# 5 tries to breed heifer-didn't work-hamburger or try again?



## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

Well Buttercup the 18 month old Jersey refuses to be bred. It's no fault of the farmer, that's sure. 5 tries and it's a no go.
Shes cute and sweet but they tell me she did have a rough start as a young calf (pnemonia) and she was free sooooooo........ should I try again or have her butchered?
Any opinions? This is our first dairy heifer/cow. :shrug: 
Although we like her we really can't afford to keep an unproductive animal on our small homestead.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Were these AI tries?? Sometimes its hard to get heifers settled AI for some reason...which is why our neighbor runs a clean-up bull, though he does 99% AI breeding. Maybe she is stubborn and just wants the "real thing"??


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

Our experience is that heifers are the easiest to settle, regardless if you AI or not. If she has been bred 5 times I would say she needs to go. I doubt you will get a calf out of her. 

Heather


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## Guest (Nov 5, 2006)

Maybe she was a freemartin? :shrug:


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

Was it with the same bull all five times? 
Was she definitely in heat all five times? 
Was she A.I.'d? 
Was she a twin, or did you buy her from someone else?

Edited to add: sorry, I replied too soon. I see that she came from someone else and was *free*, nto a good sign at all. Is there any way for you to contact the original owners and find out whether or not she was a twin? Twin heifers that have a male twin have a very high likelihood of being a freemartin...the odds are something like 12 out of 13.


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

Ummm, sorry, but I don't know what a "freemartin" is?
She was AI, she was not a twin.


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## Guest (Nov 5, 2006)

lorian said:


> Ummm, sorry, but I don't know what a "freemartin" is?
> She was AI, she was not a twin. When she came to us we did know that she had been sick as a calf, but she looks really healthy now. We have been pasture grazing her since April.


 If a cow gives birth to twins, and those twins are a boy and a girl, the girl is called a freemartin and she's almost always sterile.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

lorian said:


> Ummm, sorry, but I don't know what a "freemartin" is?
> She was AI, she was not a twin. When she came to us we did know that she had been sick as a calf, but she looks really healthy now. We have been pasture grazing her since April.


A freemartin is a heifer that was a twin to a bull and is usually sterile. You can have the vet check and see if she is one. If she is not a freemartin and the 5 failed breedings were AI attempts, I would give her another chance by running her with a bull. If she still doesn't take, ship her or eat her. We had a freemartin who was a great girl. We bought her as a calf and were not aware she was a freemartin. It was too hard to eat her as she was a great pet, so we sent her through the salebarn at a beef sale.


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

she was not a freemartin. She was a single calf.
So running them with a bull works better than AI? Is it because he is better able to guess her "heat" than we are? Do they charge much for this?


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## dennisjp (Mar 3, 2006)

I am just trying to learn for the future, but what is AI???? :shrug:


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## Guest (Nov 5, 2006)

dennisjp said:


> what is AI???? :shrug:


 *A*rtificial *I*nsemination.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

lorian said:


> So running them with a bull works better than AI? Is it because he is better able to guess her "heat" than we are? Do they charge much for this?


Running with a bull *can* work better than AI with *some* cows and with *some* folks technique of AI'ing......some people are better at it than others. And some cows are harder to get bred by AI than others. :shrug: A bull will be able to service her many times and be sure to get her in the right part of her heat cycle, so sometimes a bull will catch them, where an AI service may not. That is why I say I would give her a chance at natural breeding before I'd let her go as a lost cause. You stand to gain a lot if she will breed.
The charge for borrowing a bull or for taking your heifer to run with a bull will totally depend on the owner. If you can find someone willing to do so. Around here, as long as the heifer was healthy, I can name several people who would probably allow me to borrow a bull or let my heifer run with their bull for a month or so for a very minimal fee. We have loaned our bull out to friends before. They got to use him in exchange for feeding and caring for him while he was off my property. But I knew and trusted them. I would not allow just anyone to borrow my bull as he is a big investment for me. Do you know anyone near you that uses a bull??


