Ai

backachersfarm · #1 12/07/08, 04:10 PM

We have a milking cow who is due at the end of this month. Our source of rebreeding her has fallen thru. Can anyone here tell me anything about costs of AI....and is this feasible for one cow. We really don't want to have to handle a bull yr round for one cow.
Thanks
Sharon

topside1 · #2 12/07/08, 04:48 PM

Sharon, I'm on the Cumberland Plateau and only pay $35 for the straw and five dollars for a hormone shot...Total $40.....Topside

wigg · #3 12/07/08, 05:38 PM

Topside,
Do you do your own AI?

topside1 · #4 12/07/08, 06:50 PM

Wigg, no I don't. Sorry that price also includes labor...you can attend a AI school, price tag roughly $300. I don't AI but do know people who have taught themselves...Topside

backachersfarm · #5 12/07/08, 07:36 PM

Thx Topside. Next question is....where in the world do you buy the straws? You had the vet do this? Any info on success rates?

Sharon

topside1 · #6 12/07/08, 07:42 PM

Sharon the AI tech orders them, you pick the bull of your choice and the tech maintains the straws. they have catalogs and the bulls are also on dot com sites. The straws are stored frozen in liquid nitrogen. You just call the AI tech when your animal goes into standing heat....Topside

backachersfarm · #7 12/07/08, 08:00 PM

Thx Topside. I'll call my ext agent and see if he can help me with this. We don't really know squat about cows. That's what makes this so much fun. We are mostly small animal folks....sheep, rabbits, chickens. I wouldn't know a cow in heat if she was flaming....lol We live in the northwest corner of Tenn. Thx for the info
Sharon

Sabrina67 · #8 12/07/08, 09:20 PM

Topside.We asked the Vet here and they were saying we had to bring her in..get a shot, take her home , come back and get a "keeper" then take her home, bring her her back to get AId..and it would cost around 150. Do you have to do all that?? By the time you trailered her that many times you would be wore out. The people we bought Hazel said if we called when she was in heat, they would come do it, but I have no clue how I will know. I am used to horses, they are kinda easy to tell.
Backachers farm, if you dont mind, what part of TN do you live. I live in Buchanan, which is in NW Tn. But not in the corner, we may be neighbors

backachersfarm · #9 12/07/08, 10:15 PM

Hey Sabrina, I couldn't find Buchanan on the map. My husband who is from Dyersburg said he thought close to Reelfoot lake. We live about 25 mi south of Union City....outside Kenton. What is a Keeper? I'm kinda like you..horses I know.

topside1 · #10 12/08/08, 07:25 AM

Sabrina/sharon. No the AI tech comes to the barn and gets the job done ($40). No moving of cows, just a 10 minute visit and it's over. I use the GENEX corp. for straws, the AI tech orders his supplies thru GENEX. The GENEX rep. in my area is Robert Dragland @ 931-637-1103. Call him or GENEX to find an AI tech of your region....Topside
http://genex.crinet.com/page46/Dairy

Sabrina67 · #11 12/08/08, 07:49 AM

Backachers; Buchanan is between Paris Tennessee and Murray Ky. Kinda in the middle of nowhere lol.From what I can tell we are about 50 miles east of Kenton, so we ARE kinda neighbors

I am not exactly sure what keeper is..I kinda stood there nodding when he was telling me....something they (sorry) insert into the cow, then you take out.
Topside. Thanks , thats sounds easier..now if I could just get her to let me know when she was ready for me to call...

65284 · #12 12/08/08, 09:49 AM

[QUOTE=Sabrina67;3483800]Topside.We asked the Vet here and they were saying we had to bring her in..get a shot, take her home , come back and get a "keeper" then take her home, bring her her back to get AId..and it would cost around 150. Do you have to do all that?? By the time you trailered her that many times you would be wore out. The people we bought Hazel said if we called when she was in heat, they would come do it, but I have no clue how I will know. I am used to horses, they are kinda easy to tell.
Backachers farm, if you dont mind, what part of TN do you live. I live in Buchanan, which is in NW Tn. But not in the corner, we may be neighbors

[/QUOTE

I suspect your vet was proposing to syncronise your cow for a timed breeding. The first shot was probably Lutalyse, and the second trip was for a CIDR, (I think you misheard CIDR as keeper) and she is bred a specific number of hours later. Thats just a guess on my part.

Sabrina67 · #13 12/08/08, 11:23 AM

I could have, but I called and talked to him this morning, for an unrelated horse thing, and asked again. He says the keeper is something they insert when they give her the first shots and we can take it out and give her the next shots,(instead of bringing her in) then bring her back in to be inseminated within 12 hours. And yes I suppose it is timed breeding, as he says it brings them in heat and into the optimal stage to be bred. Who would think getting an animal bred would be so complicated.
We are close to a college with a pretty good ag program I may call, sometimes they will come and demonstrate for their students and it is free.

65284 · #14 12/09/08, 04:02 PM

Sabrina, I think this is what he was referring to: http://www.drugs.com/vet/eazi-breed-...le-insert.html

Sabrina67 · #15 12/09/08, 04:27 PM

I really have no clue what he is talking about. I asked him again yesterday and he said it was called a keeper and I would have to remove it, or bring her in for them to remove it , whatever it is. Why he would call it that is a mystery, or what its purpose is. The man who came and did the procedure today had no clue either. He did refer to two medications she would have to have to bring her in , but this was different.
Luckily Hazel came in and we had her AId today, here's hoping for a heifer calf

If not, I will be seeing what he is talking about, and I will definitly share , because it sounds very odd. Maybe the Vet just has an odd way of saying things?
I may just go there one day and ask to see just what he means, let him explain it to me, it is really confusing, although today went pretty smooth, and didn't seem too complicated .

unioncreek · #16 12/09/08, 05:14 PM

Yes, he was calling a CIDR a keeper. Some of the older ranchers around here call it a keeper also. Don't know why they call it that, but will ask next time I see one of them.

Bobg

Happyfarmwife · #17 12/11/08, 10:00 PM

We just had our one cow A.I. We didn't have to have hormone shots, or a second A.I. The tech from the vets office came to our place and did the job. It cost us a total of $67. That included mileage, labor and the semen.

Your cow will usually start bellering around the clock if she is in heat, in my experience. Bessy was in heat when we bought her and brought her home, and then in exactly 25 days she started in with the bellering again. I just called the vet up and had the A.I. tech come right over that day.