Artificial Insemination vs Live Bull

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AI or bull

  • A. I. (artificial insemination)

    Votes: 3 33.3%

  • Bull (the live stuff)

    Votes: 6 66.7%
  • Total voters
    9
D

Double R

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AI or live bull?
For us it’s only AI. Haven’t had live bulls in many years. The last bull we had swam under the creek fence to see the ladies “next door”. Sold him the next day. Scheduled AI school in a different state, drove to class, had a blast then came home fully set up for the start of our AI breeding operation. Haven’t regretted it at all. Went to Embryo Transfer school years later.
Which do you use and why?
If AI do you synchronize?
 
I kept reading this as AL, so the poll was cleaned up so everyone knew what you were talking about.

As an Equine Vet Tech for a veterinarian who specialized in high end breeding, I've learned that manual of any kind is extremely dangerous. I would say that AI will give you better results, which can be exactly what you pay for, provided you can afford it!
 
Don't know about cattle,
But,
I was a horse breeder for years,

WE did live...
Never had a problem...

Studs were kept inside .

Mares were always shackled for breeding and stud was controlled by 2 handlers.
Don't remember ever, not being successful. I raise d some beautiful babies.

Lots of work though, thats why I quit.



Jim
 
When I was a kid my pops had a small herd of 20-25 Simmental cows. We had a bull or did artificial at different times. AI can be expensive but losing a bull to accidental death before you even get your first calves from him, is expensive too. That happened to us once. I don't see any huge advantage to one or the other, except that if you AI you don't have to feed, vet, or stall a bull.
 
I have very limited experience with AI. Tried it on my 4 Jersey cows last spring hoping for an affordable purebred bull; 4 cows, 3 tries and got zip for the time and expense. I would have liked at least one calf. I ended up breeding back to my Red Angus bull. I will use the 3/4 Jersey bull that was produced to breed back this spring and then eat him in the fall. I guess this is a long winded way of saying that for me, ou natarel is best. Keeping your own bull in a closed herd also eliminates the sexually transmitted diseases. I don't find keeping bulls all that problematic other then they are hell on gate posts but make up for it by keeping ejits from trespassing far better than any dog. I have electric fences, train them young, and cull for personality, bull or heifer.
 
I just want to say that with my techie mind I saw, "Artificial Intelligence or live bull" as the topic. :) When I opened the discussion I quickly realized that we were talking about Artificial Insemination.
You have to be careful about the usage of initials because depending on a persons background or recent studies it might mean something else to them. I try to first print out the entire topic or follow the initials with the spelled out version in parenthesis following the first use. It keeps folks on the same page.
I was looking forward to how AI (artificial Intelligence) was going to be used on the ranch. Maybe in the future... ;)
 
Tomorrow morning will be the first visit from a vet to start the AI process with our Jersey. We do have an Angus bull and a Holstein but both are too big for her. She has gotten older and can't take the weight of either. She has had a couple calves since we've had her from the Angus. I am hoping to get a full breed jersey heifer calf so had it sexed too. The straw was $30 and for the vet to come out three different times will be a total of $118. It will be a learning experience for both hunny and I but this is my Christmas gift this year. For the beef cow, we just let nature take its course.
 
SheepDog said:
I just want to say that with my techie mind I saw, "Artificial Intelligence or live bull" as the topic. :) When I opened the discussion I quickly realized that we were talking about Artificial Insemination.
You have to be careful about the usage of initials because depending on a persons background or recent studies it might mean something else to them. I try to first print out the entire topic or follow the initials with the spelled out version in parenthesis following the first use. It keeps folks on the same page.
I was looking forward to how AI (artificial Intelligence) was going to be used on the ranch. Maybe in the future... ;)
Click to expand...