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## JeffNY (Dec 13, 2004)

Up North said:


> Our experience is that heifers are the easiest to settle, regardless if you AI or not. If she has been bred 5 times I would say she needs to go. I doubt you will get a calf out of her.
> 
> Heather




This is wrong actually, and I would not give up. I do have a way to get her bred, and if she does NOT take this way, she will not take ever. I bred a heifer EIGHT times, and she finally took on he 8th or 9th time. I almost gave up, she is a good animal too. Her dam classified VG, she is out of a good family, solid animal as well. The first bull I used was the bull I was hoping she would have bred to, but did not. Last winter is when things were running out, as far as things to try. Our breeder who has been breeding for over 30 years has bred many many animals, has seen the way the breed has gone, both good and bad (bovine in general). He said to me "Try 3cc of GNRH instead of the 2cc that are reccomended by vets". Well I did that, and she took. I also did this on others, and they too took. GnRh is a wonder drug IMO. It has settled cows that would not settle otherwise. What is GnRh? and how does it work? GnRh is a drug that is actually a hormone, that the animal naturally produces. The hormone is known as Cystorelin. What the hormone does is cause the egg to be released, and when giving the shot, it "forces" the release earlier. Some animals will release an egg late, beyond the time the semen survives. With the one heifer I experienced breeding problems with, likely did this. She released late. Well the 2cc's did not work, and was not strong enough for her apparently. Well that 3cc dose did the trick.


The only risk with it is the possibility of twins. it increases the chances of getting twins. However it isn't as common as touted. All of a sudden on animals where you use GnRh, you aren't going to get twins. It does take more than simply a shot of GnRh to do this. Either way, I would get some GnRh, and I would do as I mentioned. DO NOT mention that 3CC dose to vets, they would likely try to scare you, they would say "this and that can happen, the world is coming to an end". Just do it. As I said, if she does not breed with that dose, chances are, she won't. 

It is the easiest thing to do, as Heather mentioned. But without trying aggressively as I mentioned, you might ship an animal that might settle with that dose. I also mentioned this to a farmer who has been around cows for many years, he is in his 60's. He tried this on his swiss, I am not sure if she settled or not. But he said she wasn't being ridden by any of his beefers, who did bother her when she was in heat. It was a good 4-5 months I beleive since she was bred with 3cc's of GnRh. Just give the shot at the time of breeding. Another idea, and it is very tricky is try to breed her late. Breed her the day after she is in standing heat. On a Monday she is in standing heat, breed her Tuesday evening. But I would use the GnRH, 3cc's, and if she doesn't take, then she is hamburger. Hey it worked for me.


Edit: I gave 2cc's to a Jersey cow we have, she didn't take, 3cc's she did take. I only did 3cc's on the 2nd service AFTER I used 2cc's on the first. Cows that slide from one month to another, and past their first calf, calving date (Example: April calving, slid to May calving the following year). So you HAVE to be aggresssive sometimes, remember they dont live forever, and they dont live very long under the knife.

Also BTW. I am glad I did try that 3cc's on that heifer that took on the 8th try. I do think she could go VG next May, nice udder, tons of strength, clean rump. If not VG85, GP84.


Jeff


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## DJ in WA (Jan 28, 2005)

Jeff,
Do you consider the difficulty in settling to be partly or wholly genetic? And if so, do you plan to cull all the calves from such a cow? You mentioned the good and bad trends in cattle. I wonder if going through so much effort to get a cow bred leads to an overall decline in fertility.


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## Patt (May 18, 2003)

DJ in WA said:


> Jeff,
> Do you consider the difficulty in settling to be partly or wholly genetic? And if so, do you plan to cull all the calves from such a cow? You mentioned the good and bad trends in cattle. I wonder if going through so much effort to get a cow bred leads to an overall decline in fertility.


That was my thought also, why would you go through all that trouble to continue a line of cows who don't breed quickly and easily? You aren't improving the genetics any.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

You might want to try sycronizing her.


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

JeffNY said:


> This is wrong actually, and I would not give up. I do have a way to get her bred, and if she does NOT take this way, she will not take ever. I bred a heifer EIGHT times, and she finally took on he 8th or 9th time. I almost gave up, she is a good animal too. Jeff


Well Jeff I don't know what kind of cows you are breeding but I breed the fertile type. *My* heifers rarely take more than two services to settle. Most settle the first time around. Yeah we get cows that are a trouble to breed but because the majority of my cows settle quickly and have a calf every year I can just cull these hard breeders. There's no shortage of replacement heifers here. I don't think you are doing anything for the sustainability of your herd by having to rely on drugs to get cows bred. We do just fine without them.

