Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
I’ve been asked about Artificial Insemination or AI. I thought I’d start a thread that covers the basics and it could be developed from there. Feel free to ask any questions...if I don’t know the answer, I have several resources that I can use to get the answer.
Semen: Semen is collected from bulls at facilities where viability can be checked and the semen can be frozen quickly to insure quality. It is frozen in 3 and 5 ml “straws.” Each straw is good for one breeding attempt. A straw can cost anywhere from $5 to $500+ each with $20-35 each being most common.
Semen can be purchased as sexed, either male or female. This semen doesn’t have as high of a success rate. Some estimate that it’s about 60% versus about 75% with a standard straw. There is also always a chance that the wrong gender can occur, despite paying the extra $50-300 per straw for sexed semen.
Bull selection is key. For heifers that are Calving for the first time, the key is a live calf! You want a proven, Calving ease bull. EPD’s for purebred bulls are often available and give you an added edge of safety. (Remember that the bull only provides half of the genetics for the calf though so your female is providing the other half.) Some breeds have more bulls that are known for ease of Calving. Your semen rep can help you with which bulls they carry that meet your requirements. (EPD’s is a completely different post that I’ll try to get around to one of these days!)
Semen Storage: Some species can have semen stored (essentially indefinitely) in a semen tank. Cattle are one of those species. Tanks vary in size. For example, ours can hold 200 straws. Owning a tank presents its own necessities as you have to have it refilled with liquid nitrogen every 3 months. We have a local dairy farmer that “services” our tank. We pay $40 to have it refilled every 3 months. He has a key to our shop so that he can access the tank if we aren’t home. He leaves the bill and we mail him a check.
Tanks must be stored in a cool, dry place. They cannot sit on the ground, on concrete, or be jostled around or knocked over. Ours sits on a solid wood pallet in our shop where the temperature is fairly consistent. When we transport our tank, it gets seatbelted in a seat to protect it from jarring.
Tanks can be expensive to purchase. (Several hundred to a $1000 depending on size and features.) It depends on what size you are looking for. You also don’t want a tank that’s been allowed to go “dry” as it may not hold a charge as effectively. Sometimes, used tanks can be found and purchased. Occasionally these used tanks will be sold with semen in them that you may be able to use.
Semen Representatives: Numerous companies distribute semen and have associates that provide breeding services. For a small operation, this may be the best way to go. Make a contact that services your area and pay them to do the breeding and store your semen/buy from their stock.
It’s necessary to have someone that is trained to perform the service. There are supplies that are necessary. If you want to go to a training yourself, the different companies offer trainings but they are several hundred dollars and three days for the training, plus travel, food, and accomodations. To have someone come to you to perform the service for you, you’ll pay a farm visit, then a service fee for each animals. In our area, the service visit is $35 and then it’s $20 to service each female (we supply the semen and give a hormone shot to help the female “stick.” This shot can vary in cost up to $20 when coming from your vet or service person.)
One of the advantages to having someone service your females for you is that they have done this numerous times and typically have a much higher rate of success. Practice and performing the service regularly definitely play a role in success.
Kits are required to have the necessary breeding supplies. These cost about $100 depending on how fancy you want to go and the supplies have to be replaced as necessary.
Breeding: Timing is everything! When breeding with the AI method, the service should occur 12 hrs after standing heat. (A female that does not stand still to be ridden is not in standing heat. This can occur before or after standing heat.) Standing heat can be difficult to observe. Some females only stand for a very short period of time. Weather can also effect the heats drastically. Very hot conditions can make it difficult to catch a female standing as the cattle don’t ride much when it’s hot.
One method of detecting heats without direct observation would be to use a heat patch. These are nice because the FULL color only appears after standing heat. Unfortunately, they are sold in sets of 20 and are only good for one year. If you are a small breeder, you may see if you can go in with someone to buy the patches or see if your service person can help you obtain just what you need.
These are the particular patches that we prefer to use. We apply as directed but have had a few cows scrape the patch completely off their body. To prevent this, we’ve started applying three very small dots to each patch immediately prior to applying. (One dot on each end and in the middle.) We’ve had no issue with the patches coming off over time from the oil that the cows naturally produce and shedding.
Cycles: Female bovines typically cycle every 21 days. Heat detection can be more difficult with smaller groups as some may not react as strongly to others cycling.
Gestation: Most bovine gestational are 283 days give or take up to a week on average. Some breeds are known for going shorter or longer. Heifers (first time calvers) are known to go up to 2 weeks early without issue.
I actually use an iPhone app from the company that my rep works for. The home page looks like this:
I like that I can do a quick bull search and get information, calculate due dates easily, and there is also a way to synchronize several females. This app can help you calculate all of that. I’ll save synchronization for another day those as it’s in depth and we’ve had better success with breeding on natural heats.
