considering a.i.

beef burger

hello lads i am considering going down the a.i. route and just wondering is it difficult any tips on it would be appreciated as my experience levels would be low. as for what breed or bull to use the limo breed seems good as i could keep some heifers and bring the steers to beef. run about 20 plus cows all good for calving interval fairly good for milk and good for docility. have a hereford bull all was good just they dont weigh well and after an extreme summer and winter thinking of something different.

micky mouse

If you are working it can be hard to get see them coming in heat,and then to get them in.I do use some ai and do use limo as well,but i think when it comes to selling stock ,ch is king (just my opinion)If you go to any mart the top breed for the farmer buying their stores ,seems to be the ch

beef burger

at home full time i know what ya mean bout the charlaois always get a good price and weight for age just the calving would be an issue not sure if id have the experience. wudnt be afraid of the breeding end of things just i spose getting used to it. the icbf is a great site for checking out bulls figgures but theres always changes to them say if a bull is at 2 stars for calving how hard actually is that.

49801

Heat detection is the hardest aspect.
if you have a stock bull at present keep him and just try and pick up a few heats to AI to a different breed for this year and you will learn from it.
Adjust your setup/thinking so that you can draft an animal to the yard with ease.

You will need to observe cows at least twice a day and better again if 3times a day. you will make mistakes but you will learn from them. Follow the am/pm rule = observed heat in the morning means ai in evening and so on.

what straw to use really depends on your cows.
Find out who is the local technician for this year and see if it suits you and you want to go the whole hog and do a DIY course.

pakalasa

I calve about 15 cows every year and I use all AI. I run a teaser bull with a chin ball marker and I get 2 seasons out of him. I try and keep only quiet cows that I can get in easily. I find I get them in easier with a bit of meal on my own. Add another person and it seems to drive them crazy. A bit of meal given every few days keeps them keen to come into the yard.
Timing of AI can be tricky as ideally, you do them 8 hours after the onset of standing heat. As for which bulls to use. ICBF are getting rid of the stars for calving difficulty and using only the absolute value, e.g 10.7 %. For the first year, stick with easy calving bulls, under 5% , and you should be ok. Watch the reliability figure too, anything over 90% is well proven.
With AI, you notice a big difference with quality, not so much when they are born, but after a few months, when they start to grow.

beef burger

cheers lads alot of food for thought there. wont be breeding till mid may so i have time to get a plan in action as calving too early is tough on the calved cow i found especially this year altough silage was well below par i thought. another place where improvement is needed. any ideas on bulls to use cows would all be good to breed from there all average enough frame wise and probally r 2 at the minute to give an idea but lovely cows to work with.

49801

Talk to a technician and see what straws he has in the tank.
Don't get too worried about deciding what straw to use as you will want the designer types before you know how accessible/price they are.

Don't use expensive straws! Stick with the 7-8euro job for year 1 and 2. Until you get get into it.