Intentional Artificial Insemination

Originally Published in The Beefmaster Cowman

Artificial insemination in cattle has been around since the 1930s. Almost 100 years later and only six percent of U.S. producers are utilizing the technology. Today, we also have the ability to utilized sexed semen to impact the ratio of bull calves to heifer calves. It’s time to change those statistics and use this technology. A.I. is far too economical and impactful not to be implementing it on your operation. With bull prices, feed prices, and facility maintenance material costs steadily climbing, A.I. is becoming more and more economical, especially for the smaller operation. Beyond the economic impact of not needing to purchase and maintain a bull, consider the long-term economic impact. A.I. calves will usually have greater genetic potential, wean heavier, and generally out perform their natural-sired counter parts. Whether you’re producing high quality seedstock or sending calves to the feedlot, you can utilize A.I. to strategically maximize your calf crop’s potential.

Aaron Arnett, director of beef genetics at ST Genetics, said when selecting A.I. sires and considering sexed semen, the conversation needs to start by asking yourself, “What is my end goal for this calf crop?” Are you a seedstock operation looking to market bulls? Do you need to build up your replacement females after culling hard through the drought? Will you be retaining ownership through the feedlot? What is your end goal?

“There isn’t one bull that does everything exceptionally well,” Arnett said. “But, a lot of people rely on one bull to go out and cover their cows planning to send steer calves through the production chain and keep the heifer calves as replacement females. When you rely on one bull to do both those things, you aren’t reaching the potential with the feeder cattle or the replacements that you could be.

“Using sexed semen, you can become more specialized in your mating decisions. You can identify bulls with the high maternal traits you need to make replacement females. Then use sorted female semen from those bulls to mate your most maternal, most fertile cows. That set of genetics should yield a set of replacement females that have the genes for longevity in your herd. Then you identify a bull that has the growth and carcass traits you need in feeder cattle and mate most of the mature cows to sorted male semen. Through that mating you will get a set of bull calves with the growth potential and genetic merit for carcass traits to succeed through the production chain and maximize revenue generation. You may even use one breed of bull for your replacement females and different breed for your feeder calves. A.I. gives you the ability to be highly strategic in meeting your end goals.”

Dakota Moyers, regional business manager at TransOva Genetics, said not to get caught up trying to chase trends in every direction, but to keep your goals for your operation at the forefront of your mating decisions.

“So many times, in life we get pointed in a million different directions and lose focus of our ultimate end goal,” Moyers said. “Whether you’re trying to make replacement females or feeder cattle focus on the traits that are going to help you reach those goals. Don’t get sidetracked trying to go in too many different directions.”Whether or not you use sexed semen, you should be selecting sires to build on the traits your cow herd already has with your calf crop’s end goal in mind. If you’re selling calves at weaning, you should be looking at traits that are going to maximize return at weaning.

“Genetic traits to consider in that scenario would be rapid early growth and maximum weaning weights,” Arnett said. “Calving ease has a lot to do with the number of live calves weaned as well. Now, if you’re retaining ownership through the production system and you’re getting paid for the carcasses of those cattle, you may be just as interested in the post-weaning suite of traits. For example, yearling weight, feed efficiency, carcass weight marbling, and cutability.”

Arnett said seedstock producers need to remember, most of those seedstock bulls are going to be purchased by commercial cattlemen.

“By in large, those cattlemen are selling calves at weaning,” Arnett said. “It would be prudent for those producing seedstock bulls to provide superior calving ease, early growth, and weaning weight. Those things combined will get you a lot of what you need for a big paycheck at weaning.”

Calving ease has long term effects when selecting a sire for heifers.

“We want heifers to be able to have an unassisted birth and easy calving their first time,” Arnett said. “We know unassisted births result in cows that have greater lifetime productivity, cows that breed back faster, and cows that have reduced calf death loss. We also know that overly large calves that result in calving difficulty have greater tendency to experience issues like sickness, require treatment for illness, and even death pre-weaning. Therefore, as calving ease increases, percent of the calf crop weaned increases.

“Beyond calving ease, we need to put as much performance into those cattle as possible, we want them to grow quickly after birth and wean heavy. There’s a philosophy that if you’re selecting for more calving ease, you’re giving up weaning growth. While those two traits are correlated, there are bulls out there that can do both. You don’t have to give up calving ease to gain growth. Thanks to A.I. it is relatively easy to find and afford unique bulls that can do many things really well.”

