We haven’t had a live bull on the farm since 1964 when a bull almost got my Dad. I took over the breeding when I got out of college in 1975. We are milking 125 cows and normally breed 30 heifers year. My conception rate is normally around 75%. It just takes practice.
Hey Kip,You don't want to use your silos for fear your children will get hurt,yet you have 2 bulls in with the cows. My father told me me a long time ago, "Never Trust A Bull" Best of luck.
The AI is the easy part. It appears to be that the biggest roadblock to your reproduction program is the need for headlocks so you can easily lock cows up to breed a cow when necessary. Also would make it easier to implement Ovsync programs which work really well.
We currently have last bull on the farm as clean up with heifers. Haven't had a bull with the cows in about 12 years...once you get good at AI you never want to go back
I'm a hoof trimmer myself and very few farms I go to anymore use bulls. I would strongly suggest getting an activity monitor system and go to ai. You can control what your genetics are doing much much better. If 10,000 cow dairy's can do it certainly 200 cow dairies can.
💯 AI breeding my dairy herd. Just started after the course many years ago. Gave myself no alternative. It's a lot of work, but installing an automatic heat detection system has reduced that. I like the variety of bulls that I can match to what the individual cow needs. I also like that if the cow has any health challenges I can choose not to breed her and let her complete an extended lactation before culling.
Milking 300 and bred with bulls until April 2024. Bulls always got them bred but some times too early. Biggest reason for switching was that I was struggling to get a good rotation of quality bulls. Had a string of aggressive boys and had to ship them but couldn't find replacements. I hire my breeding done but have been doing my own preg checks for the last 8 or so years
I LOVE YOUR DAIRY COWS, FINE BULLS YOU HAVE. AND LOVE YOUR COWS. WELL DONE YOUR A FABALOUS FARMER, I ALWAYS KEEP FARMERS ALWAYS IN MY PRAYERS. YOUR IN MY HOLY PRAYERS. SO YOUL HAVE LUCK IN YOUR FARM.
Hey Kip. Near. Grand Rapids here. Tks for sharing. On the family farm. We used a Bull. But we had them on pasture all year round. On the farm I worked on. They three groups. Two groups "med and lows" was bull breed. But the high group. Was AI breed. But they kept a close eye.. they had a system and stuck too it..
Great to hear you mention Croswell. I grew up in Blaine/Jeddo area. And you’re right about all the dairy farms there used to be. Many went away when London’s went away it seems.
I made two piles this year. All of my corn silage and 1 small haylage pile after i ran out of bags. Im sold on the piles. Add more rock and youll have a solid pad for piling on.
Being short on labor we use bulls a lot. We calve mostly in August and September and only keep heifers born during that time so we ai for 3-4 weeks to try to get the genetics. Use bulls for clean up and heifers. Having bulls around is like working near a pto shaft- you just have to always be careful. Act like you’re ignoring them but never do. I had one give me a problem but it was sale day at the auction barn. He wasn’t here anymore at evening milking…
We bred 1000 cows all with bulls up until 2018. Switched to ai with our new parlor and sort area. Now 2400 cows, ai is good because of the sexed semen and beef. $1000 3 day old angus cross calves. Conception has been up and down but nothing compared to bulls. Number 1 thing like you said is getting the cows pregnant. Thats not something you even have to think about with bulls. We have recently brought a few bulls back for our late lactation mid production group. Cows go in there at 200 dim if they aren't pregnant. We also have a few angus bulls in with our pregnant heifer group for clean up, that works great. I literally laughed out loud every time you said his little wiener was sticking out! We put neck chains with bells on the bulls so you can hear them coming
Kip we still bread with a Bull. We are Beef and Matter of fact we just took our Bull to Marlette Auction last Monday. We will be getting a new one in the spring or before. We did the Ai for a little bit but for us Bull works better.
Neighbor had a very large Guernsey cow and she was a great milk cow, she came into heat and the bull tried to do his work but broke his man hood so the neighbor went out borrowed another neighbors bull. Just after we unloaded him with 5 people standing around. He broke his man hood trying. Now they had 2 Holstein bulls going to the butcher shop. The neighbor dropped off a little jersey bull but the size difference made us all laugh. There’s no way that’s happening 😂. They both went and got 2 new Holstein bulls. Surprise because 9 months later they had jersey cross calves being born. He might have been small but he got the job done. 😂.
