Reproduction

One of the newer developments with A.I. in beef cattle is availability of sexed semen. Gender selection has been utilized for two decades in the dairy industry, and the number of beef bulls with sorted semen available from A.I. studs has increased during the past 10 years.

DNA testing using thousands of markers, called genomic prediction, has arrived in the beef industry, and it isn’t going anywhere. But why should cattle producers, especially seedstock breeders, use this technology?

In larger commercial cow-calf operations, multiple-sire breeding herds are typically used. These herds are easier to manage, with less reproductive failure risk, but more difficult to evaluate genetic improvement in your calf crop.

Artificial insemination (A.I.) is a great way to advance herd genetics. You can access bulls offering superior traits to what a herd sire might offer and gain the ability to sire more uniform calves.

A complete breeding soundness evaluation (BSE) for every bull, 45 to 60 days before each breeding season, is critical. It takes sperm 60 days to develop and mature.

Countless factors tie into how successful breeding season is. But when you start digging deeper, you might find a common thread – numbers.