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Worst Fawning Season Ever

Joined Oct 2012
428 Posts | 0+
Ohio
I know crap happens....I'm not looking for a pity party....just venting i guess...i'm said...dejected and broke (emotionally)


I have been over steps for ai 100 times in my head


ai hit 8% ...1/12 took i don't get it..we saw ABSOLUTELY NO action from backup except on one doe


We had ONE ai fawn this yr Yes ONE SINGLE BUCK FAWN...and he died.


We have nothing to sell now


No feed $$$


People writing bad checks and not wanting to make it right ( 8 months later)


We sold guaranteed fawns and have NOTHING to back up the guarantee


In a bad spot and pissed off


Back up used was the best we had but not a GREAT pedigree


Praying for a load of bucks cuz doe fawns...ugh..don't wanna think about it


Thanks for the ear


No one needs to say anything here..peace out guys


 
 
Know the feeling we are traditionally around 85% the past 8 years, we Vaginally Ai ed 40 this year, we had 3 single fawns, our due date was 5/23 tomorrow we figure to be about our last hope to have another but none looking close. We put the back up in 28 days as usual and like others only saw him breed two which was the two we expected. All the does are showing now as they should have been 3 weeks ago they definitely are to the back up.


All but 5 of our 20 live breds have had. We figured to be about done with fawns but at this point will be most likely well into July.


Been wanting to post for awhile but too disgusted, upset, sick and straight up pissed off. We have being aiing both lap and vaginal about 10 years and never experienced anything like this. Was so successful last year that is why we decided to do so many this year, followed protocol same as past years and have no answers.


We did 12 sexed full straw, the rest was conventional only split once, and we used 10 different bucks and know it was not the semen.


Could we have had a batch of bad drugs??? Everything was the same we used in the past and all new from the vet????


Anyone ever had a bad batch hormones or ciders?


Only thing that would make us think that was we had one doe we ran through the whole protocol and kicked out with the buck she had a single fawn. We chose her to do so as a test we were thinking about sinking our live breds as well. Just seems odd she only had a single to a buck. We are located in south central PA and try to breed around the natural rut each year based on live breds we were pretty well spot on???????


I know we are perplexed and sick, also sorry to vent but we truly feel your pain!


If anyone on here has any thoughts please share.


Thanks
 
Jim...i have talked to many people with crappy ai this yr. I have tried to talk to each one and put together something. I was thinking the CIDR's would be the common denominator until tonight...i talked to a guy that Lap ai'd with a buddy. they used and split  the same cidr's..he hit 20% his buddy hit 10/12


 


the ONLY thing i did any different was instead of 56-57 hrs i went 58-59 hrs...which shouldn't really matter according to all the old timers i talk to
 
Rick


We thought hours also, we did around 59-60 hours as years past and we had number 1, number 16 and number 37 that we did hit so we threw that out the window. And with what you just said about the ciders doesn't sound like old new or even used matters. Just flat out perplexed??????


Thanks
 
I just thought of something else..we changed feed at the beginning of sept. I would thi think 2 months is plenty of time to not affect anything. I'll give you a call tomorrow
 
I know what you guys have went through.  2 years ago we went 2 for 18 and the two that had fawns were both singles.  Last year we went 2 for 9. This year however, we are 7 for 8 and the last doe had an abscessed tooth and I probably shouldn't of tried her, but still tried and she didn't take.  The one thing I changed from the previous two years was their nutrition.  I changed to an 18% protein pellet the first of september to just the A.I. does, otherwise I mixed my own feed for the rest of the live cover does to help with feed costs.  Try changing the feed to just your A.I. does and see what happens.  Thats my suggestion.
 
Those of you who have had poor AI success, what have you done differently from years past? Below is a list of questions I always ask people when they tell me they didn't have good success with their AI.


Did you AI yearlings?


Did you change feed within the last 90 days?


Did you perform a flush on your does starting 45 days prior to AI? This is the practice of increasing the fat content of their feed in an effort to help ovulation, it is common practice for the goat industry.


Did you change the time that you AI'd post CIDR removal?


Did you change the date that you AI'd drastically from years past?


Did you obtain your PMSG from a different source?


Did the does that took to AI in years past take again?


Did you give any medication 30 days prior/after AI date?


Did you run the deer through your handling facility within 30 days of AI having been performed?