Lorian, since this heifer was free, I don't think you would be out too much if you could run her with a bull for a couple of months. I personally wouldn't try any more than that. Good Luck!


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

I agree with Up North on this one. I would have made hamburger out of her after the third try. There's no way I'd try 8 times to breed one heifer. At that rate, by the time you finally get her bred you would be only a couple of months away from having a calf on the ground, if she'd bred the first time. All that work getting her bred would have gotten 8 heifers bred that bred on the first try.


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## JeffNY (Dec 13, 2004)

This particular heifer's bloodline is fertile, her dam always took on the first try, this heifers sire is a high fertility sire (Comestar Outside). Now in the industry this does happen, and some have had a hard breeding heifer, only to calf out, and that calf (if its a heifer), has bred on the first try. Sometimes they dont settle if they are a little high strung, and in some cases simply won't. Keep in mind, those that dont settle, do not mean they aren't fertile. I was told of this cow (locally), that would not breed to AI. But she produced fertile eggs each time she flushed. So if she wasn't fertile, then she would not produce viable eggs. With this heifer, it had NOTHING to do with fertility. It is likely because of the delay in the release of the egg. I asked vets about this, and some animals have been known to release the egg while they are bleeding out, and that usually is beyond the 36hr live time for semen. Kahlua (the heifer), likely did this. So that dose of GNRH forced the release sooner, while the semen is still alive, perhaps its why I got a heifer. When you talk about fertility, make sure the understanding of fertility is known. A infertile animal, is an animal that will not produce a viable, fertile egg. As I mentioned, some have flushed, to find that animal IS producing fertile eggs, but wont hold an egg. She could be lacking some proteins that hold the embryo, which is likely related to one specific cow. Remember, cows are individuals, and when you have a fertile bloodline, and one happens to be harder to settle, look at the underlying reasons.


Now Heather your the same person that said it is better to have a higher SCC, than a lower SCC, Because somehow a higher SCC cow 200-300k range, will have a lower chance of getting mastitis. Somehow a cow that is in the 13-100k range will have a higher chance. That is the most ridiculous statement I have heard, and I hear many. A higher SCC cow is caused by either genetics, cleanliness, bacteria, or other items. If your herd is in that HIGH range, which is above the "sweet spot" for the quality bonus, you should look at how you dip. Do you post dip? Do you strip? Do you wash if they are filthy? Do you use different towels per animal? Are their areas clean? Are they from a line of high SCC cows? The last test, for the tank was 79k for SCC for me. With a 4.0BF, and 2.9 prot (prot. dropped likely because of the crappy Cargill grain).

I had a Jersey heifer with mastitis, she tested 430k. She should come down by the next test which will be nice. The swiss shot up, but her production also shot up. So if I used your logic, the higher the better, because I dont want mastitis .

BTW: Swiss are known to be harder settlers, they usually take 2-3 services, mostly because of their temperament. So I guess we should cull ALL swiss, because of the way they settle .

Now I am also glad I did get her bred, calved her out, she tested 5.4BF, 70lbs. That is the second highest BF cow to test yet, and she is a holstein. No she is not ketotic, been through ketosis, and her appetite is good, and she milks something fierce.


Either way, sometimes it does take a shot of something. The low fertility cows usually cull themselves. Her case was as I said, likely a delayed release of the egg. I know of someone who visits this site that had a heifer that he didn't notice any heat. He gave her a shot of lute, bred her, she took. When you have a good solid animal, have a herd that is JUST starting, and where every animal is important. You bet you will give it a try. I wish I did that sooner, vs breeding 8 times.

tyusclan: Not all heifers breed on the first try, most do, but some do not. Especially now adays. Heck I had some last fall take on the first try, some took 2 trys, a couple jerseys took on the third try. Did you know that the CR% has declined over the years, because of the goal of higher producing animals. The breeder I use, atleast one of them said he has noticed the services per Jerseys to go from 1 out of 1, to 2-3 services per heifer. At this one farm where I got some of the Jerseys, they went from 1.2 to 2.5-3. They recently sold their cows to a farm in PA, for health reasons (people running it).

