Look were all running a business to make money its bad enough haveing to rear the beef calves dont forget these beef calves do also get sick and need treatments which costs money if anyone wants yo keep useing sexed semen in spring calving its going to cost u alot of money calving date will slip with the way berf is going i dont think there will be anyone to rear beef so it wont matter if its a holstein or a hereford.
Empty heifers
- Thread starter Devon lad
- Start date
I don’t for one minute think that sexed is the golden bullet, but like all new things it has to get its real world testing at some point and with sufficient numbers that results are a fair representation. It will be part of the immediate solution, and in time this will change as well. The fact that any calve surplus weather its beef or dairy is waste to the system. It’s a whole industry issue, the majority of beef farmers just aren’t efficient enough, our Hereford heifer x-bred calves are going to mid wales to be reared as sucklers, I bet they’re grazed on the side of a mountain, never see a shed and someone is making a good living out of it as well. Rapidly changing times in dairying. What will be will be?
- Location
- somerset
if the majority of beef farmers are not efficienf (your words, not mine) they sure as heck aint gonna buy poxy dairy x bull calves, or even 2 nd or 3rd quality beef cross calves, so as the milk industry moves rapidly towards insisting these calves are reared to finish, you may soon find out how efficient you are, because , if nobody will buy them, and you can't shoot them, and your milk buyer insists they are reared, as part of your contract, it will be down to you to finish them, wether you want to , or not.
You may well be right, block calving could be finished as well as jersey genetics
No il become efficent rear loads of calves at a loss to keep milk buyer happy.let my calving interval slip cus im using sexed semen spend loads of money on sexed semen cus its expensive then when milk price is on the floor il be so efficent il go out of buisness because i wont be making any money
Doesnt matter what breed you have theres no one going to bring these calves to beef unless dairy farms want to set up loss making beef farms to keep there milk buyer happy.
The country is only 70% sufficient in beef, there’s an opportunity for someone. Look at the Teagasc beef index, they’ve got I think 5 years of data, x-bred beef isn’t as loss making as some people are making it out to be.
W
we are already, not in a big way though only 20. it’s not weather it’s low imput or high input it’s weather it’s profitable and sustainable within reason. We decided a limX heifer calve which didn’t look much wouldn’t be marketable to the ‘majority’ of calve buyers, so we’ve kept a few along with some good shape dairy bull calves. We have some cheap off ground and they’ll graze kale and bales over the winter. We’ll see what can be done
- Location
- somerset
bugger, just bought a jersey bull
Best bull you’ll have, nothing gets cows in calve better
Just what ive used as a clean up bulls never lame heifer calves will be worth something have used blue for a couple of weeks before letting out bulls the number of cows they will have to bull will be small same bulls will do for cows and heifers is there anything more easy calveing
- Location
- somerset
just been checking his pedigree on line, didn't see him beforehand, he beats all semex genomic max bulls, bar 1 jpi 152, well equals 1 and the best 1 is 167, reckon I did right.
Sparkymark
Member
I do the same, better to be too early than too late.
Just to bring things back on track slightly...
I haven't seen any noticeable drop in preg rates over the period that covers @Devon lad dates for serving. The herds I work with are predominantly housed high yielding Holsteins, AYR calving and most of have weekly vet visits so these problem cows are spotted early on. We only used sexed semen for dairy replacements have done for a long time.
So I would have no problem in recommending sexed semen on natural heats but would use caution on sync heats.
If you're concerned about sperm motility then get a couple straws tested - I know several block calvers that test their sweeper bulls prior to service so it can certainly be done.
I haven't seen any noticeable drop in preg rates over the period that covers @Devon lad dates for serving. The herds I work with are predominantly housed high yielding Holsteins, AYR calving and most of have weekly vet visits so these problem cows are spotted early on. We only used sexed semen for dairy replacements have done for a long time.
So I would have no problem in recommending sexed semen on natural heats but would use caution on sync heats.
If you're concerned about sperm motility then get a couple straws tested - I know several block calvers that test their sweeper bulls prior to service so it can certainly be done.
Is the am/pm rule followed with insemination?
We only serve on farm once a day. But we arrive at as close to the same time every day for consistency.
For you guys serving on your own farms I would stick to the AM/PM rule.
If in doubt though serve early and maybe double serve? It won't be many that you would have to double serve throughout the season but you're hedging your bets. Every preg is a prisoner and you can't let them get away whatever system you operate.
Grassman247
Member
We double served those very cows this spring, the data said that it was a waste of money, just serve them once following the am pm, rule either they will hold or they won’t