AI Success Rates

I work shift so sometimes makes it easier for me to work this way. I try my best to give the injections early in the morning but sometimes it could be dinner time and still works the finest. It’s handy so far this year I have 15/25scanned in calf to calf before mid January. 4 more are served 3weeks tommorw 2 are calves around 6 weeks and the rest is late calvers so worked out handy for me but was a lot of extra work all the same.
There’s two of them I want to come natural as I hope to use sexed semen on them. One of them two had a clear slime coming from her shoulder I have AI’ed her or is there a change she may come in next few days or is 3weeks more likely. She’s about 7 weeks calved

in a recent Teagasc webinar they talk about how holding the device in longer than 7 days shortens the spread of heats, especially on repeats, animals will come in heat together over 24-48 hours rather than a 3-5 day spread. The downside of holding it in longer than 7 days is it reduces conception rates.

The man on the panel said he had it in for 9 days and none of them held their AI but all came into heat together 21 days time and held. I’m not going to be the one to test it but there is evidence a course of just estrumate forcing heats, no serve and then AI’ing on the repeat has very good results.

Changing the environment could effect conception, give the time to have 1 good cycle before serving

@limo_100 Most will be well over the 42 days (2 cycles), some will be hitting the 3rd cycle - although I've not seen much activity yet.

There are a couple they won't have hit the 42 day period, so I'll leave them off and do them next time.

@Hard Knocks are you talking about serving after the 1st cycle? I've put a scratch card on them, so I'll consider a straw if I see them in heat and think they are ready.

Would you put a straw in, within a month of calving?

Have done and then a repeat 15-21 days later. A sudden change in diet affects cycle and conception. @funkey_monkey if you’re not seeing heat after 42 days it may not be much different at 60 days best take action (Minerals / supplement feed/ twice a day suckling).

I would never put in a straw until there are 55 days post calfing. I have found going in too early leads to much higher embryo loss in early pregnancy. Losses at 70ish days in calf are a disaster as this means on a compact calving the cow ends up empty or just very late.

Is it your first year at AI? Are you getting tru the cervix ok?

This is a bad year for natural heats because of the long Spring, wet + cold summer and poor grass growth. A good reason to do a program is to get cows cycling. If they hold, happy days, if not then they are cycling and can be caught on the next repeat.

If a cow is in good health then you should confidently AI early. Last year a cow calved mid April, she was in heat 4 weeks later so I AI’d her, held and she calved mid Feb, cutting 2 months off her calving interval. She’s AI’d again now for early next Feb so not skipping that heat really paid off.

It's more to do with stress of calving and her needing time. Look i have do it and sometime it works OK sometime not. It's just my rule of thumb now.

Yeah first year at it. Some i am, but some Im not 100% sure i have. I've notes against all of them so i know which ive felt ive got and ones that were 50:50. Really struggled with the heifers. Got AI man in for them. Doing my own really helps flexibility and timing suits me so ill keep at it. Small numbers so a bit of spread in calving is ok but not ideal

First year at it too. You may just stick at it. Id be flying then a couple and youd know you didnt get them and its knocks the confidence abit. I have the bull running with heifers. I had imagined heifer harder to do but I watched dara Walton on youtube saying he prefers doing the heifers because everything is where its meant to be, which I never really thought of. I get it hard to find the cervix on some of the 1st lactation cows here.

Only a scan will be able to tell you. She is either in calf or hasn’t cycled at all. Might need an injection depending on what’s going on.

Just finished up AI’ing another sync group today. I watched them 4-5 times a day making note of who was standing and for what times. It was quite spread out over 30 hours. One cow didn’t show up in heat but the AI tech said she was. Must be a silent hear or only came in during the night for a few hours.

How do you find the smarttex system for sucklers,

Keep us posted on your progress.