Your in the cattle section silly! Lol!
Plus it brought you into the conversation didn’t it??? Mission accomplished ;)
 
Dani said:
Tomorrow morning will be the first visit from a vet to start the AI process with our Jersey. We do have an Angus bull and a Holstein but both are too big for her. She has gotten older and can't take the weight of either. She has had a couple calves since we've had her from the Angus. I am hoping to get a full breed jersey heifer calf so had it sexed too. The straw was $30 and for the vet to come out three different times will be a total of $118. It will be a learning experience for both hunny and I but this is my Christmas gift this year. For the beef cow, we just let nature take its course.
Click to expand...

That’s great! With a good tech or Vet you shouldn’t have any problems. A lot of people have bad experiences because of the tech.
Feel free to post here or in a new thread as it’s going and maybe some of us can help and fill in the blanks or make suggestions to help it along. :)
 
I don't really have a dog in this race, but growing up we always had a bull. Never heard of AI (artificial intelligence nor artificial insemination) back in the 60's.
 
Double R said:
I LOVE Herefords! Great cattle! Its what my grandpa raised. Sadly theres no money in them in our area or we would have nothing but.
Click to expand...
Yep. Everyone wants black cows here. Doesn't matter if they aren't an actual Angus, they are still sold that way because they are black.
 
Grandpa went to town and told us the guy would be there to breed the cow and told us to show him where she was.
Guy showed up in a car and my brother asked him where the bull was.
My bother was around 7.
The guy said I don't need a bull I'm going to do it myself.
My brother said this I have got to see.
The guy was still laughing when Grandpa got home.
 
buildit said:
Just trying to keep it clean, not always easy for me. LOL
Click to expand...
The struggle is real! I appreciate you keeping it clean. :waiting: ;D
You are very right however in reasons to AI.
I see my sister (who has bulls) spending a fortune on bulls and injuries etc. I wish I could talk them into AI for their herds. We could make so much more money for them.
 
My Dad used AI back as early as the 1970s, to breed premium cows to raise herd sires for both his bull program and the commercial beef herd, back then it was cheaper to run live bulls, but the AI service guaranteed a catch on a proven cow, up to 3 tries. We have mostly used live bulls since, after all they are such fun to have around.
 
Crazy B 01 (1).jpg
Crazy B 01 (2).jpg
Crazy B 01 (3).jpg
Another reason for AI… Bulls can hurt you! We’ve had a lot of Charolais bulls over the years, remarkably gentle creatures except for one. I watched this bull lose his mind over the course of a year. I kept telling my dad (79 at the time) that we had to take that bull to the sale “something was wrong with him”. My dad couldn’t see what I was seeing, he’d say “Oh, he’s just acting nervous today” or something like that.

Then came the day dad finally agreed with me and we tried to get him into a corral. He put me in the hospital that day. I called my cousin for help from the hospital. He runs about 300 head of cattle and has a tranquillizer gun. He came over a couple days later and brought help with him. Even after being partially tranquillized it still took 6 men and a tractor to get the bull loaded in a trailer. He then tried to take the trailer apart. My cousin was afraid to haul him. It was a hot day so I had to keep running water over the bull. About dark he finally calmed down enough to be hauled.

You can see I’m still wearing the hospital wrist band in the picture and using my new friend, a walking cane. I limped for 6 months, that leg still bothers me to this day.

My cousin has the facilities to hold a crazy bull and took him there. He was going to feed him for a couple of weeks then take him to the sale. The crazy bull refused to eat! He lost about 300lbs. I had my cousin go ahead and sell him. He then tore down 2 gates at the sale barn. All I got was the going rate for beef. No farmer would buy him and I don’t blame them!

To this day I don’t know what happened to that bull, he simply lost his mind!
 
Holy Cow @Peanut!
Thanks for sharing that story.
I’m glad your ok but stinks there’s forever pains from it.
No matter the bull they all have the capability. Just a game of chance.
I’ve seen more people hurt or killed by bulls. Part of why we don’t have them anymore.
We have bulls at my sis’s two ranches and we NEVER turn our back on them. It’s a regular reminder why I’m glad we AI.
 
