Empty heifers
- Thread starter Devon lad
- Start date
I thats it
Member
I'm sure I was once told to do sexed semen earlier
I thought they recommend the am/pm rule, not that I followed it
I work with serving later on advise from scanning man. Two heifers i ai,d on am pm rule were scanned when doing a batch of cows and had only realeased egg 23hours post standing heat, so sexed straws probably wouldn't have held but the Angus ones did at the time.
So that's why I ai later with sexed.
- Location
- somerset
we had problems last year with the heat, and reabsorption. But the biggest problem we had, which took a bit of finding, was bull power, these xbred heifers, and cows, come bulling very strongly, and definitely not for the same length of time as a holstien ! and though our bull ratio was 1 to 20, the poor old chaps, got tired very quickly, with serving hfrs that, in some cases ,were bulling for a couple of days. So, if your sexed hfrs went with the bulls at 21 days, were they 'shagged out' ? how many of your natural service held to their 1st cycle ? What we found, plenty hfrs calved in 3 weeks, but after that...…….it's a fair loss having to sell empty hfrs. We now oestrumate, serve to ai as shown by scratchies, then turn the bulls in, and if they seem to be lying down a lot, we take them out for a recovery period. mind you, they always look happy !!!!
Stuart1
Member
How do you define late as possible? Your never going to know when the first standing heat was or when the oestrus cycle first begun??
- Location
- somerset
for those moving from hols to friesians or x's, it is a different criteria, some hfrs will be served, by a bull, repeatedly over 2 days, the very short bulling periods you see with hols is gone. Our best results, with ai, have been with a sync programme and conventional semen, were advised against sexed, 65%. but have used a oestrogen jab, with scratchies, with pretty well the same result. Perhaps the best solution would be to pick out the strongest hfrs, and start the service period 2or3 weeks early, thereby not putting the tight calving block at risk.
Holsteinfriesian90
Member
- Location
- Cornwall
I thought they recommend 12-18 hours after standing heat?
Yorkshiregrazer28
New Member
We ended up testing the sexed semen from Lic after we had pretty much all come back over that were served and the results came back that the straws were very poor motile performance in them which was the reason they didn’t get in calf
What bulls were used? We used beaut and Knight
- Location
- somerset
as we move towards a time when we are no longer able to shoot worthless calves, arla/Tesco, the sexed semen is going to become more important, after all, if no-one wants the calves, it would mean we have to rear them, and, if that is the case a dairyx bull calf is going to be highly profitable, not. Anyone rearing them is going to lose money, some will be okay, majority not, imagine having to keep a jersey bull calf from birth to fat, lets hope using sexed on hfrs gets better !
Yorkshiregrazer28
New Member
It was sexed beaut that was the problem and conventional sovereign, also used Sierra and beckon but they were both fine
I’ve used all those bulls this year, what cows were they going into, and how long has it been a spring calving block?
Stuart1
Member
From first standing heat? How do you know when that is, it’s a guess to everyone, but you may never know how long she’s been standing so I tend not to serve too late and get better conception rates than when I was serving later.
I tend to do the same, if she’s standing before milking she gets drafted and served
Brilliant, half my dairy semen in the flask for a month's time is sexed LIC. Still, forewarned is forearmed. You would think with the way they bang on about fertility, that LIC would make sure it was right before sending it out.
I cant understand the choice people are making for sexed semen its way dearer and pooree conception ok you have heifer calves but you will have more beef calves which are worth next to nothing after rearing unless out of british friesian.Surely using conventinal semen will mean less of these beef calves being reared
Yes but what happens to the dairy males?
At least people will rear the beefs even if you don’t make a profit on sale, male dairy’s need £100 with the passport
Only put them on your most fertile cows that have calved in the first 4-6 weeks. I got 67% conception rate on my first 10 days of heifers and of the 4 cows I put them on 50% conception rate. I think it’ll be the way forward as long as conception rates don’t fall below 50%. I think the cow it’s being put on has the greatest influence, we’ve been block calving for 20 years.