Improving The Herd One At A Time Through Artificial Insemination

Artificial Insemination (AI) has many advantages including:

1. Increased genetics
2. Improving the quality and production traits in the herd
3. A way to use top of the line sires
4. Allows you to use different sires on different cows
5. Reduces the need for herd bulls
6. Presents the option to synchronize the cattle so that they all come into heat during the same time to save time and money

AI Kit for Cattle

My family operates a Simmental/Angus cow/calf herd of about 40. We are continually striving to produce better quality calves for show purposes for ourselves and to someday sell and also to have better genetics in our herd. Before we purchase semen straws we do our research on the sire's background genetics, their overall traits and whether they are calving ease. Then we think about the cows we are going to AI and match them up with the perfect sire.

• For a first calf heifer we like to use calving ease bulls. This means the bull has numbers to indicate he will produce a smaller calf so the cow has an easy time calving.
• For older cows we try to find the perfect mating in a bull that has the qualities to fix her flaws and produce a quality calf. As a producer, our goal is always to use AI as a way to improve on the cow with a higher quality calf.

Personally, our family doesn't get too invested into the show ring genetics, sometimes when you get involved with that you may end up taking risks and may end up with calves that can come out deformed and unproductive. We like to stick with Simmental sires while adding a little bit of showy genetics to them for eye appeal. While we don't AI the whole herd, we pick some of our best cows in the herd to AI to continue improving the genetics. We also have a herd bull that does our clean up breeding.