Cows not coming in heat

farmer2018

I have cows that have calved with 2 months and there is not sign of them coming in heat, they have shown a clear mucus discharge but no activity. I have a young bull with them which has picked up heifers in heat. I also have the heat detection patches on them and nothing.

What to do next??

Lady Haywire

Patience.
Long winter is taking its toll, everything is a few weeks behind.

High bike

farmer2018 wrote: »

I have cows that have calved with 2 months and there is not sign of them coming in heat, they have shown a clear mucus discharge but no activity. I have a young bull with them which has picked up heifers in heat. I also have the heat detection patches on them and nothing.

What to do next??

wait for the weather to pick up

farmer2018

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Patience.
Long winter is taking its toll, everything is a few weeks behind.

Was thinking the same, would prefer them to come in naturally.

Angus2018

Everything is weeks behind with the delayed turnout and poor grass growth, everyone is just going to have to lengthen their bulling/AI period this year to allow cows the extra few weeks to come in heat and most importantly hold. If you don't then you run the risk of a lot of cows not being in calf.

It's a pain but this bad winter will have lasting effects for this and next year in many areas.

With that said Ive had great luck with fertility boosting licks.

charolais0153

farmer2018 wrote: »

I have cows that have calved with 2 months and there is not sign of them coming in heat, they have shown a clear mucus discharge but no activity. I have a young bull with them which has picked up heifers in heat. I also have the heat detection patches on them and nothing.

What to do next??

Cidrs are a good job.

farmer2018

Angus2018 wrote: »

Everything is weeks behind with the delayed turnout and poor grass growth, everyone is just going to have to lengthen their bulling/AI period this year to allow cows the extra few weeks to come in heat and most importantly hold. If you don't then you run the risk of a lot of cows not being in calf.

It's a pain but this bad winter will have lasting effects for this and next year in many areas.

With that said Ive had great luck with fertility boosting licks.

I give mine the Alltrace high iodine bolus twice a year and find them good. For some reason this year the few are not coming in heat as normal. I will be patient another few weeks! Normally get them in heat 5-8 weeks.

patsy_mccabe

Give them some Dairy Nuts. You could seperate the calves from them, but thats a lot of work. I hate to see cows slipping back. You never get them forward again and if you do it will take years.

Limestone Cowboy

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Give them some Dairy Nuts. You could seperate the calves from them, but thats a lot of work. I hate to see cows slipping back. You never get them forward again and if you do it will take years.

Ah I dunno about that patsy. Normally found here that a cow that calved in May with plenty of grass around and the sun on their back would go back in calf very quick and be a month or 6 weeks earlier the following year. The February ones tend to do the opposite then.

Hard Knocks

I’d a heifer not cycling last year as she was on hungry ground. 1 month of feeding & she held first time.
It’s been a long tough winter

Donegalforever

charolais0153 wrote: »

Cidrs are a good job.

I agree.


CIDR (or PRID) are very useful to get cows cycling.


I have used them successfully.

farmer2018

Would ye AI a cow if ye saw the clear mucus even without any sign of activity?

I thought one cow came bulling the other day as patch was red (no trees to scratch off) and AI man said she was definitely in heat and now this evening a young bull is following her trying to rise her but she is not waiting.

simx

farmer2018 wrote: »

Would ye AI a cow if ye saw the clear mucus even without any sign of activity?

I thought one cow came bulling the other day as patch was red (no trees to scratch off) and AI man said she was definitely in heat and now this evening a young bull is following her trying to rise her but she is not waiting.

If in doubt serve her I say

Lady Haywire

simx wrote: »

If in doubt serve her I say

As the AI man says.....what would the bull do!

farmer2018

Lady Haywire wrote: »

As the AI man says.....what would the bull do!

There would be no worry about AI then!

farmer2018

farmer2018 wrote: »

Would ye AI a cow if ye saw the clear mucus even without any sign of activity?

I thought one cow came bulling the other day as patch was red (no trees to scratch off) and AI man said she was definitely in heat and now this evening a young bull is following her trying to rise her but she is not waiting.

Has anyone any thoughts on the above?

FeelTheBern

farmer2018 wrote: »

Has anyone any thoughts on the above?

Could be a follicular cyst - this can result in strange oestrus patterns. See how she goes over next few weeks and if not sure what she's doing, or if getting vet for something else, get your vet to scan her.

farmer2018

FeelTheBern wrote: »

Could be a follicular cyst - this can result in strange oestrus patterns. See how she goes over next few weeks and if not sure what she's doing, or if getting vet for something else, get your vet to scan her.

