How manyConsecutive times can you Flush

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dwcc

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Jul 4, 2013
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34
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Beverly, OH
How many consecutive times can you flush a cow before you need to breed her to calve naturally.  I've always thought 2 times, but the more I here about people selling and implanting embryos the more I'm starting to think it is more than that.
 

husker1

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May 27, 2009
Messages
494
Location
Nebraska
I've always been told that 3 or 4 times is acceptable, if not over-stimulating.
 

justintime

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May 26, 2007
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4,346
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Saskatchewan Canada
I do not think there is an exact answer to this question. My experience is that it depends totally on the donor. I have seen very big differences between different cows and I have not been able to figure out how you can tell which donors can be flushed extensively before being rebred for a natural calf. I have one donor who was flushed 9 consecutive times and averaged 27 grade 1 embryos. I then brought her home from the ET center and she was bred to a bull on pasture, 6 days after her last flush. I never thought she would conceive to that breeding, but she calved with twins in 2013. She then moved up to calve 5 weeks earlier in 2014 at the age of 12. I have had other donors that were completely messed up after two flushes. I have had 2 donors that never rebred after being flushed 2 times. After trying most everything to get them to rebreed, I eventually ended up sending them to market.  I have had many more donors that I have flushed for a full year ( 6 flushes) and then rebred them for a natural calf. I also had one donor that I flushed for almost 7 years non stop and she was still pumping out great numbers of embryos when I retired her. The only reason I did this is because she got a viral mastitis that destroyed all 4 quarters when she was 5 years old. She almost died but I was able to keep her alive. For about 3 weeks, I carried feed and water to her, because she could not get up, and it was a small miracle when she eventually did. She was too thin to ship after that happened so I turned her out on grass but did not put a bull with her as she could not raise a calf. By mid summer she was fat, so since she had been an excellent brood cow, I decided to try to flush her. She generated over $70,000 in embryo sales and progeny and I have some excellent daughters in my herd from the embryos she produced. Her embryos have sold to 7 countries and I still have some in my inventory. I have attached a picture of this cow at nearly 13 years of age, when she came home from being at the ET center for almost 7 years.
In my opinion, I think the time between flushes is an important factor. We never flush more than 2 months apart. It gives the donors a few weeks to rest between flushes.
 

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WalnutCrest

Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Messages
11
Like Justintime, it really depends on the cow.

Some you can flush time after time after time ... others, you might get zero flushes.

Bottom line is ... the cow will tell you when she's ready to carry a calf.
 

justintime

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May 26, 2007
Messages
4,346
Location
Saskatchewan Canada
My ET vet told me that every cow responds slightly differently to the super ovulation drugs. In some cows they cause the uterine wall to thicken each time she is flushed and eventually it will not allow the fertilized egg to attach to the uterine wall. That is why some flushed cows have a harder time to retain a pregnancy after being flushed a few times. He said that usually some time between flushes ( he uses two months of rest between flushes) and allowing the donor to have a natural calf again usually can prolong her life as a donor.
It is interesting how the drugs affect these donors differently. I have seen cows that have been flushed twice that have elevated tail heads and coarseness through their shoulders and front ends. I have had other donors that seem to show little effect to successive flushes. The cow I pictured in my last post had been flushed 35 consecutive times when I took this picture. She did not show any effects yet a couple others were totally different cows when they came home after two flushes.
 
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