Artificial insemination

[kidsngarden]

We want to AI our Gilt in the next couple of months. We are monitoring her heats right now.

Tips? companies to get the stuff? WHAT THE HECK DO WE DO??? LOL!

kids

[Misty]

go to www.showpig.com There are a lot of boar studs listed in the "superstore" . We have had really good luck with Lean Value and Prairie State. They are very customer service orientated. Triple B didn't seem to care one way or the other. Heard a lot of bad from Highpoint. Can't tell you first hand if it is true or not. I heard enough from enough people that I won't use them. Anyone at the other two studs will walk you through. Stay away from any boars that say "stress carrier" or "stress positive". Pure breds should not be. A lot of the cross bred, i.e....black exotics, white exotics are.
Try to heat check twice a day. On gilts, give the first dose 24 hours after you catch them in standing heat, and second dose 12-16 hours after the first dose.
On sows, we give the 1st dose 24 hours after standing, and second 16-24 hours after the first dose. Up North just did their first swine AI project....
Order the rods from the boar stud. You can get them cheaper from other sources, but you will see why they are cheaper.

[kidsngarden]

So When to I order? When I see the first signs of heat or when I am expecting first heat according to my records?

kids

[Misty]

we order according to when we expect heat. We have used semen that is 12 and 13 days old with success. It just needs rotated daily.
The boar studs collect on Monday and Thursday's. You can call around 1 or 1:30 and ask who they have on overrun. I get a lot of good boars that way.

[Up North]

Kids- Having only completed one Swine AI, I am certainly no expert, but will share a few things we learned in hope it will answer some of your questions.
First, Hog Semen is shipped to you fresh, not frozen. We kept the styro box it came in in the basement to maintain it at the desired 65F Temperature, We also gently and slowly rolled pouch of semen daily to maintain sperm viability as recommended.
It is my understanding that you should have a boar present for face to face(THRU FENCE) contact at time of breeding. We did this as we have a Boar.
Folks more experienced than I would have to tell you if AI can be successful without a Boar present?
Also, a small and secure pen for breeding probably a good idea.
Hope this helps.

[kidsngarden]

Well darn it! If we had a boar we would use him!

I can see that that must make her stay still. So is it not a good idea to do this without a boar? After examining the cost I'm wondering if I shouldn't try and hook up with a friend of a friends boar instead of AI. He's a ???? though and ours is a Duroc/ham cross. We were wanting to breed her with a duroc.

I do hope I can find some over runs if I do this to keep the cost down.

So what has been others experience? Can it be done without her looking at a boar?

kids

[Misty]

we also use a teaser boar. Never tried it without, so I can't offer you any advise. You can order boar scent in a can. I like AI because you can change your genetics so quickly. We can't get rid of boars around here no matter how good they are. So we keep one as long as we can. We are going to train him to collect some time. (???I don't know when). Then we can use him on everything except the durocs if we need to. The shipping is the expensive part. You can get two doses of semen for $35 each, but the shipping last we ordered was $48. I don't know what it may have gone up to now that the rise in fuel prices has started again.

[Up North]

Our shipping cost was $48 also. But Be careful not to have shipping done on a Saturday or Sunday if at all possible, as this would raise shipping charges.
Overrun Semen is available most of time. You can order it BREED Specific(for Example, they will gaurantee it is Duroc, or Hampshire, etc) But Not BOAR specific. At least, that's how it was when we ordered. We chose a specific BOAR and paid more because that's what we wanted.
The requirement of a BOAR even though you are AI 'ing is a CONUNDRUM,LOL.

[JHinCA]

I have been told that AI-ing gilts results in a litter of just a few big piglets instead of more smaller ones and is hard on the gilt. Is that true in your experience?

[PEEWEE802]

you don't need a boar to make a gilt/ sow stand. large companies do it all the time. have them in a confined pen. place on hand on their back and apply pressure as if they were being mounted and a.i . at the same time if they are in standing heat they will stand still.
when i worked at MSU they had their animals outside in a large pen and it worked well for them. you might try it. but a boar is not a neccessity. hope this helps
crystal

[Tana Mc]

We just use a boar to check heat but that really isn't necessary as other gilts will ride or you can use the "pressure on her back" method,too.
If she is truely in heat, she isn't going to move but just to make sure, squirting just a drop or two of the semen on her snout or in front of her will usually make her freeze in her tracks when you apply pressure on her back.
We have 350 sows and do all AI and no live breedings.
Heat cycle is usually 3 weeks so you pretty much know when she is coming in to order semen.
If she is a gilt, you can load her up on a truck/trailer and take her for a little ride and she will come in to heat in a few days.
Tana Mc

[Up North]

I thought having a boar there helps the gilt (or sow) release more eggs. That's odd about taking a gilt for a ride and she will come into heat a few days later. I wonder why? Well, I guess if DH takes our Hereford gilts out to lunch one of these days I'll know why. LOL

Heather

[Tana Mc]

It is something about the stress that brings gilts into heat. It apparently doesn't work on the sows. You can pretty much get the same effect by mixing pens. By that I mean if you have gilts penned in small groups in seperate pens, if you mix them up a bit and they squabble to re-establish the "pecking order" , it seems to be enough stress to bring them into heat in 3-5 days. Some come in sooner.
I don't think that the boars presence affects the number of eggs released. We only have one boar for heat checking and 350 sows/gilts. I really don't think that very many of them even know he is on the place. I'll have to ask my hubby if he has noticed if females penned near the boar have more pigs....
Tana Mc

[Up North]

Well, this is deffinately good info to know. Thanks

Heather

[kidsngarden]

Tana MC -
So do you have large litters through AI? I'm just wondering about JHinCA's question.
kids

[Misty]

our smallest AI litter for a gilt was 8 and largest 13. We average 11 usually.

[RedHogs]

Buckshot,,,, Do you use 2 doses of full vial, or two half doses????

[Misty]

we use two full doses. I had not thought about splitting it. Do you split it? That would sure save some money if it worked out well.

[Tana Mc]

We average 10-11 pigs for the whole herd. I am not sure what the breakdown would be for just the gilts. We have had a few Yorkshire sows have as many as 18 pigs but that is not a good thing...... they are so small and usually all the other sows have full litters so it is hard to foster them off. We prefer no more than 10 pigs for each nursing female and we want them to weigh 12 lbs when we wean them at 18-21 days. When they have so many that are that small, it just doesn't work out that way.
We use 2 full doses, too. The semen is already diluted with extender to make it keep in the cooler and during shipping. I don't think that splitting it is a good idea unless you unexpectedly have two gilts come in heat instead of one. Some pigs would be better than none.......
Tana Mc

[Misty]

We have had to split stuff up before and used 1 dose only without splitting it up. Had 11-13 pigs. I agree with Tana on the large litters...I don't want them that big either.