Jeff


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

No offense, please do not take this the wrong way...but if you don't have enough experience with cattle to know what a freemartin is, then how in the heck can you be sure she was in heat when she was AI'd? They *must* be in heat in order to get pregnant, or you can spend a fortune in semen and still have nothing at all to show for it. I would run her with a bull for a while.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

Yes, I understand that not all heifers settle on the first try. That's why I said that I'd make hamburger out of her after the *third* try. I believe in simplifying my life. I don't want heifers that won't breed, cows that you have to pull calves, sows that won't farrow, etc. If my stock won't do their job without me babysitting them, then they're a liability and not an asset, and I don't need them.


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

Tyusclan states my thoughts exactly. I want an animal to do it's job and I am not going to babysit it. Jeff, I don't need lessons on cow fertility and how to properly prep a cow. I grew up on the farm and my dad started turning over the milk herd to me when I was 13. I bought my first herd when I was 19 and have made 100% of my income from my cows my entire life. We have totally different views on how things should be done and I am going to leave it at that.

Heather


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

yes, it's true, I do not have the experience to know exactly WHEN she was in heat, but shes been at someone else's dairy farm ( a friend) and he knows what he's doing and he's doing the AI for us. We are just trying to get a "family cow". Gotta start somewhere. :baby04:

PS I had no idea a question of this kind would make such a "HOT" thread!


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2006)

lorian said:


> PS I had no idea a question of this kind would make such a "HOT" thread!


 Me neither.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

lorian said:


> yes, it's true, I do not have the experience to know exactly WHEN she was in heat, but shes been at someone else's dairy farm ( a friend) and he knows what he's doing and he's doing the AI for us. We are just trying to get a "family cow". Gotta start somewhere. :baby04:
> 
> PS I had no idea a question of this kind would make such a "HOT" thread!


Lorian, if it is at all possible get this heifer into a pasture with a suitable bull.


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## Patt (May 18, 2003)

lorian said:


> yes, it's true, I do not have the experience to know exactly WHEN she was in heat, but shes been at someone else's dairy farm ( a friend) and he knows what he's doing and he's doing the AI for us. We are just trying to get a "family cow". Gotta start somewhere. :baby04:
> 
> PS I had no idea a question of this kind would make such a "HOT" thread!


Sometimes a topic will just take off and you never know why, don't feel bad. 
If I were you I would do 3 things, take your heifer to the Vet and make sure everything inside looks good. Put her on a really excellant mineral, we've had trouble with the Highlands not getting bred if they aren't getting a high quality mineral. Then run her with a bull if you can find one, if you call your local cattlemen's association they should have a list of who has bulls that they loan out. If she gets bred there's a pretty good chance she'll get bred more easily after this first pregnancy.


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

Thanks Patt,

That's good practical advice I can follow thru with. :hobbyhors 
I'm calling today to ask them to give her minerals ( my farmer friends) and they said they
have a friend with a Jersey bull she can run with.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

lorian said:


> I'm calling today to ask them to give her minerals ( my farmer friends) and they said they
> have a friend with a Jersey bull she can run with.


Great! I think thats the best thing to do. Let us know if it works!!


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2006)

chamoisee said:


> No offense, please do not take this the wrong way...but if you don't have enough experience with cattle to know what a freemartin is, then how in the heck can you be sure she was in heat when she was AI'd? They *must* be in heat in order to get pregnant, or you can spend a fortune in semen and still have nothing at all to show for it. I would run her with a bull for a while.


 Everyone has to start somewhere, and the fact that she's posting here asking for advice shows that she's trying to learn.


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## Patt (May 18, 2003)

lorian said:


> Thanks Patt,
> 
> That's good practical advice I can follow thru with. :hobbyhors
> I'm calling today to ask them to give her minerals ( my farmer friends) and they said they
> have a friend with a Jersey bull she can run with.


Great! We use Vigortone mineral, they make one just for Dairy cows. It's $25 a bag but it made a huge difference in our cattle.  I'll be praying that your heifer gets bred this time!


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

Up North said:


> Well Jeff I don't know what kind of cows you are breeding but I breed the fertile type. *My* heifers rarely take more than two services to settle. Most settle the first time around. Yeah we get cows that are a trouble to breed but because the majority of my cows settle quickly and have a calf every year I can just cull these hard breeders. There's no shortage of replacement heifers here. I don't think you are doing anything for the sustainability of your herd by having to rely on drugs to get cows bred. We do just fine without them.
> 
> Lorian, since this heifer was free, I don't think you would be out too much if you could run her with a bull for a couple of months. I personally wouldn't try any more than that. Good Luck!


we milked cows for almost 20 years, and we found our holstein heifers setteled much eisier than the cows also.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Patt said:


> Great! We use Vigortone mineral, they make one just for Dairy cows. It's $25 a bag but it made a huge difference in our cattle.


