Select Sires

Keys to Scoring in (Football) A.I.

By Mel DeJarnette, reproductive specialist

As the NFL season draws to a close, many of us are making predictions as to which teams will clinch the conference titles and continue on to the Super Bowl.

Historically, a common trait of foot ball teams still in contention at playoff time is a well established passing game. Other than a strong offensive line to give successful quarterbacks like Joe Montana time to throw, the key to success for any passing team is "timing and accuracy". The actions of the quarterback and the receiver must be in total synchronization such that the ball is accurately thrown at the precise time the receiver breaks away from his defender. There is no yardage gained when the quarterback throws an accurate pass to a receiver if a defender is there to bat the ball away.

Even if you are not a football fan, the same principles used by professional football teams are essential to a successful artificial insemination program.

Accuracy and Timing
First of all, you must have strong management, nutrition and herd health programs on the front line to block out disease and stress in order to give your cows a chance to breed. To complete a pass on the reproductive playing field, you must time insemination such that the fertile life of the sperm cells will overlap with the fertile life of the egg. This requires accurate heat detection and a basic understanding of the rules of the game.

Mother Nature’s Rules for Successful A.I.

Cows exhibit standing heat for about 12 to 14 hours.
Cows often exhibit secondary signs of estrus up to 48 hours prior to initial standing estrus.
Cows ovulate approximately 25-30 hours following the onset of standing heat.
After ovulation, the fertile life of the egg is only six to eight hours.
After thawing, the maximum fertile life of sperm is approximately 20-25 hours.
Any improper semen handling technique is equivalent to a flagrant personal foul and severe penalties will be assessed against the fertile life of sperm.
Once semen is deposited in the uterus, sperm are still not ready to play the game (fertilize) until they go through a series of warm-up exercises requiring approximately five hours. This warm-up is called capacitation.
The rules listed are averages. Mother Nature reserves the right to change any or all of the above rules (at her discretion) on any given play. (Mother Nature also likes baseball and loves to throw us a curve ball every now and then to keep everyone honest.)

Now take Mother Nature’s rules and develop your game plan. The best way to time insemination with ovulation is to have an accurate estimate of when standing heat begins. If you only check heats once a day, you will catch some cows in heat. However, you will not know if they are in the early, middle or late stages of standing heat. Thus you won’t have a clue as to when they should be inseminated.

Since the average cow exhibits standing heat for about 12-14 hours, two 20-30 minute heat check periods at 12 hour intervals will allow you to catch 70-80% of the heats in your herd. You will also know the animals in heat at any given check, must have come into heat between that period and the previous period (within the past 12 hours). We can average this figure and assume the cow has been in heat for 6 hours. Inseminating her 12 hours later places the semen in the uterine body 18 ± 6 hours from the beginning of standing heat. Now tack on the five hours required for capacitation and we have fertile sperm in the oviduct at 23 ± 6 hours after the onset of heat. Again, considering the fact that the cow ovulates 25-30 hours after the onset of heat, we have just used accurate heat detection and proper timing of insemination to place fertile sperm in the oviduct within a few hours of ovulation.

As in our scenario with the quarterback and his receiver, you will not score many touchdowns if you inseminate too early and all the sperm die before the egg is ovulated. Likewise, inseminating too late in the heat period will result in incomplete passes because the egg has died before the capacitated sperm reach the oviduct. The only way you can time you pass (inseminate) is to accurately know when your receiver is going to make his break (ovulate).

Another analogy we can add to this scenario is the snap from center (semen deposition). If the center fumbles the snap, the play is doomed from the start. Likewise, depositing semen anywhere other than the uterine body is a 15-yard penalty on the reproductive playing field.

So, if you are not happy with your passing game (conception rates) and you can’t wait for the two minute warning, call time out and consult with your quarterback (A.I. Technique), receiver (Heat Detection) and offensive coordinator (Management Practices) before it is too late and the game is lost. And always remember, the guys in the press box can often see the game from a more objective angle than the coaches on the playing field. So consult with your sales representative, veterinarian, extension agent or other professionals before you bring out the punting team. Good luck and I hope to see you all in post season play.

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