At work we have 5,000- 5,500 cows. They are all bred AI. The farm is in West Michigan. I would feed that cornsilage. Your going to find out that you want to put the bags on concrete.
Thanks for the video Kip. It was interesting and enjoyable to watch. Years ago we did the bull thing. Then we just got scared of the bull. Just to dangerous. You got out of the silo and now you need to get rid of the bulls before you or someone gets hurt. With AI you just need to keep at it. If I learned it anyone can. You will get the hang of it and it is so easy after a while. Stay away from the bulls. Thanks Kip. The Iowa farm boy. Steve.
We still breed with bulls but only one per group. One with our heifers one in the freestall. Same reasons as you. I do a bit of AI in the winter when there is more time.
In 1991 had a Bull get mean, was trying to load it ,in a snowy cow lot and it turned on me ,broke my leg in half, have a rod in that leg now, and that was the last Bull on the farm.
I noticed you having trouble starting your mixer tractor,looks like your safety switch is not making contact,I had same problem with a 4050, the safety switch is under the cab on the right side of the transmission by the rear tire I turned it out and took out 1 or 2 of the washers and it fixed mine
Hi, Irish dairy farmer here, yes we do have a bull , but we don’t have a holstein bull , we have a Saler beef bull mainly due to the fact that he is very easy calved , we only use sexed Holstein semen and only serve the best 23 or 24 percent to the sexed semen and they only get one shot so we generally have about 16 or 17 Holstein heifer calves per 100 born which is what we require. We put our cows that we consider large in calf to Belgian Blue bulls because they are the least difficult at calving time and we get a premium for them and then we put the younger cows and any we consider smaller in calf to the Hereford again because we have a market for the calves we put the heifers with the bull and use him to clean up at the end of the breeding season mainly because we have a market for the late calvers ( in Ireland we produce milk seasonally for the most part, with 70 percent or more calving in 8 weeks in the spring) . This year we had the best scan we have ever seen with 174 cows out of 183 in calf and 35 out of 35 heifers last calf due on the 5 th of may first on the twentieth of January and only 11 to calve after the 1st of April. I don’t know how many bulls you would need to have to get these sort of results but I think I would not be happy with less than 6 . Basically we have 209 confirmed pregnant, we only need 180 / 185 so allowing for a few casualties along the way we can move on c. 20 cows for reasons other than fertility which is over 10 percent of the herd , if the weather plays ball next year we should achieve our target of 620 kgs of m.s. per cow which we set for our herd to achieve by 2028 back in 2018 when we were milking 78 cows producing 470 kgs per cow. Breeding to the best bulls and improving grassland management and facilities combined to achieve this but using the best genetics is probably the most important factor.
Kip, I have a small beef herd and always have used bulls,[2 minimum]. And that's for 25 head, I do periodically while I am bringing up a new young bull have 3 but he will be separated with a group of replacement heifers. Bulls can and do a better nearly perfect job of being at the right place and time.
I grew up on a dairy farm, I am well versed in dairy bulls, The message of my post is bulls do it right and they are generally on time,but also you need lots of bull power.
When we were milking, we would ai, but its a herd management system. After so many services, they'd either be bred to a young sire or beef bull being they were a cheaper option for the hard breeders. If they didn't settle after 3 or 4 services they were sold. But we usually had less than 60 cows
We do AI for big reason of the genetics and safety, we still have enough dairy farms around that are breeders around that still breed, and for us untill this year we didn't have trouble with catching cows, every farm has a system that works for them, get video and explanation kip
hi kip, i´m a dairyfarmer and we use ai for 30 years now but to make it work, get a heat detection system for your cows. that´s my advice for you yes i know it cost´s a lot of money but i will pay back really fast if you stick with ai. all the best from austria
Yeah you will have to start using AI at some point Kip. You saw the increase in production after switching to a TMR mixer and it will be another huge jump by artificial breeding. Plus you can realize the full value of your calves by breeding your low producers to angus bulls. It is a real safety issue. You wouldn’t want Grant wandering out to the lot and getting hurt. I’m sure at least one of the major semen suppliers has a tech in your area. Throw a heat patch on after they calve and make a phone call when she’s in heat. Blood test 28 days after breeding and you will know the answer. Definitely worth the time and effort.
