Do you sync or use natural heats?

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red

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Jan 20, 2007
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LaRue, Ohio
Just curious what everyone was doing for breeding season. Do you sync all your cows or do you just catch them when they come in a natural heat?
If you sync what do you use? CIDRS or lutylase?

We generally let ours come in natural heat only because for us we are busy in the fields. To spend time putting in the CIDRs & taking them out just isn't time effective for us. I'm home, so I can watch the cows pretty closely. The only thing I don't like about not sync the cows is that our breeding season is spread out more than I'd like it to be.

What does others do? What are the drawbacks or pluses to what you do?

Red
 

Showcalves

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Feb 17, 2007
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We have synched some for implanting embryos but that's all the synch work we'll do.  It does spread out the breeding season but it's just not cost effective for us to synch them all.

Melinda
 

cowz

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Jan 10, 2007
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We do both.  We breed on natural heats and then use CIDRs using the suggested protocol with Cystorelin and Lutalyse and it works well for us, especially with limited "staff"!
 

Thornberry

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May 14, 2007
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Location
Westby , Wisconsin
We do both,  but try and cheat the bull out of as much work as possible! ;D  If at 45 days I have not seen an active heat I will use a CIDR.
I also handle recip's and flush cows so almost daily there is something to be done. 
 

showcattlegal

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Jan 26, 2007
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gallup New Mexico
We have to sync because we bring someone it do breed for us. But it's nice haveing all your calves at once.We use CIDRs using the suggested protocol with Cystorelin and Lutalyse.
 

red

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LaRue, Ohio
here is a piece from the Ohio Beef Newsletter on using CIDR's.

New CIDR Based Synchronization System Gives Another Fixed Time AI Option - Dr. John B. Hall, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef, VA Tech and Dr. Dee Whittier, DVM, Extension Veterinarian, VA Tech

Last year we reported on a Fixed Time AI system (CO-Synch+CIDR) that has become widely recommended in the industry for AI breeding of postpartum cows on a single day. (See October 2006 Cow Calf Manager). Our work in Virginia indicates this program results in pregnancy rates of 55 % to 65% to fixed-time AI (FTAI). In field studies in Missouri, the CO-Synch+CIDR system averaged 65% pregnancy rate in over 3000 cows in 35 herds. The range in their studies was 57% to 72% AI pregnancy rate. It should be noted that all herds were well managed with cows in good body condition.

Recently, we have been investigating another system in cooperation with Dr. Mike Day at The Ohio State University and Dr. Ramanathan Kasimanickam from the VA-MD College of Veterinary Medicine. The new system (Figure 1) only keeps the CIDR in place for 5 days and delays AI until 72 hours after CIDR removal. This allows for a long phase of follicular development that may increase oocyte (egg) quality and AI success.


GnRH = Cystorelin®, Factrel®, Fertagyl®, OvaCyst®
PG = Lutalyse®, Prostamate®, In-Synch®, estroPLAN®, Estrumate®

Results with CO-Synch+ 5 day CIDR in Virginia: The results with this system are extremely promising. Before we go any further, it should be noted that this is still considered an experimental system. We are planning large scale field studies with this program to gather more data over a large range of environments and management conditions. Producers interested in this system should be aware that it is considered a promising experimental system and is not currently recommended by the Beef Reproduction Task Force.

The experiment led by Drs. Day and Kasimanickam investigated the need for two doses of prostaglandin F2a (PG). The study was conducted in 830 cows from 6 VA Dept. of Corrections herds. The key results were:

* Two doses of PG (one at CIDR removal and another one 8 to 12 hours later) were needed for highest pregnancy rates.
* CO-Synch+ 5 day CIDR with 2 doses of PG resulted in an average FTAI pregnancy rate of 69.5 %
* The range in FTAI pregnancy rates across locations was 63.8% to 75.2%.
Clean-up bulls need to be monitored carefully: The study also reinforced the need to monitor clean-up bulls during the breeding season. At all locations, bulls had passed a full pre-breeding exam. However, the percentage of cows open after AI that became pregnant to the clean-up bull varied from 35.1 % to 88.5 % (Table 1).
aps-403_clip_image002.gif

Table 1. Effect of location on percentage of cows not pregnant to AI that became pregnant to natural service
Location                          Clean-up bull pregnancy rate
  1                                                  35.1 %
  2                                                  48.8 %
  3                                                  88.5 %
  4                                                  78.0 %
  5                                                  88.1 %
  6                                                  73.1 %

Adapted from Kasimanickam et al., 2007

The causes of decreased pregnancy rates at two locations appear to be related to libido, penile deviations, or failure to find cows in estrus. The bull's libido and ability to seek and breed cows cannot be determined in a standard breeding soundness exam. Bulls need to be observed carefully especially during the first 5 days after introduction to the herd. Producers need to observe bulls mounting and successfully breeding cows in order to insure success with natural mating.

Another key management strategy is to observe cows for estrus during the mid-point of the breeding season. If too many cows appear to be in heat, then producers need to identify the possible cause and correct the problem. Causes include bull failure, cow body condition, cow age, and heat stress.


 

Jill

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Gardner, KS
We do both, all of our embryo work we sync generally 20-25 with the cysterellin- cidr and Lut at 7th day.  We natural heat detect all of our AI work and the bull naturally heat detects our heifers.
 

Jill

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Gardner, KS
red said:
Jill- do you use a bull for your heifers? If so what is he?

Red
We are this year, we normally AI the ones we are showing this is the 1st time we have kept a group specifically for replacements.  We bought a bull from DeRouchey's sale, I think it was lot 25, he is a Hard Core X Angus maintainer out of their Denver pen.  We bought the bull on Fred's recommendation and were so happy with him when he got here that we decided to put him with the heifers.  The 2 we are showing we bred to Money Man.
 
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