How to Breed Dairy Cattle

Bharat39

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posted on 14 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Breeding dairy cattle involves producing offspring that are primarily used for dairy production. Cows need to produce calves in order to make milk, and in order to produce milk and calves, they need to be bred. Most of the heifers that are born to a dairy operation are used as replacements, whereas the rest (those that are male, and those females that are not good enough for the dairy herd) are sold to be raised as beefers or turned into veal. Nonetheless, a dairy operation cannot be a dairy operation without having some sort of means to breed the dairy cows.

Steps

Begin by starting up your dairy farm and purchasing your dairy stock.

Find an AI technician to hire to breed your cows. The more experienced the tech you hire is, the higher the success rate of your cows getting pregnant. It is highly recommended you use AI to breed your cows and not a herd bull. Dairy bulls are extremely dangerous and unpredictable, and not worth your or your employees' lives to keep one around.

Have a schedule to determine which cows need to be bred and when. A Breeding/gestation table or pinwheel will help you in this regard, and also helps your AI tech to know which cows need to be AI'd. Time when your females need to be bred by when they go into estrus. The rule of thumb that all AI techs follow is that females are to be bred 12 hours after they've showed signs of estrus.

Breed your cows. The AI tech will be following the steps that he/she already learned at an AI distribution company and according to the "How to Artificially Inseminate Cows and Heifers" article here on Wikihow.