 


I perform transcervical AI every year for several people, I wont claim to hit 100% every year as my nose would grow long and I would poke your eye out! I can tell you that what you do to your deer the 364 days prior to your AI date accounts for 90% of your success. I have been performing AI for a friend of mine in NE Alabama for the last 6 years, I would say we have averaged close to 75% with the AI on his farm. I feel that is a very good number all things considered. Every year I have done AI for him a large percentage of the does I have breed have been yearlings that have never fawned before thus greatly reducing our success. I have another friend in TX who I have AI'd for 4 years, every year I did AI for him I would say we AI'd between 12-20 yearlings. Looking at the average success rate on yearlings between these two locations I think it is fair to say I hit between 40-45% success on the yearlings. I strongly believe the amount of stress the deer are under prior to and after AI is one of the biggest variables. Everything I have said is strictly my opinion. I can tell you that I learned how to AI from one of the best in the industry, Kelly Powell. If you make detailed notes every year, your AI process is repeatable, and you minimize the stress your deer are under, there is no reason why you cannot achieve 80-90% success year after year. I have several people that I have AI'd for who have only had me AI a handful of their deer each year who have had 100% success, I attribute that to the way they care for their animals. I have a great respect for the thousands of hours that each of my friends put into their herds, I sincerely care for each animal as if it were mine, and I try to work around the schedule of the farm/ranch I am doing AI at. I attribute my success entirely to that. On the flip side of the coin, if something goes wrong and someone sees very low AI success rates after I performed AI who do you think gets the blame? That is the downside of being the AI tech...... Additionally when I see practices that I believe attribute to poor AI success I am in a bit of a pickle when this occurs with someone who doesn't know and trust me personally. My final note, no matter who you use to perform your AI make sure you are as detailed as possible so you can make slight alterations each year. Each little tweak of your AI plan can potentially increase or decrease your success rates drastically! If you have any questions for me I am happy to help, and would gladly take time to speak with you.
 
Guys,our company ( J & L Whitetail Consulting) cervical AI's does in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. We AI deer from November 1st thru December 20th. Our percentages vary from farm to farm, but from the verifiable records we get from our clients, we historically get betweem 65-68% ( and yes, we split straws vaginally). Some of our clients are former LAP customers and some of our clients are transfers from other AI companies for various reasons. Our customer return rate is over 90%. If you are not satisfied with your current AI situation please feel free to contact us to discuss your current situation. We can be reached at 337-322-2727 and would be happy to discuss you situation with you. We will also provide you with references to call to ensure transparentability. P.S., we work in a three man group to ensure functionality and consistency.


Jerome & Jared Foti 


J & L Whitetail Consulting and AI Service
 
We only got 19 does bred from AI out of 32 does AI'd  I had posted some semen was of poor quality.  The straws that were good semen gave me 6 out of 6 with split straws.  The other we got 3 out of 4 does bred on with split semen.  In my case good quality semen did the best for me.  I also bred yearlings and did poor with them.  We used no back up buck and the fawns on does were removed before AI.


Like Mike we had poor weather with temps under 40 and days of rain.  We ran the pens twice a day and did find 15 fawns that were going into hypothermia and pulled them to heat them up and they are now bottle fawns.  We lost no fawns.


We did get our white 75% mule deer this year and she is my most favorite bottle fawn.  That project has been in the works for five years.


We used 60 hours this last year. FYI
 
hi all, well i guess i learn something every year.  i put the back up bucks in at day 10 post cervical ai.  had 2 does with a yearling an 3 does with a 2 yr old, all 3 year old or older. both with the yearling had ai fawns. all three with the 2 yr old got buck bred, i feel this buck was too aggressive and gave the does no peace till they came in again. i know different strokes for different folks, however i will wait 17 to 18 days post ai'ing , and only use yearling bucks for clean up from now on!
 
that's why I think natural is the best just my 2 cents worth T&S I have 100 % only a few succumb to predators
 
We ai'd 19 does, 10 cervically and 9 LAP. Only 6 took that I am positive of.  There were several does that fawned at 210-212 days after ai. We will dna those just to make sure. This was first time in our new facility, first time we used these vets, and only the second time we have ai'd. so we are scratching our heads a bit trying to figure out what to change. A question for you guys. What is the latest you have had ai fawns, in terms of days?
 
Rawhitetails

Did you do better on your Lap or cervical AI? We missed on 10 of 13. This was about the worst we have ever done. I am seeing really high number of folks on Facebook who did poor on their AI conception also this year. I am wondering if there was some bad extender or pmsg out there this last fall. For what ever reason some of our doe did not look as much in heat as past years. We AI very close to the time of the natural heat cycle for doe in our area. Fortunately our backup buck is growing good.
 
Worst season in a long time for fawn mortality for me. Lost 7 of my 18 little ones. I can't help that it rains every single day almost. I haven't lost one in a few weeks, so hopefully the ones still living are strong enough now.