Progress in AI techniques over the years has been aided by the Beef Reproductive Task Force and Reproductive Leadership Team, with researchers figuring out the best AI protocols.
Willie Altenburg, a Colorado seedstock producer and AI rep for Select Sires, says the task force is a group of researchers in beef reproduction at various universities doing research on estrous synchronization and AI. The leadership team is made up of representatives from the task force, AI studs, the pharmaceutical industry and bovine reproduction veterinarians.
“This group came up with recommended estrous synchronization protocols for AI after looking at research from all the universities on different AI systems,” Altenburg said.
“When a system looks promising, the data is analyzed by the leadership team to see if there are enough numbers for valid conclusions, and whether it is consistent enough to say it’s better than what we were doing before.”
“We hold conferences on applied reproductive strategies, and the committee that is formed each year updates those protocols. We try to make those methods as foolproof as possible. We tell producers to stay on those protocols and not deviate from them. I tell my clients to let the researchers do the research, and apply what the research has proven to work,” Altenburg continued.
“Now the CIDRs (controlled internal drug release devices that provide timed release of prostaglandin) have allowed us to be more successful with cow AI,” he says.
The CIDR is a progesterone insert placed in the vagina for seven days and then removed, used in conjunction with hormones to synchronize estrus in beef females. Developed in New Zealand, CIDRs have now become an effective aid to synchronization for many producers.
“Many of our AI systems have improved so much that we are now doing a lot more with cows. Only about 15 to 18 percent of cow herds are heifers. We can make so much more herd improvement if we can also use AI in the cows,” he explains.
“Our goal is to have six out of every 10 animals that leave the breeding shed be pregnant on the first day of the breeding season. That gets breeders’ attention. When you say 60 percent pregnancy rate that doesn’t sound very good, but when you say this another way—that six out of every 10 females are pregnant on the first day of breeding season—this makes a difference, especially in terms of your needed bull power, with bulls being so expensive,” says Altenburg. — Heather Smith Thomas, WLJ correspondent
