A Refresher on Timing for Pregnancy Checks

 

With the transition of veterinary training for confirming pregnancies from manual palpation (of uterus, ovaries and fetal arteries) to the use of “Ultrasound” video of the same organs, there has been a tendency to “speed up” the timing.

Superiority of technology often runs up against the limitations of biology.  Nothing in breeding selection or veterinary practice has changed the cow herself;  she still gestates 280 days, and goes through steps of ovulation, conception, cell division, embryo migration from fallopian tube to uterine horn, membrane enclosure, and finally fetal attachment.   This process takes six weeks (42 days),  and pregnancies are not really “guaranteed” until eight weeks (56 days)  have passed.

A Reminder on Best Care for Cryogenic Semen/embryo Storage tanks

 

The outer shell of virtually all semen tanks is made of aluminum.    This malleable metal has a weakness for corrosion when in contact with cement floors, especially wet floors.    Early on, tank manufacturers figured out to coat the outer shells with corrosion-resistant paints, more recently paints with Teflon additives to give them a longer working life.    However, paints rub off over time on corrosive surfaces.

If you keep your semen/embryo storage tanks in a building or room with concrete floors, manufacturers recommend you put the tank(s) up on wood  (pallets will do particularly well, but short planking works)—or on a cushioning surface like carpet remnants (we offer protective floor mats for $65).    We learned from decades of experience that tanks sitting on concrete are going to fail faster than others.

Mich Livestock Service, Inc   “For the Best in Bulls”      “For High Energy Forages”
110 N Main St   (PO Box 661)   Ovid,  MI  48866                     phone (989) 834- 2661
         website:  www.michiganlivestock.com         email to:  greg@michiganlivestock.com

 

 

Still concerned about “inbreeding” depression?

 

In the heyday of “Mogul” at Select Sires, his developer Charlie Will noted that this bull had 90 pedigree crosses to “Elevation”, Select Sires’ greatest bull of the 1960s and  1970s.   In a seven year life producing semen “Mogul” put out well over one million straws and has a legion of sons and grandsons in Genomic AI.

His most important son may prove to be “Delta” who similarly gave ST Genetics an opening into the purebred world.     At this point it appears his son “Lambda” will be his major claim to fame.    

If there is a focal weakness in this three-generation sire line, it may be “flinty bone hind legs”.    “Mogul” and “Lambda” both expired before their time due to failure of their rear end function.    As for “Delta” he is part of the Genomic trend toward straight legs and stiff pasterns, which has not helped cull rates to improve.

A growing body of evidence is suggesting that “inbreeding” depression is not the fault of having ancestors in common, so much as having a too-rigid breeding selection in favor of tall, narrow, straight-legged cows who are hard feeding and slow rebreeding.     “aAa” Breeding Guide is the more sure way to avoid inbreeding “effects” as the sires you use have more pedigree inbreeding.

Why do the Genomic AI studs not practice what they have preached?

 

Challenging the popular viewpoints on computer matings to avoid pedigree inbreeding

During the dynamic years of building high production dairy herds utilizing the higher ranking of high reliability evaluation of progeny across a diversity of herd environments, a small handful of 1960s sires came to dominate each breed.    Most notably, in Ayrshires it was Selwood Betty’s Commander:  in Brown Swiss it was Welcome In Stretch:  in Jerseys it was Observer Chocolate Soldier  (often in combination with his half brother, SS Quicksilver of Fallneva):  in Guernseys it was Maurana Wis Telestar:  finally, in Holsteins it was that duo of  Round Oak R. A. Elevation crossed with Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief.    (Many thought Carlin M Ivanhoe Bell as a leader in protein yields would eclipse them, but thanks to the “BLAD” and “CVM” recessives showing up as he was linebred against other “Ivanhoe” descendants, his pedigree influence waned.)

What these sires had in common was an ability to produce offspring that transitioned dairying from milking “hay burners” into today’s expansion dairy focus on corn silage forage and oilseed proteins.     Today, whether you look at Breed Association pedigree studies or the DNA genotype patterns, a full 25% of the modern Jersey genotype comes from “Chocolate Soldier” (and note he spread the lethal recessive for early-term abortion, JH1C, to a quarter of all Jerseys) and in the world-dominating Holstein breed, 30% of the Black and White genotype comes from those two 1960s bulls “Elevation” and “Arlinda Chief”.

