Breeding problems anyone?

francismilker · #1 09/10/07, 11:06 AM

I've got my "prize-winning" yearling jersey bull on the cows this year. I've seen him mount all of my cows for three months now. I had the vet palpate them all lalst week and their all open. My next move was to have the bull semen tested. The vet complemented the bull with 70% or better semen and an excellent motility rate of the sperm. He's not sure why the cows are not breeding this year. All seven of them are first freshening heifers. The vet said they all appeared to be in good breeding health. They're just open. Anyone had simiilar problems this year?

ksfarmer · #2 09/10/07, 11:49 AM

I can think of 2 or 3 things that may be happening.
1. Your vet may not be doing a good job of palpating, I have seen this happen in early stages, I don't like to do any preg checking till at least 90 days bred.
2. Your bull isn't getting the job done, for one reason or another. I have seen extreme hot weather affect breeding. If all 7 cows are open, it is highly unlikely they all have a problem. The bull is the most likely suspect. But, before giving up on him, I would do another palpation on the cows at a later time.

JeffNY · #3 09/10/07, 12:54 PM

This is why I do not have them palpated any longer. I have them ultrasounded. It is difinitive, all that have been confirmed pregnant were, no guessing. I had a vet tell me once, one of the holsteins was not pregnant. She in fact was, as I had her ultrasounded. After that incident, I switched vets, and went with ultrasound for all of them, and I wont turn back. It is worth the cost...

Jeff

matt_man · #4 09/10/07, 01:10 PM

I would try biotracking. Within a week you would know for sure.

I believe we aborted an early pregnancy this year due to a vet mistake. It was a shame too, she would have been carrying a nice calf.

Rachel

#5 09/10/07, 05:23 PM

It could still be the bull. We had a Red Angus yearling one year that had the same results. We had no calves out of that bull on 25 cows. The problem was that he could not extend his penis enough to breed a cow. I was fortunate to actually see the problem. On the cows' second cycle we started watching closer, and had we not been paying really close attention would have never noticed, because he WAS mounting the cows, he just could not penetrate a cow. His semen test was 90%.