Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Miles City, Montana » Livestock and Range Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #107686
Title: HEAT DETECTION SYSTEMS AND ESTRUS MANAGEMENT

Author
item Geary, Thomas

Submitted to: Beef Improvement Federation Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: GEARY, T.W. HEAT DETECTION SYSTEMS AND ESTRUS MANAGEMENT. BEEF IMPROVEMENT FEDERATION PROCEEDINGS. 1999. p. 24-31.

Interpretive Summary: This paper is aimed at identifying and emphasizing the critical factors that contribute to a successful AI breeding season. Accurate and efficient heat detection is the first step toward achieving AI pregnancies. Electronic estrous detection is not necessary if producers will spend more time observing females for estrous behavior. Estrous synchronization improves our ability to detect cows and heifers in heat because it concentrates and increases the intensity and duration of their estrous behavior. Various heat detection aids can be helpful in improving our heat detection efficiency, but they need to be used in conjunction with visual observation of cows. Sorting cows into a separate pen that are identified as being in estrus as soon as they are identified allows other cows to express estrous behavior and increase the amount of attention producers can focus on the these new cows. New recommendations for AI include that cows be inseminated 8 to 12 hours after their initial observation of estrus. Any travel that is necessary for cows or heifers that are artificially inseminated should occur within the first 4 days following AI to prevent embryonic mortality. In conclusion, greater efficiency and accuracy in heat detection can increase conception and pregnancy rates to AI.

Technical Abstract: This paper is aimed at identifying and emphasizing the critical factors that contribute to a successful AI breeding season. Accurate and efficient heat detection is the first step toward achieving AI pregnancies. Electronic estrous detection is not necessary if producers will spend more time observing females for estrous behavior. Estrous synchronization improves our ability to detect cows and heifers in heat because it concentrates and increases the intensity and duration of their estrous behavior. Various heat detection aids can be helpful in improving our heat detection efficiency, but they need to be used in conjunction with visual observation of cows. Sorting cows into a separate pen that are identified as being in estrus as soon as they are identified allows other cows to express estrous behavior and increase the amount of attention producers can focus on the these new cows. New recommendations for AI include that cows be inseminated 8 to 12 hours after their initial observation of estrus. Any travel that is necessary for cows or heifers that are artificially inseminated should occur within the first 4 days following AI to prevent embryonic mortality. In conclusion, greater efficiency and accuracy in heat detection can increase conception and pregnancy rates to AI.