Most embryos from one flush
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Shorthorns4us
Well-known member
My best flush was out of my Sugar cow on her first time-- we got 40 with 29 grade 1's. The tech doing the work for us even called me at work after the flush because it was his biggest one at that time.
EF
EF
MASE
Member
We have a No Doubt cow that has given us, 33 no 1's, 26 no 1's, and 28 no 1's in her three flushes. We have a New Design 1407 cow that gave us 12 no 1's. But, we also had another Angus cow give us just 1 embryo in a flush. That one was kind of expensive!
justintime
Well-known member
Our best donor produced 162 embryos in 6 flushes that were done in a 12 month period. She then settled to AI service in less than 2 weeks after the last flush and has now calved. She has averaged 27 grade 1 embryos with the highest flush being 31 and the lowest being 19. The lowest number was produced in her first flush. If all donors worked like this cow, a person could make a pile of money from a handful of cows. In this case, I purchased her for $6400 in a dispersal. The bull calf she was carrying when I purchased her, sold for $5000. The first flush of 19 embryos all sold to one breeder in Scotland at $700 each so she had produced $18,300 in sales by the time I had owned her 18 months.She has produced more income in less than 3 years than my bottom 50 cows have done. I need to find one or two more like her, and I wouldn't have to bale as much hay! She will be gloing back to the ET center in the next few weeks and if she continues to produce well, she will be flushed every two months again.
CAB
Well-known member
Here's kind of the other end of the spectrum if you will. I flushed a cow 4 times on a shared bases and we got a total of 2 eggs and one calf, just so all of you youngsters out there reading this thread understand that it can go both ways.
vet tech
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Got 47 from a 3-D x WAG Hairietta daughter. And her full sister gave us 33 that same day. Filled the tank up pretty quick haha
justintime
Well-known member
CAB said:
I agree 100% with CAB and I intended to say that cows like this one of mine and many others mentioned here are the exception rather than the rule. I have completely bombed out on many cows, and there are some cows that simply will not flush at all. I have had a few over the years that I have finally given up on, and they were cows that were very fertile and productive. Occasionally you find a cow that simply does not respond to the superovalation drugs. The ET center I do most of my ET at, says 6 grade 1 embryos is probably average across breeds. We have averaged over this, but only because of a few cows ablility to produce multiple eggs. I will also say that there is a wide variation in how the drugs affects females. It is possible to completely ruin a good cow if you get greedy and flush too often. Just like a bug embryo producer being an exception, cows that can be flushed multiple times, and that seem to show little signs of flushing, are also an exception. Personally I am happy with donors who produce 8-10 high quality embryos each time. I have heard some people say that they get higher pregnancy rates from flushes than the high number flushes, and I don't know if this is correct or not. I do believe that some donors seem to have the ability to produce higher numbers of embryos that resuilt in pregnancies and births.
squirt71
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We had a cow give 20 no. 1's in her first flush, and the second one gave only 4 no. 1's. We got both ends of the spectrum there.
firesweepranch
Well-known member
The great embryo bull calf we have on the ground right now came from a flush that had 52 number 1 eggs, and after the first 52 the rest were thrown away because the expense of freezing became too high! That was from a 10 year old cow that was flushed for the first time! They are flushing her again after she calves this spring!!!
justintime
Well-known member
Just came in the house and there was three flush reports on my fax... 23, 12 and 10 grade 1 embryos. Guess I should consider it a pretty decent day!
woltemathangus
Well-known member
best for me. 35 out of an old show heifer. 29 grade 1's
Doc
Well-known member
Several, several years ago Wayne Temple & I flushed a full Irish cow to Irish Mist. We got 28 unfertilzed eggs. Had the semen checked & it wasn't good. At that time Dividend semen was selling for $350/ straw. We bought 2 straws , thinking we ought to do decent after that 1st flush. Like you would figure , we got 1 egg. That's life in the flush world.
hamburgman
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- Feb 9, 2010
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- 569
One of my embryo teachers said his record is 69 and none were fertile. He seldom ever saw flushes over 40 that gave viable eggs. Anyone else experience this?
Cowboy
Well-known member
It is a very rare cow -- indeed -- that can be overstimulated and made to produce 40-50-even 60 eggs and NOT be damaged doing it.
In fact, it has always been my goal here to never try for large numbers, I am much happier to get a dozen from a good cow than I ever would be going for 30 plus. I have seen some cows who will never fail, breed back with no problems, and keep going, but they are very rare.
I take this job personal, and you can ask any one that has ever had a cow here, that I get more upset than the owner does when a cow fails. One thing I have never done though is brag about getting a huge number, I worry for the donor's sake, I want healthy cows delivered here and I insist on them leaving healthy after thier stay.
There is nothing wrong with making money on your cows, until it shortens her lifespan in doing so, then it just becomes greedy. In my opinion, any cow worth putting into a donor program is worth taking even better care of than normal, and we try to do just that.
Well I better leave this at that, maybe I have seen too many wrecks to not at least say something. Take it easy on them and they will take care of you, kind of like Nascar, sometimes you have to go slower to go FAST!
Terry
In fact, it has always been my goal here to never try for large numbers, I am much happier to get a dozen from a good cow than I ever would be going for 30 plus. I have seen some cows who will never fail, breed back with no problems, and keep going, but they are very rare.
I take this job personal, and you can ask any one that has ever had a cow here, that I get more upset than the owner does when a cow fails. One thing I have never done though is brag about getting a huge number, I worry for the donor's sake, I want healthy cows delivered here and I insist on them leaving healthy after thier stay.
There is nothing wrong with making money on your cows, until it shortens her lifespan in doing so, then it just becomes greedy. In my opinion, any cow worth putting into a donor program is worth taking even better care of than normal, and we try to do just that.
Well I better leave this at that, maybe I have seen too many wrecks to not at least say something. Take it easy on them and they will take care of you, kind of like Nascar, sometimes you have to go slower to go FAST!
Terry
CAB
Well-known member
Terry you up breeding cows or just can't sleep? BrentCowboy said:
Sly
Well-known member
where r u located Thanks never mind saw it!Cowboy said:
