AI & CIDR implant breeding program

[squiggy]

We are currently involved in an AI program with 80 Red Angus cows. We are syncronzing 15/week using the CIDR implant program. We were told results have been significantly better using the CIDR's. The first group reached the 18-21day interval after breeding and we only noticed one cow which had cycled again in this time frame. Now that we have reached 28 days after breeding we have noticed several of the cows seem to be cycling and the bulls are riding them. Has anyone had this experience in their AI breeding program. Are these irregular heat cycles normal? Are they false heats? We have also noticed bulls trying to breed cows 10 days after they have cycled and been AI bred. Looking forward to hearing from others!

[pandiana]

We have no experience with the CIDR program. As far as I know, it has not been around long so we may have to wait for results. With regard to rebreeding, however, we have on occassion rebred a cow AI only to have her calve to the first service. This could have been a false heat, or poor heat detection on our part. On the other hand, the cows did cycle ~21 days after her first service.
In the ten years we have been using AI, our conception rate for first service has ranged from over 90% to as low as 40%. We have much better results with heifers, usually 80%. All other factors being the same (i.e. same technique and heat detection) we attribute lower conception rates to cow condition; heavy milking cows breed back later.

[squiggy]

We are now breeding our last group of cows in this CIDR program and have learned a few things since we started. We were implanting and giving a shot (1cc)of estrodial on day 1, on day 7 we removed the implant and gave the cows a shot (2cc) of estramate, on day 8 we gave the cows another shot (1cc) of estrodial, on day 9 these cows were inseminated. Each time these cows were put through at exactly the same hour of the day (3pm). We found that the cows started coming into standing heat only at about 10am-12noon, where as we were told they should be all in standing heat at approximately 6am. We have now delayed our inseminating another 6hrs later we believe this will increase our conseption rates. We have also left the CIDR in for an extra 2 days, we have been told this will create a stronger heat. As for our cows irregular heat patterns, we noticed that some cows continued their regular heat cycle while implanted with the CIDR, however they were not fertile heats because some of these cycled again at 21days after inseminating, others did not continue to cycle after inseminating so we will have to wait for next calving season to discover how well we actually did. Also we noticed in any group of 15 cows it was not uncommon for 1 or 2 cows to loose the CIDR implant. All cows were kept in very good condition and given a breeding mineral since before calving. I will let you know the results of this trial next spring. Hope this helps others thinking of trying the CIDR AI program.

[pandiana]

I really appreciate the information you have shared regarding this program. We thought about it but decided to go the more natural route this year but depending on how it is received we will revisit this program next year. I still have many questions, such as: Is the extra cost of handling and drugs offset by improved conception on all classes of cows or is the incentive more to tighten the calving interval and season? What would you estimate the cost/cow? I will look forward to your update.