wasn't planning on keeping any of the calves back for replacement heifers. After letting the bull breed the cows I went ahead and left him with them as he wasn't needed again to breed the fall cows until Dec. Last week I made plans to keep a couple heifers back and as my luck would have it the neighbor stopped by to tell me the bull was breeding one of the keepers earlier today.

Does a shot of lutalyse have any lasting effects or when I'm ready to breed these heifers in May will all be well? If I still decide to keep the heifers should I give the shot immediately or wait a bit or longer?

Thank you in advance for the feedback.

 

[SSGenetics]

Shoot em up.... :2cents:

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I have always been told you need to wait at least 10 days after exposure. We just hit an Angus heifer with Lute yesterday, since she is now 13 months old and we have not seen any heat on her. She was in the pasture with the spring calves, and spring bulls, so she could have been bred and we did not know it. We plan on breeding the end of November for Sept calves next year, she should be clean by then.

 

[dun]

I have always been told you need to wait at least 10 days after exposure. We just hit an Angus heifer with Lute yesterday, since she is now 13 months old and we have not seen any heat on her. She was in the pasture with the spring calves, and spring bulls, so she could have been bred and we did not know it. We plan on breeding the end of November for Sept calves next year, she should be clean by then.

Correct, 10 days is about the minimum, I prefer 14 but that's just me.

 

[cow pollinater]

If she took there's no immediate time limit but you have to wait until she develops a corpus lutium before the lut will work. Ten days should do it if that fit's your schedule but anything up to about a month won't hurt her to bad for breeding back at the end of November.

 

[dun]

If she took there's no immediate time limit but you have to wait until she develops a corpus lutium before the lut will work. Ten days should do it if that fit's your schedule but anything up to about a month won't hurt her to bad for breeding back at the end of November.

But lute isn;t alwasy 100% affective. The vet ran a cow with our bull last year for a month while he was on vacation. A coupleo fweks after she went home he gave her lute and just didn't pay anymore attention. He shipped her off with 3 other cows to be flushed and she was carrying a calf. The flushed the others and she dropped a really nice hiefer calf, then they flushed her.

 

[chippie]

Ditto, it does not always work.
Firesweep, I suggest that you palpate your heifer so that you will know for sure whether or not she is pregnant.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Chippie, can a pregnancy be detected that early?

 

[chippie]

An experience person can tell at 45 days.
some cattle will come in heat before they turn a year old. If the heifer was running with bulls, she could have been bred at an earlier age.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Thanks Chippie.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Thanks for the replies, I'll give it a few more days and give them the shot. I'll then probably draw blood later on and send it in to bio-tracking to make double sure that they are indeed open.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Ditto, it does not always work.
Firesweep, I suggest that you palpate your heifer so that you will know for sure whether or not she is pregnant.

We shot her with lute, but she never showed signs of heat (or slipping a calf). We work with the calves every evening, so I have watched her closely. I think next time we go in to the vet I will take her with me, wondering if she is sterile? We bought her with her dam, and she was on the smallish side (she was 2 days old, and sold through a dispersal sale in OK during the drought). In the back of my mind I am wondering if she wasn't a twin to a bull, and the bull did not make it or was pulled off the cow???? She is a late August heifer, and should have showed signs of heat by now you would think. Not used to Angus (she is registered), but our Simm heifers usually have their first heat by 8 months of age!