When selecting a sire to produce replacement females, maternal traits and the cow families behind the bull should be considered.

“You want to look for cows in the sire’s line that are highly fertile, have a history of weaning big calves, have sound feet, and great udders,” Arnett said. “They need to have some longevity traits in their maternal line and milking ability to fit your environment. The milk EPD tells us how much weaning weight can be attributed to the milk production of the cow. It’s important to fit that number to your environment because cows who have too much milk sometimes will not breed back well in lower input environments. Then cows that have too little milk, will sacrifice some opportunity to increase weaning weights in your calf crop. Some breeds are also utilizing longevity EPDs that can help us select bulls that will produce daughters who have tremendous maternal traits and the potential for longevity in the herd.”

While EPDs are a great tool to help make mating decisions, Moyers said it’s important not to chase numbers to an extreme.

“We think chasing these extreme outliers for different traits is going to help us make really good cattle, but that can backfire,” Moyers said. “Most of the time we actually need those balanced trait individuals to get the job done right. We don’t need an animal that does one thing extremely well. We need an animal that does a good job across the board.”

Setting up your operation to implement A.I. may seem daunting, but it isn’t as complicated or as expensive as it seems. There are also plenty of professional services to point you in the right direction whether you want to do your own A.I. work, have a technician come out to your place, or haul cattle in to an A.I. facility.

“In a world where the price of seedstock bulls is increasing exponentially, outpacing inflation in many cases, A.I. is becoming more affordable than ever,” Arnett said. “People want to say it costs too much and takes too much time, but the reality is, you can use some of the best bulls in the world for $25 to $40 per straw and get all kinds of genetic improvement in one generation that you would rarely get with a natural service sire. Especially for those smaller cow herds, it’s very economical to A.I. two cycles, cull open females and not even own a bull. Bulls are hard on facilities and they can be dangerous.”

Sexed semen will be more expensive than conventional semen. For example, if conventional semen on a bull is $30 per straw, it may be $50 or more per straw for sexed semen. Arnett said, “You’re getting what you pay for – a very strategic and specialized mating.”

“Everyone has a favorite group of cows that they say, ‘I’d love to have a heifer out of her every year,’” Arnett said. “With sexed female semen, you can have a heifer out of your best cows every year. In a natural service scenario, 50 percent of the calf crop would be bulls and 50 percent would be heifers. Economically, a producer does not need half the calf crop to be heifers. Heifers are generally 50 to 60 pounds lighter than genetically similar steer calves at weaning. When weaned calves are trading near $2 per pound, that adds up quickly. Not only do heifer calves weigh less, their steer mates generally capture $10 or more per cwt. The difference in price and weight combined favors selling more steers than heifer calves at weaning.

“In most commercial beef operations, two-thirds to three-quarters of the calf crop should to be steers to maximize weaning weight and pay weight on that ranch. Most of the time you only need about a quarter of your calf crop to be heifers to keep as replacements. We sell sexed semen as a whole-herd breeding package. We’ll A.I. 25 percent of your herd, your most prolific and fertile cows, plus the replacement heifers, with sexed female semen from a bull that has the maternal traits you’re wanting in replacements. Then, we’ll A.I. the rest of your herd with sexed male semen from a bull that has the growth, performance, and carcass merit you want in your feeder calves,” Arnett said.

Moyers said beyond looking at EPDs and photos, it’s important to get out and look at genetics you’re considering bringing into your herd in person.

“Don’t just look at pictures online,” Moyers said. “Visit people and travel wherever you can. Talk to your neighbors and talk to other members of your breed association. This is where your breed association field representatives can be so helpful. They get to see so many genetics across the country and they get to know the cow families behind these bulls. They can put eyes on cattle for you and let you know what that animal actually looks like on the hoof. Whatever genetics you’re using, they need to be structurally sound. Bulls need to be masculine. Cows need to feminine. We’ve got to get away from trying to find those cute little show bulls to make heifers because it’s not working. The most masculine bulls make the most feminine females. People think because a bull doesn’t look masculine, he’s going to make feminine heifers, but that’s just not true.”