Views on AI for suckler replacements

[RJ1]

How have people got on with Dinton Nautical on heifers? Calving ease figure seems impressive.

Any views on costs relative to keeping a bull all year to cover, say, 20 heifers? Obviously, you get the added benefit of choice over each one.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

I was looking at syncing and ai for 20 heifers. With semen at £12 odd a straw, and ai ing twice, it came to around £1000.
I would guess thats a bit dearer than depreciation and keeping a bull for 12 months but would be worth it for the advantages, the downside being a bull would get probably 99% in calf, but with syncing you may be back to 75%?

 

[Willy A]

I usually pay around £6 for beef straws and do AI myself.
Costs over £100 to keep flask filled with Nitrogen a year.(can't remember exactly)
If I had to pay someone to do AI I don't think I would do it.
Should get a good deal if doing 20 synchronised heifers all at once.

 

[Riddle]

we ai everything (on natural heats, with the aid of kamars and tail paint) and have had really good results with 75% in calf to first serve, have used abit of Dinton Nautical for the last two years (as i like him for a replacement bull) and have had a couple of big calves, did use him on two heifers that calved in last year the first one was a nice little heifer the 2nd a very big bull, so now only use him on cows, would use on heifers again if there was some sexed female semen from him. We have used Solpoll 1 ferrari (as a cross our sim heifers), and chytodden Conan on our heifers which are both easy calving, and mainly Ch including Belack Digger, Jolympe, Sackville Felix on the cows. Also use a little bit of blue mainly Auchenlay Echo. Think synchronisation is a really good tool if you haven't got the time to heat detect and it also means that everything is served on day one of the service period. Do all the ai myself and and the bulls range in price from £4 to £20. But you should get a good bull for £8 - £12 a straw. I know genus do a package including ai and semen on synchronised cows/heifer which would be a bit cheaper.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

The £12 a straw is for a top 1% maternal bull, which is a lot of the idea of ai - using better genetics than you would afford if buying a bull, so investing in the herds future.

 

[RJ1]

Thanks for all the useful info.
Riddle, thanks for the info re potential difficulty with DN over heifers. Chytodden Conan looked pretty decent looking through the catalogue, so good to know he's easy calving in the real world too!
Plenty to think about...