I grew up with cattle and would never turn my back to a bull. We have goats now and even though my buck is dog gentle, I still call him to the fence and snap him to the chain we have secured to a post. I won't go into his pen if he's loose. At 200lbs, even without horns he could seriously hurt me without really trying. One playful headbut to the back could really mess you up.
 
Peanut said:
View attachment 2768 View attachment 2769 View attachment 2770 Another reason for AI… Bulls can hurt you! We’ve had a lot of Charolais bulls over the years, remarkably gentle creatures except for one. I watched this bull lose his mind over the course of a year. I kept telling my dad (79 at the time) that we had to take that bull to the sale “something was wrong with him”. My dad couldn’t see what I was seeing, he’d say “Oh, he’s just acting nervous today” or something like that.

Then came the day dad finally agreed with me and we tried to get him into a corral. He put me in the hospital that day. I called my cousin for help from the hospital. He runs about 300 head of cattle and has a tranquillizer gun. He came over a couple days later and brought help with him. Even after being partially tranquillized it still took 6 men and a tractor to get the bull loaded in a trailer. He then tried to take the trailer apart. My cousin was afraid to haul him. It was a hot day so I had to keep running water over the bull. About dark he finally calmed down enough to be hauled.

You can see I’m still wearing the hospital wrist band in the picture and using my new friend, a walking cane. I limped for 6 months, that leg still bothers me to this day.

My cousin has the facilities to hold a crazy bull and took him there. He was going to feed him for a couple of weeks then take him to the sale. The crazy bull refused to eat! He lost about 300lbs. I had my cousin go ahead and sell him. He then tore down 2 gates at the sale barn. All I got was the going rate for beef. No farmer would buy him and I don’t blame them!

To this day I don’t know what happened to that bull, he simply lost his mind!
Click to expand...
Probably a brain tumor or infection of his brain. I had a horse that happened too. We had to put him down.
 
SheepDog said:
I just want to say that with my techie mind I saw, "Artificial Intelligence or live bull" as the topic. :) When I opened the discussion I quickly realized that we were talking about Artificial Insemination.
You have to be careful about the usage of initials because depending on a persons background or recent studies it might mean something else to them. I try to first print out the entire topic or follow the initials with the spelled out version in parenthesis following the first use. It keeps folks on the same page.
I was looking forward to how AI (artificial Intelligence) was going to be used on the ranch. Maybe in the future... ;)
Click to expand...
And the first thing I sae was Al or a live bull. As in a man named Albert had dome sort of incident with a bull. *sigh* Sometimes I'm a little slow.
 
we prefer natural breeding. Husband sold all his cows and bull last year. I have 9 cows and he bought a young Angus bull 2 months ago. I currently have 6 calves on the ground. Timing off and not sure if other 2 cows are bred. It is a lot of work for AI. Cycling the cow with meds and seeders and taking her to be bred. My daughter works with genetics where they do embryo transfers. She has recip cows that she maintains for the customers. She gets paid when positive pregnancy check, live calf hits ground and calf weans by her customer. It is amazing to see these trashy old cows from sale barn drop a registered red or gray Brahman calf and take care of it. She has her own recip cows and some cows belonging to customers. The company she works for had a workshop one year for teachers and I got to watch them ultrasound the ovaries and harvest the flushed eggs. Fascinating to see. She is shipping and receiving on semen and shipping and receiving embryos. her office is full of nitrogen tanks and she loves it.
 
havasu said:
I kept reading this as AL, so the poll was cleaned up so everyone knew what you were talking about.

As an Equine Vet Tech for a veterinarian who specialized in high end breeding, I've learned that manual of any kind is extremely dangerous. I would say that AI will give you better results, which can be exactly what you pay for, provided you can afford it!
Click to expand...
I have been to this thread, but I keep wondering who AL is, even today. Hopefully, this will be the last time I see it and don't know what it is.
 
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