Patt, can you tell me the amount of copper the Vigortone Dairy mineral has in it?? And whats the name of the mineral, just Vigortone Dairy?? I am looking for a mineral for my dairy goat herd...but it must be high in copper. I know of several places that carry Vigortone. Their goat mineral has too little copper in it......


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## jerzeygurl (Jan 21, 2005)

I would get her with a bull, a bull always knows when the time is right. I can usually tell pretty well myself, but a bull trying repeatedly over several days has a better chance than one ai. 

jersey bulls are the most um amorous but are too hard to keep(onerier than snot), an angus will be easier to handle if you are renting, and angus babies have smaller heads so wont be so hard to birth and an angus bull is frisky enough and the crosses are nice we have some some also use longhorns for the same reason.

we never AI becaue my fil never had any luck with it, we do 100 percent on bull.


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## Calfkeeper (Feb 1, 2006)

ladycat said:


> If a cow gives birth to twins, and those twins are a boy and a girl, the girl is called a freemartin and she's almost always sterile.



Just an interesting note on this one: Last spring we took a group of young (1 year and under) Holstein heifers to the sale barn and the vet there declared one of them a freemartin, but she WASN'T a twin. My husband called the sale barn and they stated that it was possible for a heifer to be a freemartin, I would guess just defined as "sterile," and not have been a twin.


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2006)

Calfkeeper said:


> Just an interesting note on this one: Last spring we took a group of young (1 year and under) Holstein heifers to the sale barn and the vet there declared one of them a freemartin, but she WASN'T a twin. My husband called the sale barn and they stated that it was possible for a heifer to be a freemartin, I would guess just defined as "sterile," and not have been a twin.


 Is it possible there was a twin and the cow lost him early on? :shrug:


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## JeffNY (Dec 13, 2004)

Hips usually cause birthing problems, a big head can be rough. But it is usually the hips that pinch nerves. Of course a big bodied calf will also give an animal problems. But as a whole, beef calves dont have wide hips, and are easier to calve out.



Jeff


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## Patt (May 18, 2003)

ozark_jewels said:


> Patt, can you tell me the amount of copper the Vigortone Dairy mineral has in it?? And whats the name of the mineral, just Vigortone Dairy?? I am looking for a mineral for my dairy goat herd...but it must be high in copper. I know of several places that carry Vigortone. Their goat mineral has too little copper in it......


I don't have a bag right now, we keep it in a tub. I use the Vigortone breeders best for beef cattle. We also gave it to our goats and they did really well on it. We couldn't find a goat mineral locally and our Vet said this would be fine for them.


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## Patt (May 18, 2003)

I googled Vigortone and the product I use is Vigortone cattle breeder. Goatworld recommended their mineral for cattle on pasture and this link has an ingredients list.  
http://www.goatworld.com/nutrition/vigortone32s.shtml


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Patt said:


> I googled Vigortone and the product I use is Vigortone cattle breeder. Goatworld recommended their mineral for cattle on pasture and this link has an ingredients list.
> http://www.goatworld.com/nutrition/vigortone32s.shtml


Thanks!!!!!


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

Other reasons why I woud not cull her yet if she's only been A.I.'d: 

Let's assume she was in heat each time she was bred. What else could have gone wrong? Lots! Even with someone very experienced in A.I., stuff _does_ go wrong. 

The semen may have been lifted out of the LN2 for a few seconds too long. That's all it takes to weaken or kill it. 

Or, the tank may have gone dry and been undetected. 

Or, just the semen being used on your cow might be at fault- that cane might be from a sire who had low fertility, or it passed through hands who let it thaw or didn't handle it carefully, etc, before ending up at the place with someone who knows what he's doing. Dead semen will not impregnate anything. 

The thermometer might be off just a degree or two. Again, that's all it takes to kill it. Thawed semen is incredibly fragile stuff. 

