when doing cervical AI, what water temp do you use, and how long do leave the straw in the water bath? also, seems like most breed 58/60 hours after removing cidr. anyone prefer different hours? are all semen straws 1/2 cc? thanks tom l
Tom, I use a AI thaw unit to thaw straws when breeding. It constantly maintains an ideal thawing temperature, when I keep my thermometer in the water it reads between 95-97 degrees. Once I pull the straw from the liquid nitrogen tank I immediately place it in the thaw unit and start my stopwatch, at 55 seconds I put my fingers in to get ready to pull the straw at the 1 minute mark. I have AI'd for people as early as 57 hours with good success, however as you indicated the majority of people like that 58-60hr range. Currently the majority of straws that are produced are 1/2cc, however I utilize a universal AI gun because I still run across the occasional 1/4cc straw. The 1/4cc straws I find are typically older collections, though they work just as well as the 1/2cc straws as long as you get the semen where it needs to be. If you have any other questions you are more than welcome to shoot me a personal message on here or email me at [email protected]
