female advatage A.I programme results

irishh_bob

last year , progressive genetics launched a new service , female advantage would deliver 53% heifer calves from its A.I service , interest as you can imagine was huge and if the results were going to be as certain as progressive claimed they were , the six euro ( per straw ) extra charge was peanuts when you consider how valuable heifer replacements are , my brother used 100 female advantage straws on his cows on heifers last summer , so far this spring , we have 30 cows and heifers calved , eight heifers and twenty two bulls are the result so far , ive spoken to several farmers about this and the consensus seems to be that female advantage has been a dismal failure , i got talking to a close relative of one of the top men in progressive yesterday ( himself a farmer ) and he told me they have accepted that it doesnt work and that thier will be a refund facility put in place

anyhow , just thought id ask any dairy farmers on this site if they had any experience with the product

whelan1

irishh_bob wrote: »

last year , progressive genetics launched a new service , female advantage would deliver 53% heifer calves from its A.I service , interest as you can imagine was huge and if the results were going to be as certain as progressive claimed they were , the six euro ( per straw ) extra charge was peanuts when you consider how valuable heifer replacements are , my brother used 100 female advantage straws on his cows on heifers last summer , so far this spring , we have 30 cows and heifers calved , eight heifers and twenty two bulls are the result so far , ive spoken to several farmers about this and the consensus seems to be that female advantage has been a dismal failure , i got talking to a close relative of one of the top men in progressive yesterday ( himself a farmer ) and he told me they have accepted that it doesnt work and that thier will be a refund facility put in place

anyhow , just thought id ask any dairy farmers on this site if they had any experience with the product

plenty of bulls here too, actually more than any other year:mad:

funny man

Like i said elsewhere 50:50 but it's too early to call yet, not sure if that is correct about the refund there was a problem early on and refunds were paid out on those straws but it was supposedly sorted since.

stanflt

37 females born from 67calvings so far-all to AI. 55% not bad at all-90% of straws bought from progressive-not sure how many were advantage:)

5live

I think the sucess of the female advantage semen can be seen by the fact that its not being promoted in the sire catalogue this year. Saying that, i have no friesian bull yet:) but early days

irishh_bob

whelan1 wrote: »

plenty of bulls here too, actually more than any other year:mad:

since saturday evening , we have had 14 bulls in a row here , the score reads as of now 24 bulls and 8 heifers

funny man

irishh_bob wrote: »

since saturday evening , we have had 14 bulls in a row here , the score reads as of now 24 bulls and 8 heifers

i thought i was bad 8 in a row, 1 heifer and then 5 more bulls, looks more like Female disadvantage! 38 live heifers out of 83.

irishh_bob

funny man wrote: »

i thought i was bad 8 in a row, 1 heifer and then 5 more bulls, looks more like Female disadvantage! 38 live heifers out of 83.

we,ve always had trouble getting heifers from A.I on the farm , never once have we gotten 50- 50 of a ratio of bulls to heifers and i can remember back as far as the mid nineties , last year was the best ever year with 40% heifers , if their is one thing that makes me mad , its those ever so smug farmers who seem to get over 50% heifers , year in year out :mad:

btw , its only with A.I , we have had trouble getting heifers , never any trouble when using a stock bull , unfortunatley the only kind of stock bulls used on this farm are herefords or angus when cleaning up :rolleyes:

jeff greene

I have been lucky so far this spring, 32 out of 44, all AI, none Progressive/Munster. It almost always evens itself out at best, just been on ICBF to check some popular bulls for % male and all around 50%, some people might not be registered the sire when its a bull thou.

However, this makes interesting reading, some science:rolleyes:

http://www.icbf.com/publications/files/inpress.pdf

irishh_bob

jeff greene wrote: »

I have been lucky so far this spring, 32 out of 44, all AI, none Progressive/Munster. It almost always evens itself out at best, just been on ICBF to check some popular bulls for % male and all around 50%, some people might not be registered the sire when its a bull thou.

However, this makes interesting reading, some science:rolleyes:

http://www.icbf.com/publications/files/inpress.pdf

ive never once seen 50 - 50 of a ratio of heifers to bulls on the farm here , never once and i can go back well over a decade , some people are very lucky with heifers and some are not

as for the A.I companys data of an even split between sons and daughters , i dont buy it , farmers are less concerned about putting down what the A.I bull is when registering a bull calf , besides , its bound to be the case that certain bulls throw more bulls than others , we all know familys where thier are only boys or only girls , the animal kingdom is not so different in this regard , the A.I companys put as possitive spin as possible on this issue to suit thier own ends

jeff greene

Anyone have experience of Sexed Semen? I haven’t used it but am considering using it on heifers this year. Have you used it with synchronisation? Some good bulls available now for around €40

5live

irishh_bob wrote: »

we,ve always had trouble getting heifers from A.I on the farm , never once have we gotten 50- 50 of a ratio of bulls to heifers and i can remember back as far as the mid nineties , last year was the best ever year with 40% heifers , if their is one thing that makes me mad , its those ever so smug farmers who seem to get over 50% heifers , year in year out :mad:

btw , its only with A.I , we have had trouble getting heifers , never any trouble when using a stock bull , unfortunatley the only kind of stock bulls used on this farm are herefords or angus when cleaning up :rolleyes:

We seem to get over 50% each year but dont think we are smug about it. Just luck i suppose. I AI all cows in the morning if they are going to be bulled that day. I told that to a neighbour who was, like you and many more farmers, getting more bulls than heifers. He stopped keeping cows for PM service and did them all in the morning and now reckons he is 50:50. Dont know if there is any facts behind it but i will continue to do all AI in the morning

irishh_bob

5live wrote: »