Semen: Semen is collected from bulls at facilities where viability can be checked and the semen can be frozen quickly to insure quality. It is frozen in 3 and 5 ml “straws.” Each straw is good for one breeding attempt. A straw can cost anywhere from $5 to $500+ each with $20-35 each being most common.
Semen can be purchased as sexed, either male or female. This semen doesn’t have as high of a success rate. Some estimate that it’s about 60% versus about 75% with a standard straw. There is also always a chance that the wrong gender can occur, despite paying the extra $50-300 per straw for sexed semen.
Bull selection is key. For heifers that are Calving for the first time, the key is a live calf! You want a proven, Calving ease bull. EPD’s for purebred bulls are often available and give you an added edge of safety. (Remember that the bull only provides half of the genetics for the calf though so your female is providing the other half.) Some breeds have more bulls that are known for ease of Calving. Your semen rep can help you with which bulls they carry that meet your requirements. (EPD’s is a completely different post that I’ll try to get around to one of these days!)
Semen Storage: Some species can have semen stored (essentially indefinitely) in a semen tank. Cattle are one of those species. Tanks vary in size. For example, ours can hold 200 straws. Owning a tank presents its own necessities as you have to have it refilled with liquid nitrogen every 3 months. We have a local dairy farmer that “services” our tank. We pay $40 to have it refilled every 3 months. He has a key to our shop so that he can access the tank if we aren’t home. He leaves the bill and we mail him a check.
Tanks must be stored in a cool, dry place. They cannot sit on the ground, on concrete, or be jostled around or knocked over. Ours sits on a solid wood pallet in our shop where the temperature is fairly consistent. When we transport our tank, it gets seatbelted in a seat to protect it from jarring.
Tanks can be expensive to purchase. (Several hundred to a $1000 depending on size and features.) It depends on what size you are looking for. You also don’t want a tank that’s been allowed to go “dry” as it may not hold a charge as effectively. Sometimes, used tanks can be found and purchased. Occasionally these used tanks will be sold with semen in them that you may be able to use.
Semen Representatives: Numerous companies distribute semen and have associates that provide breeding services. For a small operation, this may be the best way to go. Make a contact that services your area and pay them to do the breeding and store your semen/buy from their stock.
It’s necessary to have someone that is trained to perform the service. There are supplies that are necessary. If you want to go to a training yourself, the different companies offer trainings but they are several hundred dollars and three days for the training, plus travel, food, and accomodations. To have someone come to you to perform the service for you, you’ll pay a farm visit, then a service fee for each animals. In our area, the service visit is $35 and then it’s $20 to service each female (we supply the semen and give a hormone shot to help the female “stick.” This shot can vary in cost up to $20 when coming from your vet or service person.)
One of the advantages to having someone service your females for you is that they have done this numerous times and typically have a much higher rate of success. Practice and performing the service regularly definitely play a role in success.
Kits are required to have the necessary breeding supplies. These cost about $100 depending on how fancy you want to go and the supplies have to be replaced as necessary.
Breeding: Timing is everything! When breeding with the AI method, the service should occur 12 hrs after standing heat. (A female that does not stand still to be ridden is not in standing heat. This can occur before or after standing heat.) Standing heat can be difficult to observe. Some females only stand for a very short period of time. Weather can also effect the heats drastically. Very hot conditions can make it difficult to catch a female standing as the cattle don’t ride much when it’s hot.
One method of detecting heats without direct observation would be to use a heat patch. These are nice because the FULL color only appears after standing heat. Unfortunately, they are sold in sets of 20 and are only good for one year. If you are a small breeder, you may see if you can go in with someone to buy the patches or see if your service person can help you obtain just what you need.
These are the particular patches that we prefer to use. We apply as directed but have had a few cows scrape the patch completely off their body. To prevent this, we’ve started applying three very small dots to each patch immediately prior to applying. (One dot on each end and in the middle.) We’ve had no issue with the patches coming off over time from the oil that the cows naturally produce and shedding.
Cycles: Female bovines typically cycle every 21 days. Heat detection can be more difficult with smaller groups as some may not react as strongly to others cycling.
Gestation: Most bovine gestational are 283 days give or take up to a week on average. Some breeds are known for going shorter or longer. Heifers (first time calvers) are known to go up to 2 weeks early without issue.
I actually use an iPhone app from the company that my rep works for. The home page looks like this:
I like that I can do a quick bull search and get information, calculate due dates easily, and there is also a way to synchronize several females. This app can help you calculate all of that. I’ll save synchronization for another day those as it’s in depth and we’ve had better success with breeding on natural heats.