I learn many years ago how to AI at packing plant . I havent un awhile breed any but kuke riding a bike yiur never forget it once you got it . I understand everyone does things different . Every have questions please reach out
We’re embryo transfer. We work with 2 other dairies also. I seldom jump in to anything with both feet. Prefer to hedge my bets, but my dairy animals, and my beef animals are total opposites. To me, the two dairies I work with outside our own, are capable of proving a top class meat animal, a Holstein. But the market wants what it wants. Hence, the embryo transfer gets us that prized angus steer. We have farmer feeders who take them, we sell off some at auction, some we just pay feeders, others we sell to feeders, and get as many back as we can to process. If my wife hadn’t passed away, we would be working with many more dairies. She wanted to be world wide. She was a triple doc. DVM, and PhD’s in nutrition, and genetics. I’m pretty much just the muscle. 3 of my kids blew past me in the brain department already. We have breed stock from Dexter, angus, low line angus, Wagyu, jerseys, and Holstein.
Part of me wants to say its the "old scholl way" of doing thinfs, then i remember my uncles farm from the 80s who was doin AI, it all comes down to personal choices, and what a person is willing to put up with, and do. Personally i would AI, to keep the genetics up and getting better production out of my herd.
Probably more dangerous than your silos good MAN !! A I is just a change a little like your TMR. START with heifers to gain your confidence. Plus you can bred them a little to early with the bulls out there with all the cows,can take of there peaks. THANKS MUCH YOUNG MAN 👍👍👍👍
I’m not sure if you or someone else would know the answer to a question I have. I band my bull calves. I bought Holstien bull calves from several different dairies. When I went to band them I found that their testicals are long and thin compared to beef type that are oval. Does the shape of the testicals have something to do with milk production?
We are AI. Conception rate needs to improve. We are going to robots and sort gates with activity collars so, things should improve with catching them when they are in heat.
There is a bull mask you can put on them. It has slits under the eyes, so he has to keep his head up to see. Won't charge with his head in the air. That said you really should be doing A.I., Mr safety
I am on your side. For sure, you always want to be careful with bulls. I think the only way to AI would be to hire a herdsmen. You just have too much on your plate to AI yourself.
Out of all the beef bulls, not dairy bulls, I've been around, it seems that the more time you spend around them the more calmn they are. You will get a thousand opinions.
I'd say at this point, you're better off getting your milk cows on a testing program, find out who your stars are and which ones need to be culled. There are pros and cons to every method breeding but you need to know who your real moneymakers are. Just like any other business. Cheers🎉
I breed cows for a living. I offer tailchalking were I pull in the farm and find the cows in heat myself and breed them. Farmers don't even tell me if they see cows in heat I do it all myself wiout help. Is that available in your area?
Don't worry about losing genetic gain. There are tons of top pedigree bulls that the studs turned down. Right now we have a jersey running with the heifers who has 3 close family members on the top 10 list of young Canadian sires. If you go only AI guaranteed your conception rate will decline. But you need to be careful 4 years ago I had a very close call . Tiestall herd so have AI there
We youse to breed with a bull and made the switch over to ai and now getting cow manager that will let a person know the right time to breed her that away your not breeding her to early or to late.
I don't get this guy, he's afraid to climb stave silos cuz it has opinion they're dangerous. But having a 2000 lb bull riding around the car lot with kids and himself out there isn't too dangerous
Hey kip ! We still use bulls on our dairy ,hard to beat a good bull and people will talk about genetics but if you are buying bulls every year off good herds, i think you you can stay in the game, we never had a problem here my herd as no problem staying in the average for production and components!
I think it's a toss up for the most part, it's what suits your operation as to what you learned over the years from your for fathers. There's nothing wrong with either in my books. Sure you can probably can get better results with AI (genetics) it's not natural of coarse!) but it's as you mentioned, there's many variables involved with it. A straw of semen is very (did it catch , it's a one time thing, a bull usually gets the job done barring injury!) expensive to my knowledge..... After all where would the semen come from in the first place if there wasn't a real (natural bull!?)😜😉!!.... Yeah... I know what other viewers might suggest!?.. (artificial intelligence!?!?😜)... Let's everyone think about "NATURAL"!?!?... Anywhoo, just some humor at the end!.. kip and family keep farming, you guys are doing good!.. take care! And merry Christmas to yours in case I don't contact again in the meantime!👍
We haven’t had a live bull on the farm since 1964 when a bull almost got my Dad. I took over the breeding when I got out of college in 1975. We are milking 125 cows and normally breed 30 heifers year. My conception rate is normally around 75%. It just takes practice.
