When to breed? - sexed semen on natural heat.

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Katpau

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We were getting ready to synchronize a group of cows, a few of which I hoped to breed with sexed semen. When we went to gather and sort yesterday about 11AM, I saw one of them was coming in heat. By noon she was standing. I called my AI technician and we bred her early this morning with sexed semen. While doing this I saw another was also standing at about 7:30 AM . I don't know how long she had been standing. I had also hoped to use female sexed semen on her, so my question is:
Do you think we can breed her tonight at about 6:30 with sexed semen?
Wait until early tomorrow and breed with sexed?
Breed with conventional semen tonight?
I know they recommend 18-22 hours after standing heat for sexed semen, but I am not going to ask my 85 year old AI technician to breed at a facility without electricity at 2AM.

What would you do?
 
I have not heard about waiting 18-22 hours for sexed semen. It is always a guessing game as to when to breed since every cow in the herd may be different. if it was me, I would breed tonight. It may also help to give a shot of Gnrh at insemination time to help ovulate.
 
I know they recommend 18-22 hours after standing heat for sexed semen,
Yes. I have been told to wait longer if you are using sexed semen versus conventional.

I don't know how long she had been standing.
That's the problem. You see a cow standing, but where is she at in her cycle? So I just watch for natural heats and use the AM/PM rule for both sexed and conventional semen. If you call your 85-year old AI tech and explain you want a cow breed at exactly 6:30PM, s/he may think you are crazy. ...not sure what to say... Do not micromanage and be thankful there is an AI tech in your area to work with.

We were getting ready to synchronize a group of cows,
Once you do setup a group of timed AI cows, please keep the group on schedule. Give the shots at the scheduled times. Do not pull cows off the schedule to breed them. Stick to the timed AI schedule.
 
I use heat detection stickers and observe 2 or 3 times a day. If I see a cow stand and the sticker is barely rubbed, I figure she has just started standing. If it is partially rubbed or completely rubbed, I make a guess about how long she might have been standing based on activity and amount of rubbing. If it is 2 pm and the sticker is completely rubbed off, I would be inclined to breed that evening. If it is barely rubbed, then the next morning. If it is completely rubbed off at 7 am and the cow is no longer standing and was not observed standing or rubbed late the previous pm, then would probably breed that morning. No doubt, there is an ideal window. But with some detection, stickers and maybe GNRH, the acceptable window is probably wide enough to cover most of them.

I have never used sexed semen. No experience there.
 
When we went to gather and sort yesterday about 11AM, I saw one of them was coming in heat. By noon she was standing. I called my AI technician and we bred her early this morning with sexed semen. While doing this I saw another was also standing at about 7:30 AM . I don't know how long she had been standing. question is:
Do you think we can breed her tonight at about 6:30 with sexed semen?
Wait until early tomorrow and breed with sexed?
Breed with conventional semen tonight?

What would you do?
Standing at 7:30 AM the bull would breed her and I'd breed her in the afternoon.
I've had higher conception rates breeding early rather than too late.
 
Yeh, why wouldn't you breed her that afternoon? You have the advantage of being able to send your guy away for a while. With me watching them I get an itchy trigger finger and would probably do her just after lunch. I sure hope I'm still inseminating them in another 14 years at age 85, gives me some hope.

Ken
 
We were getting ready to synchronize a group of cows, a few of which I hoped to breed with sexed semen. When we went to gather and sort yesterday about 11AM, I saw one of them was coming in heat. By noon she was standing. I called my AI technician and we bred her early this morning with sexed semen. While doing this I saw another was also standing at about 7:30 AM . I don't know how long she had been standing. I had also hoped to use female sexed semen on her, so my question is:
Do you think we can breed her tonight at about 6:30 with sexed semen?
Wait until early tomorrow and breed with sexed?
Breed with conventional semen tonight?
I know they recommend 18-22 hours after standing heat for sexed semen, but I am not going to ask my 85 year old AI technician to breed at a facility without electricity at 2AM.

What would you do?
I would breed her this evening. Too early isn't ideal, but too late is no good at all.
 
Thank you all for you comments and suggestions. Yesterday was a busy day. We put CIDR's in the rest of the AI cows and got everyone sorted back to the proper pastures to wait the arrival of bulls. We went ahead and bred that cow at a little after 7PM. My technician brought his wife along. (He knows we usually take him to dinner after we're done) I had assumed he would be tired and ready for bed because I was, but we offered dinner anyway and they readily accepted. It was my husbands birthday and we had a great time. By the way. I got his age wrong. He is only a youthful 81. We are really not all that far behind, so have plenty in common and always enjoy their company.
 
I haven't used any large quantities of sexed semen but the stuff we used from ST has settled cows readily. Even settled 2 out of 3 on a time deal for our daughter.
 
AI can be such a crapshoot as you get 1 shot at it and you hope you service at the right time of the heat cycle. You've got time and money invested in it all for the hope that you use that straw at the optimal moment I think we all second guess ourselves sometimes. We have always used the rule if you see standing heat in the morning breed that night, if you see it in the evening breed in the morning. Some years have great conception rates and others not. We only heat sync for 1 round of AI then turn out with the bull for the rest of the summer. What doesn't settle AI usually settles next heat with the bull and we are able to maintain a fairly tight calving window most years and still be able to sync most of the cows we want to AI the following year even if they had a natural sired calf.
 
Ok, breeding cows is not rocket science if I'm able to be good at it. My wife says I'm not good at anything. Sexed semen yes is slightly damaged in the sorting process. Breed the cow when she is in heat, when time allows.

The last 12 months cows I have bred.
75% sexed female semen on these breeding's, 25% conventional beef on the dairy. I could dig up some numbers on beef herd too but this is fast.

0-2 hours breeding past first heat, 60% pregnant on 25 breedings
2-12 hours 49% on 71 breedings
over 12 hours 38% on 125 breeding

Do not screw around and wait to breed cows. Breed them when the bull would!

So more data for you, breeding preg rate on visual vs my pedometer system.

Breeding very early off seeing a heat before my system catches it 56% pregnant on 27 breedings, 44% on system on 265 breedings, 38% on TAI on 13 breedings, 33% off ultrasound on 3 breedings.
 

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