The Building Blocks of the Cattle Business: Beef Cattle Reproduction

By Andrew Davis

TOC

Introduction to Reproduction
Glossary of Terms
Reproduction Anatomy in Beef Cattle
Pre-breeding Nutrition and Health
Buying Quality Brood Cows and Heifers
Buying Quality Herd Sires
Understanding EPD’s
Understanding Across Breed EPD’s
Match Mating Cows to AI Sires
Other Tools for Successful Breeding
The Use of Artificial Insemination
Synchronization Protocols of AI
ET Manual (fresh to fresh)
Beef Cattle Genetics (Heredity of Carcass Traits)
Cow Families
Useful Links

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Davis
• Release date: Aug 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9780983842026

Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis is a best-selling author & keynote speaker. He's built and sold a digital marketing agency, produced for NBC and worked for The Muppets. Today, Andrew Davis teaches business leaders how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy.

Book preview

Introduction

First of all, I want to thank you for purchasing this e-book, as the reason for this publication is to share 30 years of experience in livestock production and management, thus providing no nonsense articles and e-books that limit the technical jargon and bring forth a greater understanding for all. This way each generation that is interested in this business doesn't have to re-invent the wheel.

Animal reproduction is the third building block of the cattle business. 1) Rich soils, vigorously growing forages and 2) optimal nutrition and health are the stepping stones leading to improved reproductive performance in beef cattle.

Providing optimal nutrition and health; whether we choose natural service sires or artificial insemination, we should have a very successful breeding season.

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Terminology

There are a few terms we need to define, so that we’re all on the same plane of understanding. These few are:

Artificial Insemination – a process in which semen is placed in the female reproductive tract facilitate a pregnancy.

Anestrous - not showing heat

Embryo Transfer - the process where a fertilized egg (embryo) in placed in the uterus of the female to create a pregnancy.

Estrous – is the period of time or days between heat cycles (in cattle it is between 17 and 21 days)

Estrus – is the time of the actual heat (in cattle it is 6 hours coming into standing heat / 6 hours in standing heat / 6 hours going out of standing heat)

Fertilization – the male reproductive cell (sperm) fuses with the female reproductive cell (egg) to produce an embryo and later a fetus

Gestation Period – the time between conception and birth (283 days in cattle)

Heat Detection – there are signs to help in heat detection like riding others, standing to be ridden, agitation, nervousness, among other physical signs.

Nutrition and