Artificial Insemination -- what should I know?

[Sam Houston]

Hi all, we are looking into getting cattle on the homestead eventually for dairy. Unfortunately, I am completely clueless when it comes to A.I. and really do not want to mess with a bull. What do I need to know about contracting someone else to do the service? Who would I need to talk to? A vet? What is the usual price for someone to come perform this service?

We are weighing our options between a full-sized Jersey or two mini Jerseys for dairy, would there be any additional difficulties doing A.I. for mini Jerseys? I am worried the sperm would be expensive or hard to source.

 

[Mountain trapper]

My suggestion is, get a vet out to do it. A few years ago I looked in to taking AI classes and decided it's best for me, to have the vet do it or keep my bulls. I kept my bulls.

 

[Supervisor42]

Hi all, we are looking into getting cattle on the homestead eventually for dairy. Unfortunately, I am completely clueless when it comes to A.I. and really do not want to mess with a bull. What do I need to know about contracting someone else to do the service? Who would I need to talk to? A vet? What is the usual price for someone to come perform this service?

We are weighing our options between a full-sized Jersey or two mini Jerseys for dairy, would there be any additional difficulties doing A.I. for mini Jerseys? I am worried the sperm would be expensive or hard to source.

It has been used for decades on most dairy cows to keep them producing milk.
It is not expensive if 'the guy' does several cows in one trip.

 

[txcatlady]

My daughter and 2 of her kids took training. She has semen tanks full of straws but also orders specific genetics.. the trick is cycling the cow through injections and seeders inserted and heat checks. She doesn’t do it anymore, but has a few recip cows with embryos. She got paid for pos pregnancy test, live calf on ground and at weaning date by owners of the embryos. Check with a vet or other dairy farmers. You can rent a bull for 3+ months depending on how many cattle you run. I have beef and bought a bull.

 

[Dani]

When we decided to AI a couple years ago, we contacted our vet who gave us a guys number, but neither took. The bull we still have is a sure thing. I was trying to get my little Jersey to give birth to another Jersey. Nope my Hunny's beef bull got to her.

 

[Dani]

If trained properly, Jersey cows are very easy to handle, BUT if you are trying to move her into the barn to milk, bring her calf along too or she will want to put on the brakes. I started training at 6 weeks old.

 

[Peanut]

I'd go with 2 full size Jerseys. You'll lose the use of one, the other or both several months a year if you intend to produce calves. I've a friend with two Jerseys. She makes cheese, butter, cream etc for 2 families. All the extra is sold to offset feed costs.

Seems like she's always down to just one cow producing. One cow just had an episode of mastitis then a staff infection. She'll have a calf in about 3 weeks. That's over 5 months this cow won't be producing $$ or food just in the first year. The 2nd Jersey is due in february. So far healthy... but...

In comparison, beef cattle are less prone to health issues than dairy breeds. We raised beef here, my neighbor had a dairy. He used to say 'A holstein is born looking for a place to die'. They are the worst, always dying of something. I asked him once how many cows he'd buried in 30yrs. He had no idea, lost count years ago.

Jersey aren't that bad but be prepared, plus raising calves? With 2 cows count on having the benefit of only one cow for much of the year.

Mini's? Here you'd have to go to an exotic animal auction to even buy them. I was at one a few years ago, funniest thing. A miniature brahma kicked a wrangler on the knee cap, he dropped like a rock!!! Big guy, 6'5" and a tiny cow put him down, sounded like a 3 wood at the tee! Those of us trying to help the guy were dying laughing... which he didn't appreciate.