Etc, etc.....My point is, the heifer may be just fine. She's probably worth quite a bit, and why not give her the chance of live breeding? I would never consider getting rid of a virgin animal simply because she hadn't settled via A.I.. Semen that has been watered down (extended), frozen, moved around from one tank to another who knows how many times, stored for years. and then thawed just isn't as potent as the fresh stuff, and sometimes it's worthless. 

It very well may have nothing whatsoever to do with her fertility, and everything to do with the viability of that semen.


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## JeffNY (Dec 13, 2004)

chamoisee summed it up nicely, and one thing I would like to add. Too many people give up too easily now adays. An animal that takes more services than the norm, does not mean she is low on fertility. The other possibility while breeding, is the aggressiveness of the breeder, perhaps he is knocking the egg out of her repro tract (it has happened). Many many things could be the reason, if we all knew why, we would have 100% CR.



Jeff


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## john in la (Jul 15, 2005)

lorian said:


> So running them with a bull works better than AI? Is it because he is better able to guess her "heat" than we are?


The cow controls when a bull breeds her. She will not stand still for him if she is not in heat. The #1 reason a bull can settle a cow better than AI is semen count.
You can breed many cows with AI from one (what is the word I am looking for here???) lets just say time with a bull.

I agree with Heather.
Put her with a bull for a couple of months and if she does not breed make hambuger out of her.


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

Thanks so much everyone, I learned a lot! We are going to run her with a bull and have decided not to give up.

This is a fabulous board!


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

john in la said:


> The cow controls when a bull breeds her. She will not stand still for him if she is not in heat. The #1 reason a bull can settle a cow better than AI is semen count.
> You can breed many cows with AI from one (what is the word I am looking for here???) lets just say time with a bull.
> 
> I agree with Heather.
> Put her with a bull for a couple of months and if she does not breed make hambuger out of her.


I think the word you are looking for is "volume"..........LOL


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

Keep us updated. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I'll send some fertile thoughts your way too. LOL :wizard:

Heather


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## dosthouhavemilk (Oct 29, 2004)

I would run her with a bull for two or three heat cycles as well.
Has her reproductive health been checked by a vet? Is she cystic?
We have a heifer on her 6th or 7th AI, through little fault of her own. I am the one AIing afterall. (I just learned to AI last November and am still mastering the whole getting the gun through the cervix...though I have three calves on the ground so far with 3 more due that indicate it isn't a neccesity..lol) For that matter, I have a large number of animals recycling after breeding. Quite discouraging actually.
This past summer, in our area at least, only about 10% of breedings on most farms took. These are experienced breeders that still had horrible conception rates. This according to the vet. 
The concern, as pointed out, is, if she is having trouble as a heifer, what does her reproductive future hold? Is she going to be a hard breeder every time?
We had a heifer who was cystic. She was AIed twice (couldn't catch as she was out of her mind). She then was run with a herd bull for 6 months or so. He corrected her cystic issues and settled her his very last day here. She calved Christmas Eve of this past year and I settled her first service AI this lactation. She's due in January.
We had a cow who would take about 8 or 9 AIs to take, but put her with a bull and she took first cycle. Her cycles were long and we just weren't nailing the timing. We've had others just like that.
There was a wonderful four year old cow at the school farm that was being culled because she would not take to AI. I knew her problem. Same as Loren..long cycles. I sold her, brought her home ran her with our herd bull and she took first time around (he was about 11 months old). She headed to her new home in Kansas. She calved at 12 months again this year and is already settled back. She's been bred naturally and takes first service. First time was AI.

Each cow is different and you need to figure out what you are willing to do.
We don't jump to drugs but we don't throw the baby out with the bath water either.
Our heifers are AIed when we can and every couple of years we run a clean up bull to catch the ones that don't take. Everything 4+ that is open is then beefed.


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## dosthouhavemilk (Oct 29, 2004)

The nice things about Jerseys is their overall lack of calving issues. I have read that their pelvises are built differently and shift during calving to allow the passage of calves that would cause other breeds issues.




I read a study at some point that pointed towards using synching programs (OviSynch was the one fingered in this case) alongside the use of Posilac (not sure why except that a cow producing well doesn't get back into breeding condition as quick as normal) that said there were a lot more twin pregnancies occuring but that one twin is lost early on in the pregnancy and so freemartins are born as singles.


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