I have set up two groups this spring so far. The first set was a group of 31 heifers . I put CIDRs( used once before) in them and 7 days later I pulled them and gave them a shot of Estumate. Of the 31 heifers, all of them came in heat within 3 days, with most of them in heat late on the second day.I expected I would have to give a shot of Facral, or Fertiline and time breed the ones that did not show heats but they all did, so that was not necessary. I think there was only 4 that came into heat the 3rd day. I AI bred them all and they were at 20 days yesterday. So far I have seen 4 out of 35 in heat and being bred by the bull. I have not seen any in heat yet today. I may have missed a few on day 19 from being AI bred as I was away for awhile that day and evening.
I just completed setting up 38 cows of which 20 will be recips and 18 were to be AI bred. I used the same protocol. Again I used CIDRs that were used once before and I used a few CIDRs that have been sitting in a cupboard in the feedlot office since they were used the first time in 2008.( this was a test as some have said that CIDRs are no good a second time if they have been stored more than a few months) I used the same protocol, and pulled the CIDRs on day 7 and gave a shot of Estumate. The cows that are going to be recips were given 2 cc of Fertiline 48 hours after the CIDRs were pulled. Of the 38 cows, 36 showed heats, and of these 32 were in heat late in the day, about 2.5 days after the CIDRs were pulled and the estumate was given.4 other cows were in heat in the morning 3 days after the CIDRs being pulled and the Estumate was given. Two of the 38 did not show heats at all, and they were a mature cow and a two year old heifer. I could have time AI bred both of these this morning, but decided to give them both a little more time as they both calved in late April - early May, so it may be just a situation where they have not had enough time yet.
All of the cows that had the CIDRs that had been used once before in 2008 had very strong heats, so I am thinking these CIDRs were still OK. I probably have a couple hundred CIDRs that were used once before, going back to 2005, but I think they will be tossed as I don't think it is worth the chance of trying the real old ones. Both of the cows that did not show heats were to be AI bred, so the recips all responded very well. I also had 3 other cows that I was planning on setting up for embryos in a few weeks,show natural heats the same day as the majority of the others were in heat, so I have them checked when they come to implant and we will implant them as well.
The hardest part of setting this group up was dealing with the mud. We have had more rain in the last 6 weeks than we sometimes see in an entire year. I really have a new found appreciation of what some of you who live in higher rainfall areas have to deal with. Right now, I would swear my hip joints are going to come through my skin from fighting through the mud and getting these cows all bred. I still would never trade too wet for too dry, as our pastures and hay are amazing and I can't imagine Ireland being any greener than here right now.
