Breeding season 2017

Timmaay

Don't think we have a thread on this yet. Taking a more proactive approach to breeding this year, I got about 40 cows prescanned 2wks ago who had no obvious signs of being in heat, about 15 of them needed further intervention, most just a shot of estrumate to clean out. I'll have to repeat this with the later calvers in afew weeks time. Tail painted all the milking cows tonight (including the culls!), and will keep a record every milking of which cow had the paint rubbed off, and will replace the tail paint (using a different colour) a day or so after they have been in heat. Anything not observed in 3weeks time I'll probably fire in a shot of estrumate.

Pulling back the MSD to around the 28th of April to start calving around the 1st of February, much lower SR at the minute here, so less pressure in the spring time on the 1st rotation. I'm not fully sure what I'll do with the heifers yet, synchronization wouldnt be the worst of ideas, because I'll happily have labour in for one of the milkings every day when the flood of heifers come, and no real point spreading that out too long, I'd nearly rather get it out of the way before the flood of cows calving comes.

What's everyone else at?

Sam Kade

I tried the estimate a few years ago on 14 cows only a few came bulling you'd be better off using prid on cows.

yewtree

Sam Kade wrote: »

I tried the estimate a few years ago on 14 cows only a few came bulling you'd be better off using prid on cows.

Depends what the problem is for cows that are a bit dirty it can help them clean out.
If cows aren't cycling it's a waste of time.
I am going Scanning any cows that had problems next week.
Will metricheck all the cows aswell next week.
Then examine any cow not bred after 3 weeks of breeding season

charolais0153

Eleven cows served. 8 cows scanned incalf. Am putting in cidrs during the week into 2 heifers and a cow. One cow repeated twice but no other repeats since . all good

Signpost

Bulls picked, all cows tail painted 30 days after calving since March 1 on and watching for ones not having come in now, use a Metricure and shot of estromet + another shot 3 days later if not showing signs of heat. Not going to start breeding until May 10th this year on cows & May 17th for heifers as fed up of milking cows on silage for 8 weeks every year.
Watching 2 cows that are a bit skinny, waiting for milk recording results to see if I can take them down to once a day for next 2 months to try put condition on them. Also any cow under 3.2 protein will start getting 1kg of maize meal in parlour until end of breeding season

Timmaay

Is the shot 3days later doing the trick then? I would of thought you need to wait 10days?

K.G.

G wizz the early bulling is brutal this year.they,ll have themselves skinned to the bone by time we start bulling

Buford T. Justice XIX

I'm finding the same. They are showing very strong heats and some are showing up lame 2-3 days after.

I'll be picking out the longest calved this week and getting the vet to handle them. The plan is to do that every week until I get to those 30 days calved and work from there.

Freejin

For those that tail paint, would you AI a cow solely based on the paint being rubbed off, i.e. you haven't seen her standing.

With numbers gone up and eyesight going down, I'm considering tailpainting for the first time this year.

dar31

Freejin wrote: »

For those that tail paint, would you AI a cow solely based on the paint being rubbed off, i.e. you haven't seen her standing.

With numbers gone up and eyesight going down, I'm considering tailpainting for the first time this year.

absolutely yes.

rule of thumb.
if paint is 20% gone there is a 80% chance she is bulling.

Freejin

dar31 wrote: »

absolutely yes.

rule of thumb.
if paint is 20% gone there is a 80% chance she is bulling.

Thanks for that, any other tips or advice for tailpainting? Presumably any of the brands will do the job, was looking at this on Magenta:

http://www.magentadirect.ie/Heat-Detection/DETAIL-PAINT-1L

Timmaay

dar31 wrote: »

absolutely yes.

rule of thumb.
if paint is 20% gone there is a 80% chance she is bulling.

