Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings

Cattle breeding involves the reproduction of offspring, which is mainly used in the beef market. Naturally, this is done in order to get more cows that will give birth to calves, which can be sold for meat or replenish the herd.

Steps

1. 1 Start raising cows and calves for slaughter. Follow the directions in the link article from this step.
2. 2 Buy a herd of cows and / or a bull. Buy good cows that meet the standards, the breeding of the herd depends on it.
   • Your bull must be selected to improve the herd as it will provide half the genetic potential of your future calves. Knowing this point will really help determine how good a bull the herd needs. Calf fertility and survival are the keys to profitability. One live calf is worth more than 100 dead. A large bull that produces calves larger than your cow can safely give birth is economic suicide.
3. 3 Select a breeding program. There are two types to choose from and both can be integrated into the other if you so desire.
   • If your herd is too small to breed a bull, or you don't want to properly deal with bulls, you can use artificial insemination to breed your herd.
   • If you have a herd of 10 or more cows and don't want to resort to artificial insemination, then it's up to a good bull for the entire herd. The rule of thumb is 1 bull for 25 cows.Fertile bulls with high libido can serve 50 cows without compromising quality. Bulls reach their peak fertility at 20 months of age, after the 20th month it can only fall; with the exception of illness or injury, with proper nutrition in most bulls, fertility does not decrease until 6-7 years of age.
4. 4 Breed your cattle. Know when your cows are in heat, when they are ready to breed, and when they are out.
   • If you use a bull for your herd, then you don't have to worry about when your cows get hot, only when they have been bred for offspring.
   • Follow the steps outlined in How to Artificially Inseminate Cows and Heifers to know how and when to artificially inseminate your horned females. ...
5. 5 Supervise your bulls and cows during the breeding season. If you have too many bulls for your herd, then there may be more fighting between bulls than mating.
   • A running bull [s] under 4 years of age with an older bull [s] can prevent cows from being served by the bull with the highest fertility rate. In the meantime, you may end up with a bull that has a broken penis, a leg / hoof injury, or simply isn't doing the job.
   • Also watch the cows. If you see cows' tails stretched out or bent as they walk, that means they were fertilized in the past 24 to 48 hours before you first noticed this physical trait.
6. 6 64-85 days after launching the bull [s], take them out. If you are not going to breed cows all year round, so that the bulls constantly communicate with the cows, then take the bulls away after 2-3 months of being with the cows, during this time all your cows will get 3-4 opportunities to be fertilized, and also not so long for your less fertile cows so they can hide from bull service.

Tips

• The optimal bull to cow ratio is 1 bull in 10 to 30 cows, depending on pasture size and bull age, variety / libido and experience.
  • Some bulls, depending on the cow fertility rate and how many cows are in high temperature, can serve more than 50 cows in one season.
• Cows should be fertilized 45 to 80 days after calving, depending on age and condition.
• The maximum results of artificial insemination are achieved on virgin heifers. Choosing a bull to mate with heifers is an important factor in fertility. In vitro fertilization companies offer a wide variety of options. Your heifers will be artificially inseminated 3 weeks before the bull [s] are brought into the herd, so most of your heifers will have extra time to recover from the stress of calving before being re-fertilized in the next breeding season.
• Assess the condition of cows and heifers 30 days before breeding season. They must be between 2.5 and 3 BCS Cdn to be ready to breed. Heifers must be within a Cdn BCS of 3 to 3.5 to be ready for breeding. Lower or higher rates will lower your herd's fertility rates.
  • Bulls must be at Cdn BCS 3 to 3.5 to be able, energetic and strong to breed during the last breeding season. He will pay more attention to his girlfriends than food.
• For optimal reproduction, test the semen of your bull [s] before he mates with cows. This will ensure that he / they will be able to service your cows without any concerns about fertility or possible injury.
• It is often best to hire an IVF technician to do all the work for you. This is because if you have someone with a lot of experience in fertilization technology for your cattle, the success rate should be higher and worth the extra expense than if you did it yourself.
• Use purebred cows to mate with cows to obtain better quality calves in commercial cow-calf operations.
  • You can also breed one breed with another to get calves that display heterosis or hybrid power... For example, mating an Angus bull with a Hereford cow will give you black hairless calves that have both the characteristics of their fathers and mothers. Following the Angus gene pool program will definitely guarantee the quality of these calves.
• For a purebred procedure or seed stock, you will need purebred bulls to breed with purebred cows. It can be any breed of your choice, from Limousine to Angus and even Piedmont. But you are not raising purebred cattle to sell your beef on the market (although you will have to find a market to sell your culled cattle), but for other producers. Improving the good quality of bulls and heifers is what the seed stock producer does.

Warnings

• If you have more than one bull in your herd, there is a risk that there may be more fighting than mating, and the risk that one or more of your bulls may be injured or even killed. This often happens when there are too many bulls in the herd, or when you have two bulls that are the same age and size relative to each other.
  • Be very careful during the time of year when mating occurs. Hormone levels are raging like crazy and you shouldn't be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time! Some bulls may be more dangerous than others, but no a bull shouldn't be trusted.
• If you choose artificial insemination, you must remember that there is only 60-70% success with this breeding method.
  • Using a bull cleaner is the best method to increase your success rate in your livestock breeding and minimizes the number of times you use artificial insemination technology, since artificial insemination has to come out before re-fertilizing your cows.