Breeding Questions - How do you do it?

In the past at GCW we have always lap'ai and split the straw with 75 to 100% success. My friends at Pin Oak have been splitting straws cervicaly the last 3 years and have been getting 75%. Last year he was 95%. This year with all the loss from ehd I have decided to learn how to do it myself. This will cut my costs over $1500, and hopefully still be above 75%. We have always tried to be as close to 58 hours as possible. I have always bred yearling with good success but have always got single fawns. All my yearlings this year bred as fawn and I am expecting twins in the spring. I hope.

I have been breeding my own for 3 years now. First 2 years i bred 9 with full straws and i am at 100%. This year i bred 5 with full straws. I shoot for 58 to 59 hours. They all looked good again this year so i have good thoughts that all will take again this year!!

I do my own ai, I split straw's. 2009 was my first year, all older doe's was 4 of 4, 2010-2011 have had 9 of 12 take. This year I have done 5 doe's on my farm split straw's on 4 and used a full straw on a yearling. Have done 8 on 2 other farm's we used full straw,s of 4 of them and split on the other 4. I sedate my doe's. I have found no drop in % of doe's that take weather I use a full straw or split it. I have found that if I give 1.25 cc of pmsg to yearling's they seem to do better. I have an older doe that just never miss's ai but she gave me single's 2 year's straight, gave 1.5cc pmsg and last year she had tripple's.



This year myself and another farm near me plan to try vaginal ai mid Dec. on 6 fawn's born in mid May. This will be the first time to try fawn's and depending on result's may be the last if we are much under 50% on them. They all will get 1/2 of a straw.



I start ai right at 56 1/2 to 57 hour's, try to be done by 58. Though I dont think that there would be any change in result's if done as early as 55 or as late as 60 hour's as the semen will be alive in the doe for many hour's.

RLA, How long do you think the semen stay alive once you put it into a doe



Mike/RLA, Do you guys actually put the semen into the cervix, cause I had trouble getting into the cervix so I deposited it up against the cervix entry.



What chances do you think I have?

Test done by my friends that AI in the industry have told me they feel 57 to 61 hours give them the best results on conception.

Cassie, I have kept records for years and have found deposited semen at the cervix entry will give almost as good of results as putting it in the cervix as long as the semen is good with good forward motility. I personally feel that if you damage or draw blood at the cervix in an effort to get that gun in you hurt your chances of conception. When I have a doe that I can't get the gun in and feel I'm starting to cause trouble at the cervix I always just deposit the semen and call it good. Heck that is how the buck does it but then he is putting a lot more semen in that area.

Cassie Martinez said:

RLA, How long do you think the semen stay alive once you put it into a doe



Mike/RLA, Do you guys actually put the semen into the cervix, cause I had trouble getting into the cervix so I deposited it up against the cervix entry.



What chances do you think I have?

Click to expand...

So far i have been able to get into atleast one deep, Most i have dropped semen in two deep! If you have good semen you should be fine just dropping it in.

Cassie Martinez said:

RLA, How long do you think the semen stay alive once you put it into a doe



Mike/RLA, Do you guys actually put the semen into the cervix, cause I had trouble getting into the cervix so I deposited it up against the cervix entry.



What chances do you think I have?

Click to expand...

I alway's penetrate at least the first ring of the cervix even on yearling's. I switched over to a gun that use's the french tip and it make's it an easy job to do. I am alway's real careful and never try to force anything, the older doe's take no effort at all. On the yearling's if you get the tip of the gun up next to the cervix opening, apply real light pressure and slightly roll the gun in your finger's the tip will slide right in. Another thing I do on yearling's is up the dose of pmsg to 1.25cc that may not be recomended to do, you would have to ask Jack abou that. But it seem's to me the doe's that I do that to seem to have the cervix slightly swollen and are real easy to get it to open up for the tip of the gun. May just be me and actualy has no affect, I dont know for sure.



Also when you get the speculem (spelling ?) in and you see the cervix, start to slightly pull away while you are looking in the tube untill you start to pull away from the cervix but still can see it good then insert the tip of the gun. That way you know that you do not have pressure aginst the cervix and have everything pushed forward more than you should have.



