Reproduction

As a cow-calf producer, you know there’s nothing better than a hands-off, stress-free calving situation. But chances are, if you’re reading this and running cattle on your ranch, you know – realistically, there are times a hands-off approach just won’t cut it.

Birds hunker down before a storm arrives, and impending cold fronts make horses, cattle and some domestic pets restless.

Some heifers are poor mothers. They seem confused or indifferent toward their newborn calf or even attack the calf if it tries to get up.

“If you have a more fertile cow herd, the obvious benefit is: You have more calves to sell,” says Kent Andersen, director of technical services for global beef genetics at Zoetis.

The major and most recognized product produced by dairies is milk. In 2020, U.S. dairies produced 218,411 million pounds of milk, and Idaho dairies contributed 15,632 million pounds to the total production.

No, this is not an article about artificial insemination – I’m talking about the other “AI.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a phrase that is hard to avoid.