Recip Cost

[DiamondMCattle]

I have been thinking about doing some embryo transfer but I have a few questions/concerns. I have thought about "renting" a friends cows to put the embryos in and let them calve them out, but I don't have any idea what a fair price for that would be. Or if it would be worth it compared to buying recips. I am at a place where I am limited on the number of cattle I can have, is it more beneficial to buy embryos and recips or buy more registered females and breed them? Thanks for any input and information.

 

[Gargan]

If you are looking to put embryos in a neighbors cows, offer to pay them $50-$100 over  market for all the et calves and u pay all the expenses for synchronization and implantation of the embryos. You should make some money with good proven embryos on those terms.

 

[obie105]

We put embryos in at a guys place last year and that's all that he does is put embryos in commercial cows for other people. We paid all syncronization costs then $150 per embryo that took then $1250 at weaning.

 

[DiamondMCattle]

Thanks for the input. Being limited with the numbers I can have ( I currently have 4 may potentially have 6 or 8). Do you think it would be smarter to go with recips and embryos or continue to try and build with foundation females?

 

[firesweepranch]

Thanks for the input. Being limited with the numbers I can have ( I currently have 4 may potentially have 6 or 8). Do you think it would be smarter to go with recips and embryos or continue to try and build with foundation females?

Why not do both? We AI our best cows, and put embryos in the rest. We are small in numbers, but building the foundation of our herd with better genetics quicker this way.

 

[RankeCattleCo]

It would probably be cheeper to buy recips and find some quality embryos to put in them. A good, donor quality cow (especially a purebred) can easily cost you 10k. Either way isn't cheap though.