For many years we have AI bred every female on the ranch. Just like any operation who AI's we are always looking for ways to increase our AI conception rate and our number of AI pregnancies. Last year we come across a brand new concept called reCIDR. The science behind reCIDR made sense to us and we liekd the results we saw after trying it on our May/June calving cows last year. This year we decided to use reCIDR on every female on the ranch. We just finished breeding all of our replacement heifers and turned the natural service sires out last week.
SO you may be wondering what the heck is reCIDR? Here is the protocol we used:
To start with we used the standard 5-day CIDR protocol on all of our heifers and then time AI bred all of them. On Day 11 post-breeding we re-inserted a CIDR into all of the heifers (that we just finished AIing). We pulled those CIDRs on Day 18 post-breeding and placed Estrotec patches on each female. We then pulled heats and AI bred for 3 days. On day 4 (after the second CIDR pull) we turned the natural service bulls out.
The thinking behind reCIDRing is that we will be able to identify, synchronize and breed the heifers that didn't concieve on the initial AI breeding without disrupting the pregnancies of the 50+% of cows who did concieve during the first timed AI. The CIDR releases the hormone progesterone and it is believed that the progesterone shift that occurs from placing and pulling a CIDR in a bred animal isn't great enough to disrupt the pregnancy. Using reCIDR we are able to AI without waiting until the next heat cycle or pregnancy ultrasound which helps us tighten up our calving groups, have more AI sire pregnancies and turn out less clean up bulls.
As always check with your veterinarian before adopting any new practices into your herd. If you have any questions about how we use reCIDR feel free to contact Craig Bieber craig@bieberredangus.com or 605-216-8169!
