The reproduction of livestock is mainly oriented towards the meat market. Basically, it involves producing calves to sell for meat or to other farms.
Steps
Step 1. Start by opening a farm
Step 2. Buy the cows and the bull
Buy the breed that best suits your purpose.
The bull should be selected to improve the herd, since half of the genes of future leaders depend on him. Here it is important to know how to choose the right bull. The keys to profit are fertility and the birth rate. A single live calf is worth more than 100 dead calves. A bull that produces calves larger than your cows can give birth is economic suicide
Step 3. Choose the pairing program
There are two types, they can also be integrated if you want.
- If your herd is too small to keep a bull or you don't want to manage one, use artificial insemination.
- If you have a herd of 10 or more cows and you don't want to have them artificially inseminated, you can use a good bull. As a rule, one bull is used for 25 cows. The strongest bulls can inseminate 50 cows with no loss of yield in the conception rate. Bulls reach maximum fertility at 20 months of age. Barring illness or injury, with proper nutrition most bulls will remain fertile until six to seven years of age.
Step 4. Breed cattle
Check the periods of heat, when they are ready to mate, and work accordingly.
- If you use a bull, you won't have to worry about periods of heat. Just make a note of the mating date.
- Learn the technique of artificial insemination to know when and how to apply it on your cows.
Step 5. Observe the bulls and cows during mating
If there is one bull too many in your herd, there may be more fighting than breeding.
- Putting young bulls together with older ones could prevent the cows from being fertilized by the best bull. Other times the bull may suffer from a fractured penis, a leg injury, or fail to inseminate the cow for other reasons.
- Also observe the cows. If the tails are tight or crooked when they walk, it means that they have been fertilized 24 to 48 hours ago.
Step 6. Remove the bulls 64 to 85 days after entering the herd
Unless you want to keep the bulls with the cows all year round, even during the calving season, taking the bulls off after two or three months allows the cows to be covered three or four times already and at the same time is quite a period. short to understand which are the least fertile females and therefore to be killed.
Advice
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The optimal ratio is a bull for 10-30 cows, depending on the size of the pasture, the age of the bull, the promiscuity, libido and experience of the bull.
Some bulls, depending on the fertility rate of the cows and how many cows are in heat at the same time, can cover more than 50 heads in a season
- The cows must be mated within 45 years 80 days after they have given birth, depending on their age and condition.
- The highest rates of conception with artificial insemination are achieved on virgin heifers. Selecting a bull based on ease of calving is important for heifers. The companies that practice artificial insemination offer a wide range of choices. By inseminating the heifers three weeks before the cows, they will have more time to recover from the stress of calving before being impregnated again the following season.
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Evaluate the scores of your cows and heifers 30 days before mating. They must have a score of about Cdn BCS 2, 5-3 to be ready. Heifers, on the other hand, need to score 3-3.5. A score lower or higher than this will decrease the fertility of your herd.
Bulls must have a score between 3 and 3.5 to have the energy the strength needed to last through the mating season. It will take longer to mate than to eat
- It is often good to hire a technician to do artificial insemination. The success rate should be higher, paying off the higher cost.
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Use thoroughbred bulls over half-breed cows for smoother calves.
You can also cross one breed with another to get calves that enjoy hybrid vigor. For example, by crossing an Angus bull with a Hereford cow you will get black sparse calves, calves with the characteristics of both parents. These calves can be worth a lot as sires for the Angus breed
- To maintain the purity of the line, you will need to cross thoroughbred bulls with thoroughbred cows. They can be of any breed, from Limousins to Angus or Piedmontese, but they will be used to produce purebred animals for other breeders, not for meat (although you will have to sell some of your animals to be slaughtered). Those who breed breeding animals look for the highest quality in bulls and heifers.
- For best results, have the bulls semen tested before placing them with the cows. Doing so will ensure that they are able to inseminate your cows without any problems.
Warnings
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If you have more than one bull, there is a risk that they will fight more than mate, and therefore injure or kill each other. This often happens when there are too many bulls in a herd, or when there are two of the same age and size.
Pay close attention to the bulls in the mating season. Hormone levels go up a lot, it's better not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! Some bulls are more dangerous than others, but you can't trust any of them
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If you use artificial insemination, remember that the success rate is only 60-70%.
A good bull can increase the success rate in your herd, and minimize the number of times you will be forced to call a technician to perform artificial insemination