What made these two bulls take over the Holstein breeding world?

My personal prejudice is that each sire was bred within herds that considered the “aAa” (Weeks Analysis) Breeding Guide.    These two bulls were magnificent physical specimens expressing an exceptional degree of phenotypic “balance”  (Chief, born 1962, eventually classified “EX” at 94 points while Elevation, born 1965, eventually classified “EX” at 96 points) and this enabled them to both live functionally to 14 years of age, thus producing large volumes of semen.    Their most notable recent descendant,  Picston Shottle  (a key influence within the Holstein Genomic/ DNA “reference population”) had a similar 16 year life span at his AI stud residence in England.   The biggest “secret” in dairy cattle breeding is that “aAa” exerts more influence on breeding cows that will reach a productive maturity than any other promoted approach to matings.

As Genomic selection approaches have advanced, the frequency of “Arlinda Chief” genes also advances.     Comparing “Arlinda Chief” to “Elevation”, you have a truly linebred bull in “Chief” (eight close crosses to ABC Reflection Sovereign *RC;  over 20 crosses to the originating bull of the “Rag Apple” bloodline, Johanna Rag Apple Pabst) – while you have an example of the old practice of line crossing in “Elevation”  (his sire an inbred son of linebred Wis Burke Ideal;  his dam a linebred descendant of Johanna Rag Apple Pabst with NO ancestry from the mentioned ABC Reflection Sovereign *RC so important in “Arlinda Chief”s “Rag Apple” heritage).

Outcrossing within a breed generates similar heterosis (“hybrid vigor”) as crossbreeding.

When you cross a linebred bull with the equally linebred descendants of another linebred bull, but with those two sires appearing to be “outcross” to each other, you can generate a “hybrid vigor” response in purebred matings that is often as powerful as the first cross results from a “crossbreeding” scheme.   In fact, as far as Holstein breed progress since frozen semen came on the scene allowed better linebred bulls access to unrelated cows across the country (1955 in Ontario, 1957 at ABS, 1959 at Curtiss, 1963 at Carnation) the casual pedigree relationships in AI service produced a rising “inbreeding coefficient”.     Some University extension people became concerned, taught their captive state AI cooperatives to preach against “inbreeding”, and the result was a demand for AI mating services to consider inbreeding in mating suggestions.   So we might ask—how successful was this focus?     Dr Les Hanson of University of Minnesota is an example of a geneticist who predicted “the Holstein breed is getting so inbred that it could be obsolete in 10 years—the only solution will be to crossbreed” (which resulted in the “Pro Cross” concept promoted until recently from southern California).     He made this prediction over 30 years ago, but in spite of increasing efi% across commercial dairies, the Holstein still survives.

With Genomic mating selection, however, today’s sire offerings differ from what most AI studs offered between 1960 (when lots of bloodlines were represented) and 2000 (when sire lines were down to Ivanhoe (mostly through “Bell”), Arlinda Chief and Elevation.     The “heterosis” remaining in Holsteins came from the diversity of cow lines competing for AI attention.    It was also true that a plurality of the more successful breeders of AI stud bulls followed “aAa” matings in which the Breeding Guide avoids the mating of “likes to likes” at the level of physical genes.    Thus these donor cows who produced successful sons retained outcross vigor against the AI-generated mating sires who were increasingly sire line concentrations.

Farnear Delta Lambda  (late of ST Genetics) is a textbook example of Genomic matings
This bull recently died at the point where his oldest daughters were first calving.    He follows a pattern among the Genomic success stories—( McCutcheon, Mogul, now Lambda ) – unable to live a full productive life.    Why do these sires expire so much younger than the more famous of their progenitors?    Perhaps all this emphasis on “fast maturity” genetics is mainly giving us an “accelerated aging” of their physiques??

“Lambda” has 50 pedigree crosses to SWD Valiant, perhaps the most revered of the early sons of Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief.     “Lambda also has 25 crosses to Walkway Chief Mark, perhaps the last of the successful sons of Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief.     Both “Valiant” and “Chief Mark” were pedigree outcrosses to Round Oak Rag Apple Elevation.    They both had “round” (code 4 aAa)  front ends, but were otherwise “sharp” (code 2 bodies and udders, code 3 rear ends)  in physical expression, relating to qualities that can use a corn-oilseed based ration to make milk.    You will find similar concentrations of blood to various high profile bull ancestors in the noted Genomic “success stories”.         So why do these bull studs caution you to avoid “inbreeding” seeing they are so enthusiastically following the practice themselves??   