Well the only thing I am thinking is the other day when the patch was red she wasn't in heat (I didn't see any mounting) as there is two young bulls following her this morning.

patsy_mccabe

farmer2018 wrote: »

Well the only thing I am thinking is the other day when the patch was red she wasn't in heat (I didn't see any mounting) as there is two young bulls following her this morning.

If she's jumping up on them or standing to be mounted, I'd AI her. Cows can have a weak heat 3 weeks after going in calf.

farmer2018

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

If she's jumping up on them or standing to be mounted, I'd AI her. Cows can have a weak heat 3 weeks after going in calf.

Ya definitely as that`s a true heat. She has to be coming in as young bulls are following her. She must not have been in heat 3 days ago.

tellmeabit

I've cows calved since March and not seeing much action by them. Put scratch cards on them a week ago. Still no sign. Woukd it be anybidea to give them a shot of alfaglandin c, have some that I was going to give a couple to help clear them after calving. Would it work to sync both cows and heifers

Angus2018

I put all my cows on fertility boosting lick buckets this weekend and moved them into a fresh paddock. 3 heats today. They're a bit late with the bad spring but good to see then coming back in. Some people don't agree with mineral licks but I feel it helps a lot. L

The old lad said there was a saying about rain triggering heats when there is a drought. Could be some truth to that!

tellmeabit

I started them on the licks Friday and giving them plenty fresh grass twice daily

farmer2018

Angus2018 wrote: »

I put all my cows on fertility boosting lick buckets this weekend and moved them into a fresh paddock. 3 heats today. They're a bit late with the bad spring but good to see then coming back in. Some people don't agree with mineral licks but I feel it helps a lot. L

The old lad said there was a saying about rain triggering heats when there is a drought. Could be some truth to that!

Are they all standing heat?

The man in red and black

tellmeabit wrote: »

I've cows calved since March and not seeing much action by them. Put scratch cards on them a week ago. Still no sign. Woukd it be anybidea to give them a shot of alfaglandin c, have some that I was going to give a couple to help clear them after calving. Would it work to sync both cows and heifers

The first heat in a cow is usually silent. This tends to be around day 30+ after calving in a dairy cow, later in a suckler cow due to suckling inhibition. If they have already had this silent heat then they will have a Corpus Luteum(CL) and therefore will be suitable for a Prostaglandin injection and you should see a fair proportion(approx 70%) in heat within 2-5 days. If they are not cycling at all(Possibly due to body condition score loss in a bad year etc) then Prostaglandin will do nothing and you should have vet out to scan them, determine cause if possible and treat with CIDR/PRIDs + GnRH injections.

Be careful not to bring on too many cows at once and overwhelm a bull. Synchronisation is best done for AI not for bulls unless in small batches spread out.

tellmeabit

Sold stock bull last year hence I'm feeling the pressure to catch them for ai.. think it's No harm to give them a shot and will sync some of them anyways

Hard Knocks

The man in red and black wrote: »

The first heat in a cow is usually silent. This tends to be around day 30+ after calving in a dairy cow, later in a suckler cow due to suckling inhibition. If they have already had this silent heat then they will have a Corpus Luteum(CL) and therefore will be suitable for a Prostaglandin injection and you should see a fair proportion(approx 70%) in heat within 2-5 days. If they are not cycling at all(Possibly due to body condition score loss in a bad year etc) then Prostaglandin will do nothing and you should have vet out to scan them, determine cause if possible and treat with CIDR/PRIDs + GnRH injections.

Be careful not to bring on too many cows at once and overwhelm a bull. Synchronisation is best done for AI not for bulls unless in small batches spread out.

Would you fix time AI or standing heat?

High bike

The bit of sun last week did the trick here,had 5 bulled over the week end and I see the bull sweet talking another one tonight

squinn2912

Same craic here. Put the bull out with heifers early on and whatever hold we keep. He needed his feet peared last week and we were worried he wouldn’t jump but he bulled 3-4 from about Thursday. Some cows will slip a few weeks but with heifers calving a break won’t do any harm

The man in red and black

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Would you fix time AI or standing heat?

Depends on your preference and capacity to closely heat detect. Benefit of FTAI is you are certain to have 100% served. Provided cows are otherwise in good condition the conception rates are adequate too. Most important thing this time of the year is to get the cows served. If not seen bulling and therefore not served they gave 0% conception rate. If not there to heat detect and cows have not been seen bulling it is a very useful tool to get them on a FTAI program and at least you've made a start and know when to watch for repeats.