I do not know this to be fact but was told buy a guy that collect's and pack's semen that it can stay alive for over 12 hour's in the doe. If that's true or not I cant say.



I have a doe that is 7 1/2 this year. She gave me single's two year's straight. I gave her 1.5cc pmsg last year and she had tripplet's this time, gave the same this year. When I did the ai this year and last she had a lot of clear / milky liquid. When I had the tube in her and found the cervix if I would slightly push forward the cervix would just open up. She is so easy to ai, a blind man could get the job done on her.

I spoke with Dr Shipley with the Univ. of Ill. today about AI-ing. His time frame was 56 to 60 hours. He said good quality semen could survive inside the doe for about 10 to 12 hours. He said you want the semen to be deposited ahead of the eggs arriving so that it can process its self & be ready to attach to the egg. The eggs have a life span of up to 6 hours. I use an AI gun that has a small tip that tapers down at the end of the sheath. Makes entering the cervic very easy rather than a blunt nose sheath. Good luck to all

Bump

Jack705951352904850

Test done by my friends that AI in the industry have told me they feel 57 to 61 hours give them the best results on conception.

Cassie, I have kept records for years and have found deposited semen at the cervix entry will give almost as good of results as putting it in the cervix as long as the semen is good with good forward motility. I personally feel that if you damage or draw blood at the cervix in an effort to get that gun in you hurt your chances of conception. When I have a doe that I can't get the gun in and feel I'm starting to cause trouble at the cervix I always just deposit the semen and call it good. Heck that is how the buck does it but then he is putting a lot more semen in that area.
Jack

Are you saying you have good results without going into the crevice?

Brett,


My records indicate I do just a well placing it at the cervix on difficult does if I can't get the gun in.


I also agree 1 1/4cc Folligon on yearlings and would not feel 1 1/2cc on old does that single to be to much Folligon.


Remember Folligon mostly only produces embryos.

How do you split straws ?

Cassie,


I just thaw the 1/2cc straw and cut the top off and put the semen in a small tube.  I then just suck up two 1/4 cc straw that have about 1/4 inch cut off of them and put 1/2 of each 1/4cc straw in each uterine horn if doing LAP AI or just use 1/4cc if doing cervical.  I also have a mark on my guy which will indicate where 1/2 is on each 1/4cc straw.  Works for me.

Just a thought, Could I cut an AI gun (push Rod) to where it just push half the straw out to do the first doe and then swap the gun to a full length (push rod) to do the second doe?

Cassie Martinez1046321440426404

Just a thought, Could I cut an AI gun (push Rod) to where it just push half the straw out to do the first doe and then swap the gun to a full length (push rod) to do the second doe?


You can cut the rod. Or you can put electrical tape around the rod in the right place so it only pushed into the gun so far before it stops. Less chance of confusing the longer rod vs the shorter rod and accidentally pushing a full straw into a doe when you meant a half straw.

What I do is file a small mark on the push part of the gun where the half mark is and only push to that mark.  Then for the second half just push the plunger down all the way.  This works for most people.

Hope I'm not asking to many questions.


 


Do you change the sheath are just wipe the same one and use it for the second doe?

take a used straw and cut it in half. pull the plunger of the gun all the way out and put the half straw on the plunger. Then when you push down to inject you only use half

In order to split straws I take a used 1/2cc straw and measure the length of the area that was full of semen, I did this with multiple straws and took the average length. I then divided that length in half and cut two or three pieces of hard plastic to that length and made them square. I folded them down the middle and use heavy duty paper clasps to secure them, when breeding the first doe you simply slip this "stopper" on the plunger portion of the AI gun thus only allowing 1/4cc of the 1/2cc straw to be deposited into the doe. I have been doing this ever since I have started performing AI, it works great! Another thing I really like about it is the fact that it acts as a safety stop when I have the AI gun tucked underneath my armpit while waiting for the second doe to jump into the drop chute. If you were to accidentally bump into something without having that stop in place you would end up with a mess and waste of money! I have successfully taken this same practice and split straws as many as 3 times. If anyone is interested I can certainly snap pictures of my stoppers and post them here.