The latest thinking on alfalfa seeding, stand life, and boosting nutrient quality

 Hay and Forage Grower reported this winter on research from South Dakota State University that says many of us are using more seed per acre than marginal yields justify.    In this study it was found that seeding rates as low as 12.5 pounds per acre generated the highest yields, or 9.6 tons of dry hay per acre over two years.    (These yields were made in drought conditions.)   

For conditions around the Great Lakes, the best yield strategy appears to be:   seed 12 to 16 lbs of alfalfa seed with 2 lbs red clover (14 to 18 lbs total) in the establishment year.    Follow this with an overseeding of high energy grass in the second or third year of stand life, which will aid in maintaining peak yields for an additional two years, resisting weed incursions.    

The Dairy Industry lost a stalwart friend

 Ron Sersland of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, principal owner of  International Protein Sires,  passed away tragically in a collision between his pickup and a semi-tractor-trailer late this winter.   He was only 63 years old, having begun his career as a foreign market representative for Tri-State Breeders Cooperative, forming his own export company Our Help, Inc and later purchasing the IPS brand name and bull stud from its founders Marlowe Nelson and Alvin Piper  (pioneers in exporting midwestern Holstein genetics to Europe and South America).

The tragedy in this is that, as Ron still felt young, the issues of business succession were not formally completed  (his stepson, Eric Taylor, was active in the management of the business)  and so the attorneys have managed the estate in a manner that has led to liquidation.

Those of us who were Ron’s friends and acted as his distributors are disappointed by this, and we at Mich Livestock Service have acted to secure a working inventory of the IPS sires we most favored as we work out this transition in our genetic focus.    There is a likelihood that a new AI marketing system, supported by the many breeders who provided sires for IPS, will be formed.    We have committed our experience to encourage this group so his concepts will carry on.

The new approaches to seeding hay stands and pastures

Most farmers know that the best field of corn you ever raise follows termination of a multi-year alfalfa (or grass + clover) hay field or pasture.    Nitrogen nodules on alfalfa and clover roots gives the corn plant a head start and the reserves of fertility from the recycling of organic matter (root systems) feeds the ear later.

When you have livestock, nothing feeds them cheaper than good hay and pastures

There comes the time when you need to rotate back into hay and/or pasture to restore soil structure (water holding capacity and recovery from compaction).     Alfalfa became preferred because of dairy cow and horse demand, was the focus of seed breeding for a time, but has declined as No-till and Round Up made growing row crop corn and soybean more “convenient”.

Byron Seeds remains focused on crops for animal feeding.    Thus they are maintaining alfalfa availability from independent growers as the chemical company brands lose interest.

Synergy X alfalfa blends are the innovation Byron has brought to alfalfa hay and haylage systems and are proving most cost-effective because the combining of alfalfa types leads to longer stand life.    No matter your soil profile, there is diversity in that Synergy bag that will thrive;  lowered risk of failed stands, better winter survival than depending on a single chosen alfalfa variety.

All four “Synergy” mixes are compatible with the practice of overseeding high energy grass into established stands (which also profitably extends stand life)  and in the Beef feeding world, this makes the sort of hay / haylage / balage that best fits low-cost reproduction and rate of gain.

     So what about the “nurse crop” for a spring seeding?
Oats are the traditional choice.    Why?    Because you get more straw, and when left to grain, grandad got “free” oats to feed the horses.   

However, recent comparison studies show that modern high-yield-potential Alfalfa varieties get stunted by Oat exudates in the young seedling stage.    In searching out alternatives, Byron has tested seedling vigor with varieties of Barley, Triticale, Wheat, Ryegrass, as well as forage oats.

Are you wanting to get feed volume out of your spring nurse crop in the seeding year?
Pick a Spring season variety of the above.   Harvest green as forage, leaving stubble protection.

Are you wanting to suppress weeds in your spring seeded stand, waiting to fall for first harvest?
Pick a Fall season variety of the above, which slows down its growth as the summer warms up.