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Bulling Heifers

  • 12-04-2013 1:28pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭


    Hope to AI the heifers in early may so should I be watching them these days for signs of bulling because where they will be bulled has only a few acres and a yard with crush so don't want to be putting them in too late and having to wait 2 3 weeks for them to come bulling again as there wont be grass there for them.


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭Bizzum


    quadboy wrote: »
    Hope to AI the heifers in early may so should I be watching them these days for signs of bulling because where they will be bulled has only a few acres and a yard with crush so don't want to be putting them in too late and having to wait 2 3 weeks for them to come bulling again as there wont be grass there for them.

    You should be watching and recording each heifer. Give yourself plenty of wriggle room and take repeats into account.
    We're you goin to sync them or AI as they come around?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    What do you mean by sync them, last year we just stuck scratchcards on them and checked them in the morning and then ring the AI crowd.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭Bizzum


    quadboy wrote: »
    What do you mean by sync them, last year we just stuck scratchcards on them and checked them in the morning and then ring the AI crowd.

    Heat synchronisation.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    You mean get them all bulled in a short time space


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,949 ✭✭✭delaval


    2 ways to do it.
    1. Day 1 and day 11 estrumate. Day 11 scratch cards or kmar and ai as bulling once a day.

    2. Day 1 scratch card/kmar and ai as bulling. Day 7 estrumate remainder and ai as bulling

    Option 1 takes 4-5 days
    Option 2 takes 10-13 days

    With each option you remove as ai'd taking pressure off your small area of ground.

    This means that all your repeats should come at the same time so return them to this paddock at about 18 days after ai and scratch card and ai.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    Last year most of them bulled in a short space of time with rest going to the bull but no bull this year. Im just worried about putting them in to the field at the right time. never did the estrumate thing that makes them come bulling does it


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭sh1tstirrer


    quadboy wrote: »
    What do you mean by sync them, last year we just stuck scratchcards on them and checked them in the morning and then ring the AI crowd.
    You should be checking them 3 times a day for 20 minutes each time. I check them at 7am 2pm and 9pm. The same when watching for repeats. I Ai for seven days then I estrumate the heifers that didn't come bulling they will be bulling in 3-4 days any that don't come bulling after that get a second injection. I have 100% heifers incalf using this method the last two years.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    Yeah I wont have much else to do so I can spend plenty of time watching them and the scratchcards are a great job as long as you know they havnt been scratched by briars and things, I hear the whole card must be completely scratched off. Should I put a new card on a heifer after shes bulled the first time, the cards are expensive like


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭sh1tstirrer


    If you don't put in the effort you will end up with empty heifers. Did many of your heifers hold to ai last year. When you are depending on 100% ai you need to put in the effort.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    I think a good few of them did, we sold them after Christmas and will be doing the same with this lot so getting them in calf is number 1 priority. Still have them inside feeding them up iv been told they look great my a neighbour, last year we bulled them in late may but I was told the earlier the better


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭sh1tstirrer


    Are they beef heifers for suckling?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    No their dairy


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭sh1tstirrer


    Only buyers buying incalf dairy heifers before Christmas around here were exporters. They were offering 11-1200 for export to Russia.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    Only buyers buying incalf dairy heifers before Christmas around here were exporters. They were offering 11-1200 for export to Russia.
    No we sell ours after Christmas as close to calving as possible, a few of ours made 1300


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    delaval wrote: »
    2 ways to do it.
    1. Day 1 and day 11 estrumate. Day 11 scratch cards or kmar and ai as bulling once a day.

    2. Day 1 scratch card/kmar and ai as bulling. Day 7 estrumate remainder and ai as bulling

    Option 1 takes 4-5 days
    Option 2 takes 10-13 days

    With each option you remove as ai'd taking pressure off your small area of ground.