3 cows clearly bulling last night by the tail paint rubbing off and the marks on their back, I didn't see anything bulling yday evening after painting them, or this morning bringing them up. If I was serving now all 3 would definitely of being served.

degetme

Lads what costs are being charged for handling cows and putting on breeding programmes? Had vet last year charge 55e call out
3.50 plus vat for scanning
15e a head to put a cider in a cow. Taught this ^ was a joke as had to pay another 15e for cider and more for prostaglandin which is fine. Thankfully only had a couple to treat. Are these charges the norm?

Timmaay

degetme wrote: »

Lads what costs are being charged for handling cows and putting on breeding programmes? Had vet last year charge 55e call out
3.50 plus vat for scanning
15e a head to put a cider in a cow. Taught this ^ was a joke as had to pay another 15e for cider and more for prostaglandin which is fine. Thankfully only had a couple to treat. Are these charges the norm?

Get the cows here scanned by my scanning man, 3e/head (no callout once I had a decent few for him), coil myself using a proper seeder tool (which is just a bit of plastic). Out of interest what to people pay for estrumate?

charolais0153

Cost 30 for scanning 9 cows and heifers .done by scanning man.

Vet said it'd cost 25 for the whole CIDR procedure incl call out

stanflt

Cidrs going in 40 heifers on wed morning and will serve them to ftai on sat 21

Starting bullying cows next Monday morning 17th
All cows tail painted and any with out ob heat by day 11 will get the full cidr program

6 weeks ai then bulls out


76% 6 week this yr- 82% at present but 6 still to calve

tanko

stanflt wrote: »

Cidrs going in 40 heifers on wed morning and will serve them to ftai on sat 21

Starting bullying cows next Monday morning 17th
All cows tail painted and any with out ob heat by day 11 will get the full cidr program

6 weeks ai then bulls out


76% 6 week this yr- 82% at present but 6 still to calve

Why use cidr's on heifers, would estrumate not bring them bulling and be a lot cheaper?

stanflt

tanko wrote: »

Why use cidr's on heifers, would estrumate not bring them bulling and be a lot cheaper?

Fixed time ai- no heat detection and all heifers served in 1 hrs work- then bull out 2 days later

No work
No hassle

And time with the cows

tanko

stanflt wrote: »

Fixed time ai- no heat detection and all heifers served in 1 hrs work- then bull out 2 days later

No work
No hassle

And time with the cows

Fair enough, what percentage of those heifers would you be hoping will go in-calf to the fixed time ai?

stanflt

tanko wrote: »

Fair enough, what percentage of those heifers would you be hoping will go in-calf to the fixed time ai?

75-85%

ellewood

stanflt wrote: »

75-85%

Cost per heifer??
Looks like a v good way of doing it alright labour wise with good results..

Who2

Put the bulls out. I'd intended ai,ing a good few but I'm mental with work and don't have the time to be watching them. I've had a lot bulling already but it's hard getting them all. I've still 3 to calve that are carrying well over with very little signs of springing.scanned autumn calvers as I had seen one bulling and thankfully all in calf bar the one, with most calving within 4 weeks.

larthehar

I always have 4-5 late calvers every year.. to bring them forward a few weeks, would estrumate shot do this for me? How long after calving before giving them a shot?

GrasstoMilk

larthehar wrote: »

I always have 4-5 late calvers every year.. to bring them forward a few weeks, would estrumate shot do this for me? How long after calving before giving them a shot?

Milk them OAD till they cycle. Works well I find

larthehar

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Milk them OAD till they cycle. Works well I find

Sorry but a suckler farmer throdding on dairy thread here!

charolais0153

larthehar wrote: »

I always have 4-5 late calvers every year.. to bring them forward a few weeks, would estrumate shot do this for me? How long after calving before giving them a shot?

Cidr or culls/keep more heifers and get rid of the late cslvers every year

larthehar

charolais0153 wrote: »

Cidr or culls/keep more heifers and get rid of the late cslvers every year

Thanks, how early with cidr after calving?

Buford T. Justice XIX

larthehar wrote: »

Sorry but a suckler farmer throdding on dairy thread here!

There are very good results from leaving the calves suckle twice a day only until the cows show heat. Easier said than done if you're part-time though.