Get Educated and Improve Your Success with AI

Originally Published in Gulf Coast Cattleman

There’s more to breeding cows than breeding cows. Heat detection, heat synchronization protocols, proper semen handling, timing, cattle handling procedure and nutrition all play a role in getting a cow bred. Even if you plan to hire a technician to artificially inseminate your cattle, you need a basic understanding of the process so you can ensure proper protocols are followed.

“If you don’t have the proper education, you aren’t going to get a single cow bred,” said Mike Mackey, co-owner and artificial insemination technician at TTS Halters and Cattle, LLC. “People tend to think knowing how to place the straw correctly is the most important part of AI, but the most important part of AI is heat detection. If you can’t detect heat or properly implement synchronization protocols, even if you handle and place the semen correctly, you’re going to have an open cow.”

Mackey went through the ABS artificial insemination program 30 years ago and since then he’s bred a lot of cows on a lot of operations. He advocates for anyone interested in integrating AI into their program to go through an AI course whether or not they plan to do the AI work themselves. He said an education in AI will teach participants the basics of AI including heat detection, synchronization, and semen handling as well as breeding technique.

“If you’re hiring a technician, you can’t afford to have him come in morning and night to check heats,” Mackey said. “You need to know the signs of the onset of estrus. It’s not all about a cow standing, it’s her actions leading up to that point. Years ago in Minnesota, I remember seeing a cow just milling around eating grass and every once in a while she’d smell another cow. She never jumped one and never got jumped. But I knew those signs of the onset of estrus. I took her into the corral and she ended up producing a national champion bull in the Limousine breed. That would have been a very easy heat to miss. Back then we could only work off natural heats, now we can synchronize heats which makes things much easier.”

Mackey said proper semen handling is the second most important part of success with artificial insemination.

“If you pull that straw of semen out of the tank and play around with it for even a couple minutes, you might as well dump it on the ground because it’s not going to breed a cow,” Mackey said.  “Proper semen handling is extremely important.

“If you plan to AI your cattle yourself, you also need to learn the basic technique to actually breeding a cow. Every single cow is different so the more experience you get the easier it will get. Once you have that basic technique down, breeding the cow becomes the easy part. If you can learn the basics of heat detection and semen handling, from there time and practice is going to teach you how to get good at breeding cows.”

Artificial insemination can be a beneficial practice for purebred and commercial cattlemen alike for a few different reasons. Mackey said perhaps the greatest benefit of AI is being able to use the best genetics in the country on your operation.

“You could go out and buy a $10,000 to $20,000 bull or you can spend $20 to $50 to use that bull on your females,” Mackey said. “I can have the best bulls in the country at my house for an affordable price. That’s a huge advantage! For operators who will have retained ownership on calves through the feedyard, they can select bulls with more growth and better carcass traits. You can match the genetics you’re bringing in to your goals without investing in a bull. If you want show calves, there’s a bull that will make show calves. If you want to make replacement females there’s a bull that will do that. Whatever your goal is, there’s a bull out there that will do it.”

Kyle Kemp, sire procurement specialist at Bovine Elite, said artificial insemination is a wise financial move beyond saving dollars on purchasing a bull.

“Getting educated and implementing AI in your herd will save you money in the long run,” Kemp said. “You don’t have to worry about feeding a bull and making sure he doesn’t get hurt. If you have been trained in AI and do your own breeding, you’ll save money on hiring a technician. Most of all, you’re improving your genetic potential which is increasing your economic value. AI calves are typically going to outweigh and be more uniform than natural sired calves. You’ll have less input and more pounds. Poundage is money. The heavier, healthier and more uniform your calves are the better they’re going to sell.”

Not only can you improve genetic potential through selecting a bull that works for your program goals, but you can also utilize sexed semen to produce more replacement heifers or steers to send to the feedlot.

“Sexed semen is another major benefit,” Mackey said. “If you’re a commercial operator with 200 heifers, you can breed every one of those heifers to sexed bull semen so you can send all steer calves to the barn or feedlot. If you want replacement females, you can breed everything to sexed female semen to get replacement heifer calves. If you have a great female you want to multiply, you don’t have to waste a year getting a steer calf out of her.”

Mackey said synchronizing calving seasons through AI can greatly improve your operation’s efficiency and strategize your marketing plan.

“If you AI 150 cows in one day and run even just a 50 percent conception rate, you now have 75 cows that are all due to calve on the same day,” Mackey said. “Now, they’re not all going to calve on that exact day, but your calving season is going to be a lot tighter. If you’re going to have a production sale or participate in a sale on a specific date and you want all your bulls to be the same age, we can AI our cows to make that happen. That way any bulls that make the cut are going to be 18-months-old at the same time and ready for the sale. You won’t have any that you’re having to feed to two-years-old to make the sale. You won’t have to say, ‘We have some yearlings, some 14-month-olds, and some 18-month-olds.’ You’ll be able to say, ‘We have 100 18-month-old bulls all born within 20 days of each other.’”

Artificial insemination programs are available all over the country through private companies and colleges. Whether you plan to do your own AI work or hire a technician, the education you’ll gain will give you tools to ensure your females have the best opportunity to get bred.

“A small percentage of our students go home and decide that doing the AI work themselves isn’t for them and they want to hire a technician,” Kemp said. “Even though they aren’t doing their own AI work, they’re able to watch their technician and implement protocol. They’ll come back and tell us, ‘Just having that education and being able to implement proper protocol, we’re seeing our conception rates improve.’ We strive to teach our students not just the basic anatomy, but everything else that goes into preparing for artificial insemination from mineral nutrients, body condition scores, synchronization, heat detection, semen handling, etc.. There’s so much that goes into successfully artificially inseminating and you need to have a comprehensive understanding of the entire process.”