Most embryos from one flush

[rlrlks]

Heres a question for all of you guys with 40+ embryos in a single flush.  How many pregnancies did you get?

 

[Cowboy]

Hey Brent -- not sure if you are concerned for my health or ??? hehehehe

Seriously, after this many years of baby sitting these donor cows, and breeding all hours of the night, ithas become a routine to stay up late. Waiting on one more calf gives me another excuse, even though we rairly get one at night, it lets me tell the wife a good excuse why I was still in bed later than she was!! hehehe Hell it works for me ---

We are still waiting on the normal spring rush of new donors, it seems as though it starts later every year -- at least the weather gets better the longer we wait. Cold and windy today -- go figure!

Take care up there in RAIN LAND -- I see you guys are already getting wet this year again!

Terry

 

[NHR]

Heres a question for all of you guys with 40+ embryos in a single flush.  How many pregnancies did you get?

Out of our 36 embryo flush we have 2 pregnancies off of 3 embryos implanted and the donor has bred back with no issues.

 

[BBP]

It is a very rare cow -- indeed -- that can be overstimulated and made to produce 40-50-even 60 eggs and NOT be damaged doing it.

In fact, it has always been my goal here to never try for large numbers, I am much happier to get a dozen from a good cow than I ever would be going for 30 plus. I have seen some cows who will never fail, breed back with no problems, and keep going, but they are very rare.

I take this job personal, and you can ask any one that has ever had a cow here, that I get more upset than the owner does when a cow fails. One thing I have never done though is brag about getting a huge number, I worry for the donor's sake, I want healthy cows delivered here and I insist on them leaving healthy after thier stay.

There is nothing wrong with making money on your cows, until it shortens her lifespan in doing so, then it just becomes greedy. In my opinion, any cow worth putting into a donor program is worth taking even better care of than normal, and we try to do just that.

Well I better leave this at that, maybe I have seen too many wrecks to not at least say something. Take it easy on them and they will take care of you, kind of like Nascar, sometimes you have to go slower to go FAST!

Terry

Out of the 64 out we put in 11 and had 6 take. Forgot to say we flushed this cow 40 days after calving which we did the flush the first week of July and it was 98 degrees and humid as heck!didn't think we would get any good eggs ! We did the same protocol on another cow we flushed at the same time and she had 20 eggs total with 10 good. this was the first flush for both these cows!

 

[Cowboy]

Let me get this straight -- You said you FLUSHED the cow "" 40 "" days after having a calf??

In order to do this -- your cow had to have a heat LESS than 20 days later, that is called day -0-. Day 11 is the normal start date of shots, day 16 is supered heat date, and day 23 is flush day.

Now, I may not be the smarted squirel to fall from a tree, but I have yet to ever have a cow come back in heat -- a GOOD heat - in less than 20 days and breed let alone flush from it.

40 minus 23 is 17 days pard -- are you SURE you have your dates right? After 30 years of doing this, I find it kind of hard to phathom her doing that.

Sorry -- but I am flaborgasted!

Terry

 

[BBP]

I checked the flush sheet and we flushed her 45 days post calving! So I was off 5 days sorry!

 

[Till-Hill]

Terry,
  Don't you want them donor cows to be 100 days post calving at the flush date? That's what my E.T. man says anyway. I have not even came close to flushing the amount of cows you have but I agree with you I would rather take 10 eggs at a flush then get 60 out of one mating and ruin the cow! I have got 4 eggs out of a virgin heifer once and 9 out another and the couple holstein cows and heifers I have done I got 0 as a total on the 3 we set up.

 

[BBP]

We did not plan on this cow having so many eggs! I would have rather had 8 - 12 eggs! 

 

[Cowboy]

You folks will have to forgive me some here, after all these years of doing this, this is all I do by the way, I have simply seen more problems that are created by man than the good Lord will ever alow to be created in nature.

Yes, if you let the cow have her second natural heat post calving, and start from there, about the earliest you will get one flushed is 75-80 days. Assuming all is normal any way. There are cows that do tend to be VERY sensitive, but to routinely get 30 plus eggs from a group, that tells me the dosages are being given WAY too heavy.

There simply is no need to start these cows so big, I would much rather use a small start dose, and learn later that we should have used a little bit more than to go in there and find football size ovaries and -- worse yet, only find a fraction of the total production due to structural damage caused. And then, have to look at a bunch of degenerated or unfertilized eggs due to the overstimulation.

Bad flushes happen even on moderate doses, and good fertile cows -- it is the nature of the business. But your chances of getting large flushes time after time will be small, and RISKY.


Nuff said I guess, crap happens but I sure don't like being the cause of it! hehehehe

Terry