    This means that all your repeats should come at the same time so return them to this paddock at about 18 days after ai and scratch card and ai.
    Could I just estrumate and stick scratchcards on them on day one and estrumate anything not bulled again a week after


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,949 ✭✭✭delaval


    quadboy wrote: »
    Could I just estrumate and stick scratchcards on them on day one and estrumate anything not bulled again a week after
    Yes, you will get a lot bulling on days 2 and 3 then est remainder on day7. Don't be disappointed if they all don't come as they may be prepubesent


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    Planning on estrumating the heifers this week, was wondering is early feb too early for heifers to be calving,wouldn't buyers prefer an early calving heifer.


  • Registered Users Posts: 85 ✭✭doyleshill


    Do you AI as bulling if they are showing no sign of heat


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,701 ✭✭✭dar31


    delaval wrote: »
    2 ways to do it.
    1. Day 1 and day 11 estrumate. Day 11 scratch cards or kmar and ai as bulling once a day.

    2. Day 1 scratch card/kmar and ai as bulling. Day 7 estrumate remainder and ai as bulling

    Option 1 takes 4-5 days
    Option 2 takes 10-13 days

    With each option you remove as ai'd taking pressure off your small area of ground.

    This means that all your repeats should come at the same time so return them to this paddock at about 18 days after ai and scratch card and ai.

    in option 2 is there any importance to estrumate on day 7 or can it be at anytime during the first round of breeding

    i ask as this is my first year ai'ing heifers, and there arent as many as i would like around, so was going to sync once then let the bulls in, at the moment im 10 days into breeding, and about 45% of them have been served


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    doyleshill wrote: »
    Do you AI as bulling if they are showing no sign of heat
    How can you ai them if they arnt showing signs of bulling


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭Bizzum


    quadboy wrote: »
    How can you ai them if they arnt showing signs of bulling

    Get them drunk. :-)

    Ah no, it's called fixed time insemination.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,394 ✭✭✭✭Timmaay


    Blind luck, and just AI them at a fixed time following injection (I can't remember the timeframe, maybe 48hours?).

    But unless your heat detection methods are brutal, having to resort to this seems abit counter productive as the heifer could well just either show very poor signs of being in heat, or have problems inside her, and would be likely to continue to have problems down the road. We must have spend a fortune on afew cows last year trying to get them back in calf, coils/estrumate/recepitol, eventually got them in calf but on hindsight would have been way less hassle to have just flogged them on while the cull cow prices were good.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    Bizzum wrote: »
    Get them drunk. :-)

    Ah no, it's called fixed time insemination.
    Oh right never heard of it


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭sh1tstirrer


    quadboy wrote: »
    How can you ai them if they arnt showing signs of bulling
    Fixed time AI it's called. AI them twice 72 and 96 hours after second injection. I know a farmer that did it and only two went incalf out of twenty.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,394 ✭✭✭✭Timmaay


    Fixed time AI it's called. AI them twice 72 and 96 hours after second injection. I know a farmer that did it and only two went incalf out of twenty.

    Owch, that must have been an expensive exercise, surely it's only be worth while if you did yourown AI, and had a load of cheap straws.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,949 ✭✭✭delaval


    quadboy wrote: »
    Planning on estrumating the heifers this week, was wondering is early feb too early for heifers to be calving,wouldn't buyers prefer an early calving heifer.
    Early Feb is perfect time for heifers. If I were buying I would only buy Feb calving


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,949 ✭✭✭delaval


    Fixed time Ai only about 20% effective.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 472 ✭✭quadboy


    delaval wrote: »
    Fixed time Ai only about 20% effective.
    I hope fixed time Ai is different to estrumating


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭sh1tstirrer


    Timmaay wrote: »
    Owch, that must have been an expensive exercise, surely it's only be worth while if you did yourown AI, and had a load of cheap straws.

    What made it even more expensive for him is that he had to AI the heifers that didn't go incalf a third time and later in the season as he presumed that they were all incalf until he scanned them.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭sh1tstirrer


    quadboy wrote: »
    I hope fixed time Ai is different to estrumating

    You inject with estrumate then you can watch them for signs of heat or use fixed time AI.


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