We seem to get over 50% each year but dont think we are smug about it. Just luck i suppose. I AI all cows in the morning if they are going to be bulled that day. I told that to a neighbour who was, like you and many more farmers, getting more bulls than heifers. He stopped keeping cows for PM service and did them all in the morning and now reckons he is 50:50. Dont know if there is any facts behind it but i will continue to do all AI in the morning

a very interesting theory and one ive always agreed with , they say the reason you are more likely to get heifers out of a stock bull is due to the fact that a bull will have a cow bulled before you even notice her on heat , the earlier the conception , the more likely you are to get a heifer is a commonly held view , our A.I never gets here earlier than 3 pm ( and only does one call per day i might add ) as we are at the very end of the district

whelan1

irishh_bob wrote: »

a very interesting theory and one ive always agreed with , they say the reason you are more likely to get heifers out of a stock bull is due to the fact that a bull will have a cow bulled before you even notice her on heat , the earlier the conception , the more likely you are to get a heifer is a commonly held view , our A.I never gets here earlier than 3 pm ( and only does one call per day i might add ) as we are at the very end of the district

use some one else.... i text my ai man the night before or before 7.30 am... he prefers it like that as the call centre doesnt open til half 8.... if he is coming in the evening he is normally not here til after 5pm... you are paying for the service , if you are not getting it complain

Min

I used a mixture of straws, some were advantage - most still to calve, so far from the advantage straws - 100% heifers, but it is early days.

funny man

jeff greene wrote: »

I have been lucky so far this spring, 32 out of 44, all AI, none Progressive/Munster. It almost always evens itself out at best, just been on ICBF to check some popular bulls for % male and all around 50%, some people might not be registered the sire when its a bull thou.

However, this makes interesting reading, some science:rolleyes:

http://www.icbf.com/publications/files/inpress.pdf

Where are you getting your straws from.
just looked up my female advantage straws and they are actually worse than the ordinary ones 60:40 bulls to heifers, so i'm going to follow it up.

jeff greene

funny man wrote: »

Where are you getting your straws from.
just looked up my female advantage straws and they are actually worse than the ordinary ones 60:40 bulls to heifers, so i'm going to follow it up.

I get my straws from ABS, I just had good luck this spring, GJM was like sexed semen, I used 10 units of a cheap test bull SOP on repeaters, who now has good genomic figures and have 6 heifers. The last 5 have been bulls and have about 30 more to go but I have a good bunch of early heifers for once

You should follow it up, how much extra was it? was there any reduction in conception with it? I see Eurogene have an add saying they sell the real sexed semen, 90% females. I think the fact there is no sign of it in this years catalog is enough.

irishh_bob

whelan1 wrote: »

use some one else.... i text my ai man the night before or before 7.30 am... he prefers it like that as the call centre doesnt open til half 8.... if he is coming in the evening he is normally not here til after 5pm... you are paying for the service , if you are not getting it complain

no one else does it round here other than eurogene and they havent near as good a bulls or big a selection of quality stock , they seem to have a different A.I man every year too

stanflt

stanflt wrote: »

37 females born from 67calvings so far-all to AI. 55% not bad at all-90% of straws bought from progressive-not sure how many were advantage:)

6/6 bulls since my last post but thats the way things go im afraid:) may be one in there to follow FLT;)

funny man

stanflt wrote: »

6/6 bulls since my last post but thats the way things go im afraid:) may be one in there to follow FLT;)

are you geno typing many bulls and what back breeding is in them?

funny man

jeff greene wrote: »

I get my straws from ABS, I just had good luck this spring, GJM was like sexed semen, I used 10 units of a cheap test bull SOP on repeaters, who now has good genomic figures and have 6 heifers. The last 5 have been bulls and have about 30 more to go but I have a good bunch of early heifers for once

You should follow it up, how much extra was it? was there any reduction in conception with it? I see Eurogene have an add saying they sell the real sexed semen, 90% females. I think the fact there is no sign of it in this years catalog is enough.

I was talking to an ai man today he said female advantage dosn't give any garauntee of over 50% heifers, it just past a trial test that shows it to be the case, i asked could him could he get the results of same and he said he couldn't. need to talk to the PG head.

whelan1

funny man wrote: »

I was talking to an ai man today he said female advantage dosn't give any garauntee of over 50% heifers, it just past a trial test that shows it to be the case, i asked could him could he get the results of same and he said he couldn't. need to talk to the PG head.

i think at this stage the pg head has alot on his plate

funny man

whelan1 wrote: »

i think at this stage the pg head has alot on his plate

in fairness my little issue would be minor compared to what he has to deal with.

whelan1

irishh_bob wrote: »

we,ve always had trouble getting heifers from A.I on the farm , never once have we gotten 50- 50 of a ratio of bulls to heifers and i can remember back as far as the mid nineties , last year was the best ever year with 40% heifers , if their is one thing that makes me mad , its those ever so smug farmers who seem to get over 50% heifers , year in year out :mad:

btw , its only with A.I , we have had trouble getting heifers , never any trouble when using a stock bull , unfortunatley the only kind of stock bulls used on this farm are herefords or angus when cleaning up :rolleyes:

dont really think there is an advantage of using stock bull , we have a stock bull with our sucklers and the first 6 calves are all bulls:rolleyes:

jeff greene

Piece in todays paper about it, how do you think it will go? A Birdie told me some sweet deals on straws are being done to make up for the mess.

whelan1

i hope they scrap the whole thing tbh , this messing with nature does my head in... they should just refund the €6 to all that bought the straws imo

whelan1

jeff greene wrote: »

Piece in todays paper about it, how do you think it will go? A Birdie told me some sweet deals on straws are being done to make up for the mess.

should we all not get a credit for the €6 / straw wether it be used for ai/ milk recording... pg have been quite quiet on this