AI, where to start?

[HomersGoatLady]

I live in Central IL and have had a Jersey milk cow for about 5 years now. I find it increasingly more difficult to get her bred each year. I'd like to know more about AI, but don't know where to start. Who do you call? How do you find a technician? Where do you get semen? To whom do you have the semen shipped? How is it shipped? How expensive is the whole process? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Karen

[sammyd]

http://www.absglobal.com/dairy/
http://www.selectsires.com/highprotein_menu.aspx

You can find the sire list, all data needed to help choose the sire, and contact info. There are more places out there but I have done stuff with these 2 in the past.
Once you find a tech he will will handle the semen inventory. All you should have to do is call when she's in heat and pay the bill, the tech will do the rest.
Couldn't speculate on the cost...used to get unproven bulls for 5 bucks a straw and the good ones cost upwards of 50 bucks, but it has been a while.

[65284]

Contact your (or the nearest) large animal vet. A lot of them will do A.I. or will almost certainly know an A.I. tech to refer you to. Almost all techs ( and some vets) have a semen tank and will let you have the straws shipped to them and will even store extras for free or a nominal fee.

It costs the same to ship 1 straw as it does a hundred. And there's no guarantee a cow will settle the first try if you go this route, so it makes sense to buy several straws.

For use on your one family cow I would suggest you buy the cheapest Jersey semen available, unless you are trying to upgrading/increase your herd one calf at a time with high dollar straws, which would take a long time. Any Jersey bull on A.I. will be okay to use.

The local tech was charging $20.00 a trip, before I went to A.I. school and started doing it myself. The most difficult part of the process is recognizing the proper time of the heat cycle and when to call the tech to do the insemination.

[deineria]

You can email select sires and ask where the nearest tech is in your area. Hopefully, you will have a tech nearby that can come out.
Also, as suggest, call your large animal vet, and they may know someone or do it.
Semen will run under $50, depending on the bull selected.
You can also look and see if about taking the AI classes yourself. . . but hopefully a tech can do it for you locally.

[Callieslamb]

I asked my vet. He gave me a name. I called his office to get the number. I called the AI tech and he came the next day. $40. Be sure to ask how far he has to come since they will charge mileage. Fortunately for me, the AI guy was already going to be in the area.

[HomersGoatLady]

Thanks for all the replies. Wonderful thing happened. Went to the local Amish dairy. He offered to take my cow and breed her to his bull at no charge. He will milk her while she is there and even said I could come get my milk everyday. That is wonderful! Problem solved for another year!!!!

Karen

[genebo]

There are still an awful lot of good people in the world. They're all around you. You just have to look in the right places.

Congratulations on a good solution!

Genebo
Paradise Farm