breeding protocols

[afhm]

The 2 Lut shots protocol for ai.  I am looking for how long between the 1st shot and the 2nd shot.  Thanks.  I can't find it anywhere. I am thinking its 7 days.  Thanks.

 

[CAB]

  The 2nd shot is usually given on day 11. Just curious, why aren't you using co-sync including cidrs? Quite a bit more predictable as to when they will cycle with the same amount of times through the chute. I saw yesterday that SEK had cidrs advertised for $8 and 20 some cents a piece, which would be the approx extra cost. I have had excellant luck with this program. I target for a Sunday main event as to when most of the cows will be standing, which means that you need to put the ciders in on a Thursday 6pm time frame , pull ciders a week later @ 6pm along with a shot of lute or estrumate  @ the same time. When you put your cidrs in you need to shoot with GnRH. You will need to be watching Sat evening for any early heats, but pretty much Sunday morning will be busy sorting cows off. I have had great luck with this with my own herd and others that I breed for. I do not time breed in my own, but do for others depending on how good of a heat detector I am working with has great bearing on these decisions. Some people will breed any non responders @ about 72 hous after pulling cidrs if there is no response. I don't in my own because I will just wait them out. The percentage is low as far as non responders. I hope that this helps you decide what protocal is best for your situation. Cab

 

[JSchroeder]

afhm...

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B1232.htm

CAB,

Unless you are time breeding, what's the point of spending the extra $8+/head, messing with a vaginal insert, and lost CIDRs when the simple Lut protocol works?

We've used every protocol under the sun including the "illegal" ones with Estradiol.  We finally went back to using gomer bulls and bunching up the heats a bit with Lutalyse.

 

[CAB]

  Like I said, I hope this helps you decide what works best for you. I try to not have any calves out of clean up bulls, and this program is what seems to work best here. I'm happy for you and what works @ your place. Cab

 

[STEERJOCK21L]

I know somebody that used cidr's on 40 cows...he only got four bred.We dont use them and don't know alot of people that do anymore.Lutalyse works fine for us,but we don't have alot of cows to all cycle at once so...

 

[afhm]

CAB, we are just trying something different to see if it works better for us.  We have our best luck on natural heats.  I had pleanty of Lut and not enough cidrs so I thought I would try this.  Plus it is cheaper and my luck using cidrs has been hot and miss.  As of now there are only 2 heifers that haven't come in off of the 1st shot.  I am not sure that they didn't come in and we missed them, w/out a heat watch its hard to tell.  The paint was mostly rubbed off, but never saw any activity, so I don't know if they were in heat or if it was the others that were in riding them.  We checked them as late as 10pm and by 6:30 the next morning.  Thanks for the info on when to give the 2nd shot.

 

[CAB]

  I do know people that have gotten along well with using just lute & it may work very well. I have gotten along very well with the co-sync deal. We have never had lower than 75% respond. I don't have alot of cows anymore, so I don't have gomer bulls any longer and don't even have a clean up bull myself. This year we actually heat cked from 6/15 to 8/20, then I did lease a clean up bull from my next pasture neighbor and have seen him breed 2 cows that I had been having troubles getting stuck. I have a tornado cow catcher that we feed cows in so that it is not a big deal to put cidrs in and shoot hormones as well as taking them out. We then confine the cows in the lots until they are AIed. Then 18 days later we will bing them back in and watch or go to the field and watch dilligently for 5-6 days again. We will always get in 90 plus % of the cows in these 2 heats. It would nice to then turn in a clean up bull @ that time. We are in the club calf business and a calf out of the clean up bull just is not worth as much. I love breeding cattle. It is actually my stress reliever. Like I have said B-4, I can get most of the cows to stand on a paticuliar time frame, and that is why I use the cidrs. I still believe that it is hard to beat natural heats & detection depending on your work load and time retrains. I used to run gomers and natural heat detection, but can't justify the feed costs and operations for the gomers with my smller herd. Good luck with the breeding season. It sounds as if the lute shot protocal is working well for you. Have a great weekend everyone. Cab