Sami23

From your experience on average how many weeks post calving would ye say Cows normally come bulling if there are no issues with them ?

RedPeppers

Sami23 wrote: »

From your experience on average how many weeks post calving would ye say Cows normally come bulling if there are no issues with them ?

4-6 weeks would be my experience

High bike

RedPeppers wrote: »

4-6 weeks would be my experience

same here everything calved in March is bulled in the last 2/3 weeks

Bigbird1

4 cows calved here since mid febuary and no sign
Some cows calved in mid march are served with Ai. Have to agree that some later calved cows turned out to grass straight after calving generally come in heat quickly.

tellmeabit

I've only noticed a couple after an injection and one jumped the barrier beside the crush. So have a bull with them now and hope tonsee more action now

farmer2018

Had a cow showing signs of heat 9 days ago AI'ed her, young bull following her and she was trying to mount other cows this morning.. He was still following her this afternoon. AI her tomorrow morning or what to do??

charolais0153

farmer2018 wrote: »

Had a cow showing signs of heat 9 days ago AI'ed her, young bull following her and she was trying to mount other cows this morning.. He was still following her this afternoon. AI her tomorrow morning or what to do??

Id ai her again

farmer2018

charolais0153 wrote: »

Id ai her again

Even if it was gone out of her at 3/4. Hopefully the morning won't be too late.

charolais0153

Yes. Had 3 cows bulling one day. Heat was kinda gone off them by 3 oclock.aied 2 of them and left one till following morning as she was still mounting them but they werent interested in her. Tje one the following morning kept and the two that evening broke

anthony500_1

charolais0153 wrote:

Yes. Had 3 cows bulling one day. Heat was kinda gone off them by 3 oclock.aied 2 of them and left one till following morning as she was still mounting them but they werent interested in her. Tje one the following morning kept and the two that evening broke

That's the problem with ai it's hard to know when to bloody do some of them. Seen a cow here last year 4 days the bull was sniffing after her. Sure what day would you ai the likes of her. Day 1 or day 4 And she held on that heat too. There is def a skill to knowing when is right time to ai. And I for one def don't have it

High bike

anthony500_1 wrote: »

That's the problem with ai it's hard to know when to bloody do some of them. Seen a cow here last year 4 days the bull was sniffing after her. Sure what day would you ai the likes of her. Day 1 or day 4 And she held on that heat too. There is def a skill to knowing when is right time to ai. And I for one def don't have it

only ai a few heifers every year I’d normally use the am,pm method and it normally works fine,standing heat am ai pm and standing heat pm ai am

whelan2

Only do morning ai serves here this last few years, ai man here before 9 am every morning . Works the finest and less work involved

Dakota Dan

Donegalforever wrote: »

I agree.


CIDR (or PRID) are very useful to get cows cycling.


I have used them successfully.

I have a cow that had to get cidr to bring her back in heat after calving with the last 3 years this year she came bulling 3 weeks after calving.

KatyMac

Bloody heifer bulling this morning. Neighbour's bull looking lovingly at her across the fence. She's supposed to be calving 18th July (2018)! Me not happy.

wiggy123

****--she slip calf?? do u not scan?

charolais0153

wiggy123 wrote: »

****--she slip calf?? do u not scan?

Scan is bull**** imo especially if u know when they were served.often had cows incalf come bulling later

greysides

KatyMac wrote: »

Bloody heifer bulling this morning. Neighbour's bull looking lovingly at her across the fence. She's supposed to be calving 18th July (2018)! Me not happy.

Does she look in-calf? She might still be. It's not unknown for in-calf animals to show signs of heat.

Dakota Dan

greysides wrote: »

Does she look in-calf? She might still be. It's not unknown for in-calf animals to show signs of heat.

That can happen a heifer here came bulling every 10 days as she was springing to calve, I also had a few cows last year that repeated to ai but were incalf to first ai.

wiggy123

heavy incalf females can show signs of heat.. shes a hfr, any sign of bagging up?

Mooooo

They say up to 10 % can have signs of heat.

whelan2

KatyMac wrote: »

Bloody heifer bulling this morning. Neighbour's bull looking lovingly at her across the fence. She's supposed to be calving 18th July (2018)! Me not happy.

Ai man should be able to tell you if she's in calf