Hey Kip,You don't want to use your silos for fear your children will get hurt,yet you have 2 bulls in with the cows. My father told me me a long time ago, "Never Trust A Bull" Best of luck.
I thought the same
I'll take silos over bulls anyday
Why use a bull instead of AI? The cows enjoy it.
YOU HAVE A GREAT SET UP IN YOUR FARM. WELL DONE, HAPPY FARMING.
YOUR A GREAT FARMER. BEST OF LUCK TO YOU,
The AI is the easy part. It appears to be that the biggest roadblock to your reproduction program is the need for headlocks so you can easily lock cows up to breed a cow when necessary. Also would make it easier to implement Ovsync programs which work really well.
We currently have last bull on the farm as clean up with heifers. Haven't had a bull with the cows in about 12 years...once you get good at AI you never want to go back
I'm a hoof trimmer myself and very few farms I go to anymore use bulls. I would strongly suggest getting an activity monitor system and go to ai. You can control what your genetics are doing much much better. If 10,000 cow dairy's can do it certainly 200 cow dairies can.
💯 AI breeding my dairy herd. Just started after the course many years ago. Gave myself no alternative. It's a lot of work, but installing an automatic heat detection system has reduced that.
I like the variety of bulls that I can match to what the individual cow needs. I also like that if the cow has any health challenges I can choose not to breed her and let her complete an extended lactation before culling.
Have a happy Thanksgiving! AI is pretty easy. Just takes practice. Gotta have a man in the barn at all times watching the cows
Milking 300 and bred with bulls until April 2024. Bulls always got them bred but some times too early. Biggest reason for switching was that I was struggling to get a good rotation of quality bulls. Had a string of aggressive boys and had to ship them but couldn't find replacements. I hire my breeding done but have been doing my own preg checks for the last 8 or so years
I LOVE YOUR DAIRY COWS, FINE BULLS YOU HAVE. AND LOVE YOUR COWS. WELL DONE YOUR A FABALOUS FARMER, I ALWAYS KEEP FARMERS ALWAYS IN MY PRAYERS. YOUR IN MY HOLY PRAYERS. SO YOUL HAVE LUCK IN YOUR FARM.
Hey Kip. Near. Grand Rapids here. Tks for sharing. On the family farm. We used a Bull. But we had them on pasture all year round. On the farm I worked on. They three groups. Two groups "med and lows" was bull breed. But the high group. Was AI breed. But they kept a close eye.. they had a system and stuck too it..
Great to hear you mention Croswell. I grew up in Blaine/Jeddo area. And you’re right about all the dairy farms there used to be. Many went away when London’s went away it seems.
I made two piles this year. All of my corn silage and 1 small haylage pile after i ran out of bags. Im sold on the piles. Add more rock and youll have a solid pad for piling on.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. God bless to you all. Love these videos. Been watching you for many years.
Was told once a bull will deposit around 500 straws to 1 AI straw. AI straws are either 1/4 cc or 1/2 cc and they also have filler with the semen.
We use all bulls. We milk 300 in PA. We usually run 4 bulls with our cows. We also have a UA-cam channel.
What the name
@danewinge9164 Arlo Farms or just click on our name.
Being short on labor we use bulls a lot. We calve mostly in August and September and only keep heifers born during that time so we ai for 3-4 weeks to try to get the genetics. Use bulls for clean up and heifers.
Having bulls around is like working near a pto shaft- you just have to always be careful. Act like you’re ignoring them but never do. I had one give me a problem but it was sale day at the auction barn. He wasn’t here anymore at evening milking…
Be careful and you know don't turn your back don't play with them every farm is different do your thing happy thanksgiving the o you and family
We bred 1000 cows all with bulls up until 2018. Switched to ai with our new parlor and sort area. Now 2400 cows, ai is good because of the sexed semen and beef. $1000 3 day old angus cross calves. Conception has been up and down but nothing compared to bulls. Number 1 thing like you said is getting the cows pregnant. Thats not something you even have to think about with bulls. We have recently brought a few bulls back for our late lactation mid production group. Cows go in there at 200 dim if they aren't pregnant. We also have a few angus bulls in with our pregnant heifer group for clean up, that works great.
