Artificial insemination... practical?

forester7

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I am currently in the planning stages of building a hobby barn and possibly keeping a few Dexter cattle. I was thinking of keeping 2 cows and their offspring until slaughter. Would it be practical to go this route and plan to have AI done each year on the cows, or would this cost too much or be too difficult to pull off? I doubt I could keep enough cows to make getting a bull practical.

Any thoughts?
 

promiseacres

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In cattle and pigs I do believe many do that. You buy straws of semen and pay to have them inseminated. (Unless you're trained to do it) you may need to sychronize the girls. If I had cattle it would be my preferred way. Or possibly rent a bull.
 
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luvmypets

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I personally don't have cattle, but I would recommend AI. If you only want a few cows it would be costly and possibly dangerous to care for a bull.I had an aggressive ram and it was hard to stay safe around him. He was only 200lbs and a bull would easily be 4-5x that amount. I know all of the big cattle industries use AI to better their stock by adding strong traits of a bull to a cow who does not have that trait or lacks it. Look around your area, there should be someone who is trained to inseminate cattle.
 

NH homesteader

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I would look to see who rents out bulls in your area (if anyone ) also. The problem with AI is if you time it wrong you're out whatever you paid.

I don't know much about financial or other logistics but one of the cattle people will weigh in soon I'm sure!
 

farmerjan

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:welcome You didn't say where you are located and if you are in an area where there are any dairy farms, or beef farms nearby that you could go and talk to the farmer and see if they do their own AI. For only 2 animals, AI is the best way to go; IF you are in an area where you can get it done. Alot of vets even do it, but all according to where you are, you might find a dairy farmer that does his own, has his own semen tank and you could get some Dexter semen put in his tank and have him breed for you. Alot of the dairy farmers around here have been known to breed a few cows for neighbors over the years.
OR according to the area where you are, get in contact with the closest distributing AI company....Select Sire Power is very popular, but you may find a smaller company that may specialize in some of the "odd breeds" and alot of the guys who sell semen will often do the inseminating also. Try going on any sites for dexter cattle and see if they can help you find a source, or if you have an idea of where you are going to get the dexter cows from, they may very well be able to help you. Sometimes you can rent a bull, for only 2 cows it might not be practical, but if you work away and might have trouble catching them in heat then it might be better. Synching them would help to be able to see the heats; and timed AI would mean a series of a couple of shots them breeding them so many hours later ....there are a multitude of ways to do it.
Make sure if you want to go the AI route, you have a chute and head catch so that whoever does the breeding is not at risk for getting hurt and the cows are able to be contained. I have had to breed heifers in barns where they run them up in a free stall and have nearly had my arm bent backwards and feet stepped on trying to push them forward to keep them in the stall while sticking my arm up their butts. Doesn't have to be fancy, just a way to get them in a head catch and a way to keep them from swinging their rear around...
Don't know about costs of dexter semen, but for example, a decent angus bull straw of semen will run $20-$40 and then the cost of service, 10-30 a visit depending on the distance travelled. Just a rough idea. I pay an avg $20-30 a straw for my jersey and guernsey semen and have my own nitrogen tank. It has to be "charged " every 3 months with nitrogen to keep the semen frozen until ready to use. They are expensive to buy and service for only a couple of cows so much better to find someone to do the breeding. I have some semen in my tank that belongs to someone else, and it's not a problem for me to keep it since I do their breeding. It almost isn't cost effective for me to have a tank since I don't do alot of AI breeding, but want to get back to doing more once I retire and can spend more time doing what I want with my cows.
My son and I run beef cattle and we use bulls since they go out to several different pastures in the summer and there are usually no facilities. We do rent out a couple of our angus bulls to small beef farmers that only have 10-20 cows and don't need a bull except for 2-3 months a year. We are flexible and I do get calls to do some AI breeding for people with a family cow or two.:ya:ya
 

Mini Horses

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It can be expensive if you need to have someone keep checking to tell if the cow is in estrus. The semen isn't the largest expense but the shipping & handling can be hard to handle. It really depends on who is in your area that does this because the semen can't just ship & hold on a shelf like a bag of p-nuts. To be viable it must maintain temperature properly, thaw properly and be used quickly. You may get lucky and have a farm/facility close that will collect & AI.

IMO it is a better option than bringing in a bull. That can be trouble if you are not prepared. And with only 2 cows....

Another reason I don't have a milk cow but, milk goats.:D =D

Horses are sent to a stallion. Possibly there is a farm near that offers breeding services "on site". Long shot but :idunno
 

jhm47

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I am a Genex representative, and have bred thousands of heifers and cows in the past. We have several large ranches near here where we do 100 - 400 heifers each year. I breed my own cattle AI each summer, and have done so since 1988. The progress one can make by carefully selecting bulls is astounding. There are bulls that will complement nearly every cow, and you can make improvements very quickly. I will admit that I know nothing about Dexter cattle, and have never seen one. Angus (both black and red), Simmental, Hereford, and a very few Charolais are the big sellers here. We no longer have small dairy farms. We do have a large dairy about 30 miles away and they have 12,500 cows.
 

cjc

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For us, small time cattle farmers with a herd of 16 we do not do AI. We have debated it a few times but it has always been too complicated for our beef cows. I have a Jersey now and I may do that with her next season. There is a local company here that will do it for $60. You just give them a call and they are there within 12 hours. But this is only for Holstein or Jersey semen

The reason why I don't do it is it's too hard for us to be aware of when our cows are in heat. It is easier with our dairy cow because we interact with her more and she's easier to approach. With our beef herd in the field it's too much work for us.

We have a squeeze but we wouldn't be able to do this ourselves. We could always buy the semen and call the vet but by that point we are in $200 for the vet call plus the cost of the semen and renting a bull just makes more sense.

We put a bull with our girls for 3 months. We pay $100 per cow in the field to the bull owner and he drops him off and picks him up. Only downfall is we have to feed him so we are just trying to have the bull only during the summer months. There is also an option with the fella we rent the bulls from to take our girls to the bull. Then you just pay a little more but if you couldn't contain a bull you may be able to find an arrangement like that. The bulls are hard on our fence but they are actually more tame then most of our cows. We use shorthorns.

I guess you have to ask yourself if you are sophisticated enough to do AI. Myself I am not and where I live I wouldn't have access to Dexter semen only Jersey and Holstein for a good price that included them doing the insemination.
 

farmerjan

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There are heat detectors; like K-MARS that select sires uses and I know other AI companies have something similiar. If there are at least 2 animals in a field together , the k-mar is put just ahead of her tailhead . It goes on with some glue and has a tube inside that breaks and spreads a red dye inside the tube when the cow in heat is standing to be ridden by another cow. Works really good for the most part. I use it on my dairy cows when I get into breeding - in fact they will all be getting k-mars in the next week - so that I can get calves for early next fall and get more calves grafted on and some good growth before winter. Have had to try to do some figuring due to possible surgery and who will be taking care of stuff, so have held off breeding before now. They also seem to show more heats when it cools off a bit and they will settle easier than in the hot weather. They would work if you have the 2 cows together as they will help "show" heats in each other. Sometimes it is harder when a cow is by herself.
 

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