I literally laughed out loud every time you said his little wiener was sticking out! We put neck chains with bells on the bulls so you can hear them coming
Good evening. Happy thanksgiving’s to you and your family.
To you as well!!
@@KipSieglerFarming1 would you rather have an angus or holstein bull
Kip we still bread with a Bull. We are Beef and Matter of fact we just took our Bull to Marlette Auction last Monday. We will be getting a new one in the spring or before. We did the Ai for a little bit but for us Bull works better.
Hiya Kip,
Thanks for the explanations, stay well be safe.
Hope the family is doing well, God bless, brother.
I have three bulls and I watch them - and they watch me.
Neighbor had a very large Guernsey cow and she was a great milk cow, she came into heat and the bull tried to do his work but broke his man hood so the neighbor went out borrowed another neighbors bull. Just after we unloaded him with 5 people standing around. He broke his man hood trying. Now they had 2 Holstein bulls going to the butcher shop. The neighbor dropped off a little jersey bull but the size difference made us all laugh. There’s no way that’s happening 😂. They both went and got 2 new Holstein bulls. Surprise because 9 months later they had jersey cross calves being born. He might have been small but he got the job done. 😂.
👍
At work we have 5,000- 5,500 cows. They are all bred AI. The farm is in West Michigan.
I would feed that cornsilage.
Your going to find out that you want to put the bags on concrete.
You do very zesty farming and excellent farming. Sketter and pufflenutts thought me how to do very zesty farming
Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 Kip. Yo your whoke crew. Thanks for all the cool videos
I’m watching this in the evening so I’m going to say good evening great video so far
Good evening Jerry !
Great video as always Kip. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous Thanksgiving from Oklahoma.
Here in Addison county Vermont we have maybe 5 to 7 breeders that roll around allday everyday farm to farm breeding
Thanks for the video Kip.
It was interesting and enjoyable to watch.
Years ago we did the bull thing. Then we just got scared of the bull. Just to dangerous. You got out of the silo and now you need to get rid of the bulls before you or someone gets hurt.
With AI you just need to keep at it. If I learned it anyone can. You will get the hang of it and it is so easy after a while. Stay away from the bulls.
Thanks Kip.
The Iowa farm boy. Steve.
We still breed with bulls but only one per group. One with our heifers one in the freestall. Same reasons as you. I do a bit of AI in the winter when there is more time.
👍👍
In 1991 had a Bull get mean, was trying to load it ,in a snowy cow lot and it turned on me ,broke my leg in half, have a rod in that leg now, and that was the last Bull on the farm.
I noticed you having trouble starting your mixer tractor,looks like your safety switch is not making contact,I had same problem with a 4050, the safety switch is under the cab on the right side of the transmission by the rear tire I turned it out and took out 1 or 2 of the washers and it fixed mine
Hi, Irish dairy farmer here, yes we do have a bull , but we don’t have a holstein bull , we have a Saler beef bull mainly due to the fact that he is very easy calved , we only use sexed Holstein semen and only serve the best 23 or 24 percent to the sexed semen and they only get one shot so we generally have about 16 or 17 Holstein heifer calves per 100 born which is what we require. We put our cows that we consider large in calf to Belgian Blue bulls because they are the least difficult at calving time and we get a premium for them and then we put the younger cows and any we consider smaller in calf to the Hereford again because we have a market for the calves we put the heifers with the bull and use him to clean up at the end of the breeding season mainly because we have a market for the late calvers ( in Ireland we produce milk seasonally for the most part, with 70 percent or more calving in 8 weeks in the spring) . This year we had the best scan we have ever seen with 174 cows out of 183 in calf and 35 out of 35 heifers last calf due on the 5 th of may first on the twentieth of January and only 11 to calve after the 1st of April. I don’t know how many bulls you would need to have to get these sort of results but I think I would not be happy with less than 6 . Basically we have 209 confirmed pregnant, we only need 180 / 185 so allowing for a few casualties along the way we can move on c. 20 cows for reasons other than fertility which is over 10 percent of the herd , if the weather plays ball next year we should achieve our target of 620 kgs of m.s. per cow which we set for our herd to achieve by 2028 back in 2018 when we were milking 78 cows producing 470 kgs per cow. Breeding to the best bulls and improving grassland management and facilities combined to achieve this but using the best genetics is probably the most important factor.
Kip,
I have a small beef herd and always have used bulls,[2 minimum].
And that's for 25 head,
I do periodically while I am bringing up a new young bull have 3 but he will be separated with a group of replacement heifers.
Bulls can and do a better nearly perfect job of being at the right place and time.
Dairy bulls are way more dangerous. I have some experience.
I grew up on a dairy farm, I am well versed in dairy bulls,
The message of my post is bulls do it right and they are generally on time,but also you need lots of bull power.
Another very interesting video Thank you and God bless you and your family 😊😊😊😊
I think it’s funny. Every time I go to Ash you a question you answer it before I can ask. Your videos are absolutely the best.
When we were milking, we would ai, but its a herd management system. After so many services, they'd either be bred to a young sire or beef bull being they were a cheaper option for the hard breeders. If they didn't settle after 3 or 4 services they were sold. But we usually had less than 60 cows
Happy Thanksgiving 😊
We do AI for big reason of the genetics and safety, we still have enough dairy farms around that are breeders around that still breed, and for us untill this year we didn't have trouble with catching cows, every farm has a system that works for them, get video and explanation kip
hi kip, i´m a dairyfarmer and we use ai for 30 years now but to make it work, get a heat detection system for your cows. that´s my advice for you yes i know it cost´s a lot of money but i will pay back really fast if you stick with ai.
all the best from austria
we tail chalk with paint stick or spray paint chalk head lockups evermoring AI breed up to 120 to 140 days then to a different pen with a cleanup bull
Yeah you will have to start using AI at some point Kip. You saw the increase in production after switching to a TMR mixer and it will be another huge jump by artificial breeding. Plus you can realize the full value of your calves by breeding your low producers to angus bulls. It is a real safety issue. You wouldn’t want Grant wandering out to the lot and getting hurt. I’m sure at least one of the major semen suppliers has a tech in your area. Throw a heat patch on after they calve and make a phone call when she’s in heat. Blood test 28 days after breeding and you will know the answer. Definitely worth the time and effort.
We AI not worth risking the girls getting hurt or my family.....Plus we get cutting edge genetics.
I learn many years ago how to AI at packing plant . I havent un awhile breed any but kuke riding a bike yiur never forget it once you got it . I understand everyone does things different . Every have questions please reach out
Another great video
More farmers are hurt with bulls, than in upright silos.
I taught my self how to AI it takes about 300 services before things really click best thing to do is breed every day if you can.
Have you thought about getting a Guernsey Bull?
We’re embryo transfer. We work with 2 other dairies also. I seldom jump in to anything with both feet. Prefer to hedge my bets, but my dairy animals, and my beef animals are total opposites. To me, the two dairies I work with outside our own, are capable of proving a top class meat animal, a Holstein. But the market wants what it wants. Hence, the embryo transfer gets us that prized angus steer. We have farmer feeders who take them, we sell off some at auction, some we just pay feeders, others we sell to feeders, and get as many back as we can to process.
If my wife hadn’t passed away, we would be working with many more dairies. She wanted to be world wide. She was a triple doc. DVM, and PhD’s in nutrition, and genetics. I’m pretty much just the muscle. 3 of my kids blew past me in the brain department already.
We have breed stock from Dexter, angus, low line angus, Wagyu, jerseys, and Holstein.
Part of me wants to say its the "old scholl way" of doing thinfs, then i remember my uncles farm from the 80s who was doin AI, it all comes down to personal choices, and what a person is willing to put up with, and do.
Personally i would AI, to keep the genetics up and getting better production out of my herd.
You will need headlocks, a system that shows you which cow is in heat, the hardware to store the semen and a lot of practise.
Lots that goes in to it
You could mix the 2023 silage with the 2024.
Probably more dangerous than your silos good MAN !! A I is just a change a little like your TMR. START with heifers to gain your confidence. Plus you can bred them a little to early with the bulls out there with all the cows,can take of there peaks. THANKS MUCH YOUNG MAN 👍👍👍👍
I’m not sure if you or someone else would know the answer to a question I have. I band my bull calves. I bought Holstien bull calves from several different dairies. When I went to band them I found that their testicals are long and
thin compared to beef type that are oval. Does the shape of the testicals have something to do with milk production?
Damm! Tht bull is marking his territory 😅😊-ohh ladies !!! Lol :)
Always good videos hope y'all have a good Thanksgiving
We are AI. Conception rate needs to improve. We are going to robots and sort gates with activity collars so, things should improve with catching them when they are in heat.
There is a bull mask you can put on them. It has slits under the eyes, so he has to keep his head up to see. Won't charge with his head in the air. That said you really should be doing A.I., Mr safety
I am on your side. For sure, you always want to be careful with bulls. I think the only way to AI would be to hire a herdsmen. You just have too much on your plate to AI yourself.
Out of all the beef bulls, not dairy bulls, I've been around, it seems that the more time you spend around them the more calmn they are. You will get a thousand opinions.
I'd say at this point, you're better off getting your milk cows on a testing program, find out who your stars are and which ones need to be culled. There are pros and cons to every method breeding but you need to know who your real moneymakers are. Just like any other business. Cheers🎉
How do you know who sired the calves if you are running 2 bulls in a group?
Damm tht bull was trying to have a bullsome!!😅
Ai they way to go get rid f 5:25 the bulls we never. had a bull
What ever happened to MABC?
You made me laugh at your description of how he “provides” 🤣
I would feed that to the dry cows let them pick through it I’d definitely not throw it away
i would rather fight the al person than a bull
He delivers a whad !!!
I breed cows for a living. I offer tailchalking were I pull in the farm and find the cows in heat myself and breed them. Farmers don't even tell me if they see cows in heat I do it all myself wiout help. Is that available in your area?
Grew up on small dairy farm always used ai had more heifers than bulls
We do have a bull but mostly we use AI system
And i see snow flurries I don’t live that far from you and we have had none thank God
If it was me I would separate the bulls in one section of the yard and put the cows in with them as they come on heat
Why don't buy a few used cement feed bunks to feed them heifers from
Around here they're simply are no successful modern large dairy farms that don't AI. Lack of management if you don't
How many days after calving can your cows get pregnant again? Seems difficult if the bulls are around all the time.
Don't worry about losing genetic gain. There are tons of top pedigree bulls that the studs turned down. Right now we have a jersey running with the heifers who has 3 close family members on the top 10 list of young Canadian sires. If you go only AI guaranteed your conception rate will decline. But you need to be careful 4 years ago I had a very close call . Tiestall herd so have AI there
We youse to breed with a bull and made the switch over to ai and now getting cow manager that will let a person know the right time to breed her that away your not breeding her to early or to late.
Hi good evening kip from Indiana
Good evening!
Train the next generation to a.i
Feed it
Still use bulls
Don't have a good AI tech in our area
Cows Still hurt themselves with AI
And the lack of genetic problems along with the being among bulls
I don't get this guy, he's afraid to climb stave silos cuz it has opinion they're dangerous. But having a 2000 lb bull riding around the car lot with kids and himself out there isn't too dangerous
Hey kip ! We still use bulls on our dairy ,hard to beat a good bull and people will talk about genetics but if you are buying bulls every year off good herds, i think you you can stay in the game, we never had a problem here my herd as no problem staying in the average for production and components!
Yu will never know what the genetics are in two generations.
how would you like to eat your dinner off the floor.
What’s wrong bud
Go with ai wasting feed on them
I think it's a toss up for the most part, it's what suits your operation as to what you learned over the years from your for fathers. There's nothing wrong with either in my books. Sure you can probably can get better results with AI (genetics) it's not natural of coarse!) but it's as you mentioned, there's many variables involved with it. A straw of semen is very (did it catch , it's a one time thing, a bull usually gets the job done barring injury!) expensive to my knowledge..... After all where would the semen come from in the first place if there wasn't a real (natural bull!?)😜😉!!.... Yeah... I know what other viewers might suggest!?.. (artificial intelligence!?!?😜)... Let's everyone think about "NATURAL"!?!?... Anywhoo, just some humor at the end!.. kip and family keep farming, you guys are doing good!.. take care! And merry Christmas to yours in case I don't contact again in the meantime!👍
FYI. Your like button is missing. Only the dislike is showing. ?????
Feed it